What a traffic count really costs.
Most traffic studies are short because counting is expensive. Here is where the money goes, and what happens to the numbers when the footage you already record does the counting.
Counting by hand
Counting turning traffic at a junction by hand costs about $400 for four hours and around $1,000 for twelve hours. That is $83 to $100 for every hour of traffic, before travel, set-up and reporting.
Most of the cost is people's time. One person can follow only a few movements at a time, so a busy junction needs several people or several passes through the video, and every extra vehicle class adds work. That is why most studies sample a few busy hours on a few weekdays and assume the rest.
Counting from video
Wayro counts from footage your cameras already record. The price is per hour of footage, never per vehicle: $0.12 to $0.38 an hour, set by the work in the run (how many vehicle categories, crossing lines, lane zones, entries and exits, and whether pedestrians are counted). Every deliverable is included, and the first 12 hours are free.
Before anything runs, a trained engineer checks every marking you drew, free. Then processing takes about 4 days for 1,000 hours with 12 classes, and about 6 days for 10,000 hours. Faster delivery is available for up to 25% more.
An example project
Two weeks of footage from 16 cameras: 12 cameras on a main road, each with a crossing line and three lane zones, and 4 junction cameras, each with three entries and three exits. The study separates 12 vehicle classes. That is 5,376 hours of footage.
| Method | Price | Time |
|---|---|---|
| By hand, at $83 to $100 an hour | $448,000 to $538,000 | Months of counting |
| Wayro, at standard speed | About $650 | About 6 days, engineer check included |
Nobody counts two weeks by hand, which is the point: a study that was never affordable becomes normal. The calculator shows the cost and the time for your own project as you set it up.
When counting is cheap, longer studies become possible
- Whole weeks, not just the busiest hours. Weekends, school holidays and night traffic are counted, not assumed.
- Every class, every time. Separating 33 vehicle classes costs seconds of processing, not extra people.
- Before and after. Count again after a signal change or a new lane, from the same camera, with the same setup.
- A study you can check. Every example on our home page comes with its real data to download.