Anyone who sees people with clipboards standing on the side of the road in the coming six months has probably got caught in a traffic count. That was actually scheduled for 2020 and will now be made up for.
After it failed last year due to the corona lockdown, the road traffic census, which is due every five years, is now to take place from April 6, 2021. For a total of six months, the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) counts at around 40.000 points how many vehicles are on the road. In addition to data from cameras and automated counting systems, manual tally sheets are also kept. The figures collected in this way are intended to benefit transport planners, researchers, associations and citizens' initiatives.
About a third of all locations are on motorways or federal highways, in most federal states the state and district roads are also included. The counts usually take place in the afternoon, and on busy roads in the morning as well. Video recordings are then destroyed, and the other data protection regulations are also complied with, according to BASt.