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Need to collect traffic data?

You need reliable, precise data to make smart traffic management and transportation decisions for your region in Western Canada.

Whether you’re exploring traffic calming measures, walking and cycling improvements, bus stop location revisions, intersection upgrades, or signal timing changes: you can only make the best decision for your constituents if you know how they behave.

Sophisticated technology is a good start – but it’s not enough. While the days of standing at an intersection with a clicker to count traffic may be gone, you still need trusted experts who understand your project goals to source and deploy the right equipment for your project.

Location, location, location.

We have 30 branch offices throughout Western Canada. From Vancouver Island to the Prairies and all communities in between, we can mobilize traffic counting crews for your project.

Fast deployment.

Given the size of our team and branch offices, we can work for you fast, collecting and providing the data you need at short notice and within tight turnaround windows.

Offices across Western Canada
Miovision

Industry-leading tech.

We own over 30 Miovision Scout Video Collection Units (VCUs) and six Houston Radar Armadillo Trackers, which are non-intrusive devices that collect data for days at a time in any weather conditions. Best of all, you can access, examine, and verify this data yourself via Miovision’s online portal DataLink.

McElhanney Team

Professionals who know what they’re (and you’re) doing.

Our transportation engineers and professionals deploy, install, operate, and monitor these devices – but they also live and breathe this data, which informs their projects from intersection design to travel demand forecasting. They get what you’re doing and can advise you how to optimize your count.

Mockup image of hand using laptop with blank white screen on vintage wooden table in cafe

Access to our propietary software, Vertisee.

In addition to Miovision, you can use our online mapping data platform Vertisee to view your data. We use Vertisee to collect traffic counting data for many public clients, including Parks Canada.

Count the years….25 of them. That’s how long we’ve been counting traffic.

Recent Projects

But as the technology has evolved, so have we. Here’s two recent projects – one standalone, one long-term.

Benchmarked Active Transportation Data Collection, 2019-2020

Client: Public client in Western Canada | Services Provided: Data collection, engineering services
Benchmarked Active Transportation Data Collection

What the client needed:

One of Canada’s 20 largest population centres, this city is rapidly growing and focused on developing transportation alternatives. They needed accurate, consistent data from a benchmarking study to inform their Active Transportation Plan.

How we met that need:

Using 20 Miovision Scout Video Collection Units (VCUs) and Miovision video processing, we delivered comprehensive multimodal traffic counts across 82 locations in just six weeks. Sites included multi-use pathways, pedestrian over-and-under-passes, sidewalks, and bike lanes. The data included more than 6,000 hours of real-world traffic video, converted into precise multimodal data.

The outcome:

The data helped the client understand how their system was performing and where they could invest in infrastructure improvements, insights that fed the development of their ATP.

Annual Traffic Monitoring, 1996 - Present

Client: Alberta Transportation | Services Provided: Annual traffic counts / data collection
Annual Traffic Monitoring

What the client needed:

Every year, the client needs data on turning movements, vehicle classification, and pedestrian behaviour, to effectively manage their provincial highways.

How we met that need:

McElhanney is a trusted advisor on data collection for Alberta Transportation – we’ve been doing it for 25 years! We plan and implement traffic counts at more than 550 intersections / interchange sites annually, and complete other projects depending on the client’s needs, such as speed, long-haul, truck commodities and traffic weaving studies; and vehicle occupancy, long combination vehicle, and rest area surveys.

The outcome:

This data allows the client to plan and make the best decisions for the end users of their highways; whether its intersection upgrades or safety improvement recommendations.

Remember… Active Transportation is no longer en route – it’s arrived.

Active Transportation

Provinces, cities, municipalities, and regional districts are still adapting to the need to accommodate active transportation in their communities. In March 2021, the Canadian federal government announced the National Active Transportation Strategy – a program supported by $400 million of public funding. Data collection is a vital component in that strategy: “Support the adoption of targets and data collection, while mobilizing existing data to inform an evidence-based approach to active transportation policy-making and investments”.

We help you work towards this goal. Transportation data is a vital step in the workflow of Active Transportation projects: how can you optimize planning of a multi-use pathway if you don’t know how and at what frequency cyclists and pedestrians use the pathway?

Spring Creek Drive

We collect many types of data.

Ask us

Debris flows in streams. Industrial traffic movements for mining, logging, smelting, and oil and gas. Highway truck stop durations. Monitoring traffic volumes and queues during roadway construction. We’ve run data collection programs for a versatile range of projects.

Studies

Studies

  • Trip generation
  • Gap
  • Lanes & roundabouts
  • Turning movements
  • Travel time
Active Transportation

Active Transportation

  • E-scooters
  •  Mobility devices
  • Snowmobiles
  • Mopeds
Traffic

Traffic

  • Modelling
  • Short count
  • Vehicle surveys
  • Speed surveys

Reach out to us today.

Contact our team

Anthony McGill

Anthony McGill, PEng, BC Traffic Data Collection Group Lead, Kamloops, BC.

Anthony specializes in traffic data collection and data management, among other areas. He leads the development of our Traffic Data Collection group in BC from our Kamloops office, and has worked on traffic counting projects from Kitimat to Cranbrook, including clients such as Parks Canada, City of Surrey, City of Revelstoke, BC MoTI, and many other municipalities.

Jarrett Zilinski

Jarrett Zilinski, EIT, Transportation Engineer, Edmonton, AB.

Jarrett has been involved in traffic counting throughout Alberta for several years. With experience in data collection, data management, transportation planning, traffic analysis and traffic modelling he will meet all your traffic project needs. Jarrett has successfully completed traffic data collection for Alberta Transportation, Town of Stony Plain, Parkland County, Sturgeon County, City of Wetaskiwin, as well as several other clients throughout Western Canada.

Get in touch with Anthony or Jarrett today.

    Data collection is just one service we provide. From engineering to surveying to planning, check out our other services here.