Both directions
One counting line across the street, one scenario per direction — inbound and outbound traffic kept apart.
Counting traffic in city centres and municipalities
Traffic counting for municipalities without a measuring trailer and without a data protection debate: a camera on a pole or a façade counts the vehicles per direction and class, all day, every day. The count happens on the camera — no images, no licence plates, no cloud.
- Counting vehicles on a street, per direction and class
- Traffic data for urban planning, month after month
- Anonymous traffic data that stays on the camera
Market street · before and after
Before, per weekday9,140
After, per weekday6,320
Trucks, per weekday312 → 148
Example figures
Context
The situation
A town wants to calm a street, reroute delivery traffic or close a centre to through traffic. The council asks for figures before the decision and again a year later. Manual counts on a single morning say little, a measuring trailer is booked for a week at best, and anything that records images or licence plates raises questions from the data protection officer. A camera that only counts — and keeps counting — answers both needs.
Counting points
What gets counted and where
Vehicle classes
Cars, trucks, buses and two-wheelers counted separately, so delivery traffic and buses show up on their own.
Pedestrians, if wanted
Where the pavement is in view, the same camera can count pedestrians as well and keeps both figures apart.
Products
Which Vicodis products are involved
| Product | Role in the city |
|---|---|
| Vicodis Traffic | Traffic volume per direction and vehicle class |
| Vicodis Vehicle licence | One add-on that covers streets and municipal car parks |
| Visitor Counter | Base licence on every camera; also counts pedestrians |
Purpose
What the data is used for
The figures are stored in 5-minute intervals and add up to days, months and years. That makes them a solid basis for council papers, funding applications and the question whether a measure has worked.
- Before and after: the same street, months apart.
- Delivery traffic: trucks by time of day.
- Reporting: CSV for the spreadsheet, monthly reports by email.
Data protection
Counting without recording anyone
Public bodies have to justify every camera in public space. Vicodis keeps the argument short: the camera analyses the image internally, keeps only the count and never stores or sends a picture. No licence plate is read, no vehicle is followed from one place to the next. Where the live image has to be viewed, for example during installation, AXIS Live Privacy Shield can pixelate people and vehicles.
The same principle applies to people counting in buildings and is explained in detail under counting and the GDPR. For bus and rail stops, the same approach gives passenger counting at stations and stops, often with the cameras already installed there.
- No images stored or sent
- No licence plates
- No tracking across sites
- Data stays on the camera
On site
Installation notes for this environment
Use an outdoor camera with infrared on a pole, a lamp post with permanent power or a façade, with a view of the road from above at an angle. Many counting points have power but no network; the camera counts and stores locally anyway, and an LTE router connects it to the town’s network when the figures are needed.
Vicodis counts traffic volume. It does not measure speed, does not read licence plates and is not a calibrated counting station for official statistics or enforcement.
- Outdoor camera with infrared
- View from above, at an angle
- Permanent power, not a switched street light
- LTE router where there is no network
FAQ
Questions from towns and municipalities
01
Can the camera stay up permanently?
Yes. Vicodis is designed for permanent installation, not for a single counting week. The camera counts around the clock and stores the figures locally, so a street can be followed for months or years. That is what makes before-and-after comparisons possible when a measure takes effect gradually.
02
Is a camera in public space allowed under data protection law?
That depends on the purpose and on your local rules, and your data protection officer decides. Vicodis makes the assessment easier: the camera stores no images, reads no licence plates and keeps only counts per direction, class and time interval. If the live image is viewed at all, AXIS Live Privacy Shield can pixelate people and vehicles in it.
03
Can the figures replace an official counting station?
No. The count is well suited to planning, trends and before-and-after comparisons, but it is not calibrated to an official standard. Where figures must meet a formal standard or support legal decisions, a certified station is required. Vicodis adds counting points at streets where no such station exists.
How many visitors does your entrance really have?
Tell us your camera model or your project — we check compatibility and come back with a concrete proposal.