Counters track traffic twist and turns

You may see someone sitting in a car at the side of the road watching you this summer. They aren’t potential stalkers, they’re people hired by the Department of Transportation to count cars. The D-O-T’s Ron Bunting says they’re trying to get an idea of which roads are most heavily used.They’re coming up with what’s called an “A-A-D-T’s”, or annual average daily traffic counts. Bunting says the counters will note how cars turn at intersections too. They aren’t using a pad and paper though — they have a more high-tech counting device.They use an electronic count board to record the info. Cars aren’t the only thing they’re counting.They also count how many people are in the vehicles and they keep track of whether motorcyclists are wearing helmets. Bunting says the 40 to 50 counters will concentrate on southeast Iowa this summer. He says they also put out automated counters, those black tubes that stretch across the highway, and acoustical counters to measure traffic at airports.