Reliable road traffic data is essential to traffic policy formulation and assessment. However, most of the techniques of traffic data collection have been developed for use in "western" traffic conditions and may give poor results when used in the very different conditions in developing countries. Using its link with the Institute of Technology Bandung, the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds undertook a programme of testing traffic survey techniques, as part of its assistance to the Overseas Unit of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory in producing a traffic survey manual for developing countries. The field experiments revealed some of the data errors which can occur due to this errors which can occur due to this application of survey techniques and led to the selection of certain techniques as being the most appropriate to the conditions encountered. Valuable general lessons were also learned on issues such as definitions, surveyor work rates and the effects and importance of surveyor training. (A)
Abstract