Skip to main content

Laser axle sensors deliver accurate traffic data

The Iowa Department of Transportation in the US has selected Peek's AxleLight non-intrusive laser axle sensors installed in a permanent site along Interstate 35/80 in Des Moines. This is the first time that the AxleLight sensors, normally designed as a temporary study tool, have been installed in permanent roadside cabinets. AxleLight sensors shoot a beam of non-visible laser light across the roadway, just a few centimetres above the pavement. Using these sensors, and the ADR family of Automatic Data Record
February 24, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 1229 Iowa Department of Transportation in the US has selected Peek's AxleLight non-intrusive laser axle sensors installed in a permanent site along Interstate 35/80 in Des Moines.

This is the first time that the AxleLight sensors, normally designed as a temporary study tool, have been installed in permanent roadside cabinets.

AxleLight sensors shoot a beam of non-visible laser light across the roadway, just a few centimetres above the pavement. Using these sensors, and the ADR family of Automatic Data Recorders from Peek Traffic, state and municipal governments can count, classify, and analyse traffic flow.

Peek worked with the Iowa DOT to certify that the AxleLight units would satisfy the state's high accuracy requirements in the permanent installation environment. The department is using the AxleLight, along with the solar panels and wind turbines that are powering the units, as both a solid and safe source of valuable traffic flow data, and also as an example of 'green' technology at work.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Optimising traffic control ensures efficient use of infrastructure
    April 10, 2013
    Central and local governments are facing many challenges, not least a shortage of funds due to budget restraints in the US and Europe in particular. In other markets, ensuring efficient traffic flow is the priority, with monitoring of network status being a key tool. New technology for traffic monitoring plays a crucial role and the sector is keen to introduce new and more efficient systems. The Transport Research laboratory (TRL) has long been a pioneer of traffic control technologies and its latest MAAPc
  • Embedded sensors help deliver self-monitoring roads
    November 22, 2021
    As road authorities look to automate their road monitoring and maintenance, we will need more and more sensors within our highway networks
  • US roads continue to deteriorate amid a fuel levy controversy
    February 11, 2015
    The number of potholes will increase and roads in many of North America’s leading cities will continue to worsen if local authorities do not significantly increase their road maintenance spending, according to a US report. City authorities in the US state of Iowa need to spend US$10 million more per year just to maintain the existing road pavement, according to a report from the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organisation (MPO), a transportation planning agency made up of central Iowa cities and c
  • Weigh in motion technology reduces road damage
    February 8, 2012
    Overweight vehicles cause enormous damage to road structures but they can be caught, even at high speed. Weigh-in-motion or WIM devices are designed to capture and record axle weights and gross vehicle weights as vehicles drive over a measurement site.