The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), with technical guidance from the project’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), is conducting a continuation of the pooled fund “Evaluation of Non-Intrusive Technologies for Traffic Detection”(NIT) Project. The goals of this phase (TPF-5 [171]) are to conduct focused field tests of non-intrusive technologies and explore the deployment issues and costs associated with the technologies. The project is examining the traffic data collection capabilities of each sensor, including collection of volume, speed and length-based and axle-based classification data.

Sensors were evaluated in a variety of traffic and environmental conditions at a freeway test site. Emphasis was placed on urban traffic conditions, such as heavy congestion, and varying weather and lighting conditions. Standardized testing criteria were developed so that the results from this project will be directly comparable to results obtained by other transportation agencies. The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the sensors in many types of weather extremes, including varying temperatures, rain, snow and high winds. As with previous phases, the primary test location is the NIT Test Site on I-394 at Penn Avenue, near downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.