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February 10, 2009
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Over the course of our 6-month ‘Right Now’ campaign of webinars, we had the opportunity to survey over 900 people from over 800 data collecting organizations in the traffic industry. The participants in the study come from all sizes and types of traffic-related firms.
We asked participants three questions during each webinar to gauge their opinion on data collection topics. The topics related to counting program size, their priorities for their counting program, and their expected courses of action if they could save costs.
Miovision sells the world's first video-based automated turning movement count system. It is the fastest growing traffic data collection technology in North America, and Miovision's software is on track to process more turning movement counts than any other single organization in North America within the next calendar year. Learn about the hardware and the software, or take the tour.
PARTICIPANTS:
We segmented the participating organizations in the following ways:
Traffic Engineering Firms: Private organizations whose primary function is performing engineering tasks in traffic. Examples of traffic engineering firms: SNC Lavlin, URS Corp, Kimley-Horn, etc. Comprised 48% of the organizations in the webinars.
Government Agencies of Various Types: Public organizations that include municipalities, state DOTs, and regional planning committees. Examples: Montana DOT, City of Farmington, New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, etc.
Comprised 37% of the organizations in the webinars.
Data Collection Firms: Private organizations whose primary function is collecting traffic data for the various levels of government and traffic engineering firms. Examples: All Traffic Data, Peggy Malone & Associates, Marks Traffic Data, etc.
Comprised 11% of the organizations in the webinars.
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QUESTION #1:
How many turning movement counts does your organization perform/outsource per year?
The answers to this question give good indication of the most common counting program sizes for different organization types. Participants could only select one of the options: 0 - 250 counts, 250 - 750 counts, 750 - 1000 counts, 1500 - 3000 counts, or 3000+ counts.
The results of the survey indicated that the average traffic engineering firm performs or outsources a substantial number of counts each year, even though it is not their core service offering. We also found that state governments and large local governments performed more counts on average than even large traffic engineering firms. Data collection firms had the highest average number of counts, which is no surprise since they often amalgamate the counting business from multiple sources in a given geography.
A few other interesting facts that fell out of the more detailed data we collected:
- A substantial number traffic engineering firms do more than one count / week on average, though counting usually occurs in groups for projects.
- Data collection firms had by far the highest average number of counts and a significant percentage perform more than 1500 counts / year. Data collection firms also have fairly regular counting patterns (in contrast to traffic engineering firms, who are more project-focused).
- Government agencies varied in program size, with the state-level agencies managing far larger counting programs than most municipalities. However, we believe that the "mode response" of 0 to 250 counts reflects the fact that there are more small municipalities than large state agencies. One could reasonably expect state agencies to have larger programs than 0 to 250 counts / year. A further study of different types of government organization would likely yield important distinctions between MPOs, RPCs, and DOTs.
Key findings: Most traffic engineering firms perform enough turning movement counts to warrant a purchase of an automated turning movement count system. Our system is particularly well-suited to project-based work loads - when its not in use, it can be left on the shelf. When it does need to be used, it can be set up in under 10 minutes.
Our system is also well-suited for the number of government agencies performing more than 250 studies per year. Count programs of those sizes are done far more efficiently and easily with our automated system than with other technologies or manual counters. Typical savings range from 30% to 70% of the cost of running a government counting program - which is good news in today's climate of tight budgets and shrinking workforces.
Using our systems, a data collection firm can more efficiently operate at different scales and in various geographies than with traditional manual counting methods. It is far easier to deploy a few extra units during a peak period (or when moving into a new geography) than it is to hire and train additional staff. And during down periods, it is far easier to leave equipment on the shelf than have to lay-off or fire staff.
QUESTION #2:
If you could only choose one of the following options which would you choose (reduce cost, improve accuracy or reduce frustration)?
This question asked participants to choose their #1 priority from Improving Accuracy, Reducing Cost, and Reducing Frustration when it comes to turning movement count data. Participants could only select one of the options.
Traffic Engineering firms had to highest % of respondents that selected Improving Accuracy as their #1 priority, though over half of the firms identified cost reduction as their primary goal.
Governments had the highest response rate with regards to cost savings, likely due to current or expected budget pressures. Even so, almost 1/3rd of them put improving accuracy as their primary goal.
Data collection firms showed the highest response rate on Reduce Frustration, likely because they are the ones who deal in the highest volume of counting and therefore are most familiar with the day-to-day annoyances of manual counting. As with the other organization types, over half of the firms identified reducing cost as the first priority.
Key findings: Cost reduction is the overwhelming priority for traffic organizations of all types both in the public and private spheres. Fully one-third (33%) of all the organizations, however, indicated that improving data accuracy is their single most important factor with regards to turning movement counts – even above reducing cost.
Miovision's automated system for turning movement counts does all three of these things: it provides far more accurate data than manual counters and other technologies, and typically saves organizations 30% to 70% of their costs depending on the size of their count program and their current methods. Its 5-minute setup time and full automation of the count mean that it is also the least frustrating way to obtain studies from the field.
QUESTION #3:
If you could save money on data collection, what would your organization do?
After seeing that our system decreases the cost of their turning movement counts, participants were asked to select the expected course of action that their organization would take once their cost-per-count went down. The options were non-exclusive – i.e. the participant could select as many options as applied.
Understandably in today's economic climate, almost 60% of traffic engineering firms indicated that they would like to make more money / save more money from data collection. It was selected as a great place to improve the bottom line even though it is a peripheral task in their services portfolio. A firm that dropped its data collection prices would be expected to win more project bids, while a firm that held its prices constant while lowering its costs would be expected to garner more profit.
Another interesting finding is that 50% of traffic engineering firms would like to see longer counts, likely to get more comprehensive datasets. Longer datasets result in a better understanding of traffic patterns, leading to better engineering and operational decisions.
Finally, there seems to be a growing interest in traffic engineering firms to bring their counting back in-house - 41% of the firms wished they could economically bring more counting back under their direct control.
Almost 3/4's of government organizations indicated that they would do more counting per year, suggesting that their current count programs and budgets are deficient. Over 1/3rd of them would also want to outsource less of the counting if they had a way to do so more economically.
These results support those of the NTOC National Traffic Signal Report Card for 2007. The report gave data collection an 'F' grade, explaining that "almost half of [government] agencies (43 percent) reported having
little to no regular, ongoing program for collecting and
analyzing traffic data for signal timing". The report also identified that data collection was the area that had the most potential for improvement.
Similar to traffic engineering firms, data collection firms are primarily concerned with improving their bottom-line or pricing more competitively.
More than half are also interested in performing more counts / year; this can either represent a desire to grow their business by winning more contracts, or a desire to run the business more economically so that it can grow. Many data collection firms cannot grow past a certain size due to all the overhead and process costs of running a manual counting business.
Key findings: Private firms want to squeeze a bit more profit out of data collection; public organizations want to stretch their budgets to do more counts. Our system accomplishes both purposes by dramatically reducing the cost of data collection regardless of organization type.
For organizations that want to perform longer studies, our automated system allows them to get up to 24 hours of continuous data. And it does it less expensively than manual counting.
Finally, for firms that want to bring more counting in-house, our system is an inexpensive, easy-to-use way of getting started - particularly with our upcoming Rental Program.
CONCLUSIONS:
Miovision is uniquely positioned to understand and communicate traffic data collection information and statistics. From our latest campaign, we learned that traffic engineers, data collection firms, and government organizations all have very specific needs that aren't being addressed with traditional methods and technologies but that are in fact addressed with our system. Specifically:
- The cost of turning movement count data collection with manual methods is too expensive, limiting the number and length of counts being done. Our system provides a low-cost, easy-to-use tool that allows users to more efficiently collect turning movement count data. Firms with our system either (1) save money, (2) do more counting with their existing budgets, or (3) perform longer counts for the same cost.
- Most organizations perform/outsource enough counts to warrant an initial investment in data collection equipment, both in the short-term and the long-term. With our low initial equipment cost and software processing costs, any organization can start collecting their traffic data quickly and without hassle with our system. The equipment is simple to use as well - no training required. Anyone from an engineer to a field tech to a student to a retired person can deploy the equipment in under 10 minutes.
- For those firms that want more accurate data, our system provides verifiably more accurate counts than manual counting and other technologies... and at a lower cost too. The video record proves the accuracy of each and every count, meaning you never have to wonder about the accuracy of your data. You can verify your data with the video record - something that you can't do with any other data collection technology.
In summary, Miovision's system solves many of the problems facing data-collecting organizations when it comes to turning movement counts and other traffic studies.
NEXT STEPS:
If your organization is interested in reducing your costs of collection, improving the accuracy of your counts, or reducing the frustrations of your counting program, then please send an email to info@miovision.com with "Starter Package" in the subject line. We'll contact you with an order form for the starter package to get you up and running quickly.
To continue learning about the system, please select on of the following items:
Feel free to forward this study URL to friends, colleagues and co-workers who might also be interested in hearing what other traffic organizations care about: www.miovision.com/surveys/
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