Between November 19th, 2020 and February 13th, 2021 we conducted a Citizen Traffic Study. To do this, we built the Safe 8th Street Traffic Camera using a Raspberry Pi, PiCam, and an open source project (details at bottom).
This data collection served its purpose; we proved there was egregious speeding along 8th Street that contributed to unsafe conditions. View the dashboard with charts and tables.
Between November 19th and February 13th, we logged 100,000 cars traveling along 8th near Chester St.
<aside> 📊 1,100 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) 32mph 85th Percentile Speed
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<aside> 📈 Over 25mph: 49% Over 35mph: 12% Over 40mph: 4%
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If and when the city implements traffic calming along 8th Street, we will conduct another study. Ideally, we'll begin collecting data a week before traffic calming is added and continue collecting for several weeks to follow.
Incomplete Traffic Counts: We adjusted the sensor area during the second week of January. This caused counts to increase, as some eastbound cars weren't detected. Before this, it appeared there was more westbound traffic than eastbound. This was inaccurate; our sensor missed those eastbound vehicles.
Ultra-High Speeds: Starting the second week of January, the sensor logged vehicles going 116 mph, then later 106, 108, and even 130mph. Even for 8th Street standards, these speeds seem unbelievable! These deserve to be looked into. Is it possible these were logged in error? For example, could multiple passing cars have confused the software?
The Safe 8th Street Traffic Camera is maintained by Tim Courtney and Jesse Pollak, based on an open source traffic camera project. See our code repository.
The software calculates speed by detecting objects moving across the frame, knowing the distance from the camera to the travel lane, and using trigonometry. For more detail, see the Program Overview section of the original Traffic Camera project page by Tim Hodges.
Others have created their own open source traffic cameras. Here are a few we've found: