wire strapped on the road (vehicles, place, highways)

[rustygupta]

Sorry for sounding naive but at tmes I see a cable/ wire strapped down or buckled down on the streets / highways . What is it meant for? Could it be to measure the vehicle density?

[NCgirl]

Yes, as I understand it they are used to count the number of vehicles on the road and general traffic patterns.

[Metallisteve]

As NCGril said, I can confirm that they are traffic counters. They could be placed for a number of reasons:
- someone or group might be requesting some sort of traffic calming or stop sign nearby
- CDOT or NCDOT might be performing routine annual traffic counts
- maybe a road improvement is starting to be planned (widening, traffic light, turn lane(s), etc.)

[rustygupta]

Thanks