MAPLETON – The Armadillo Tracker goes beyond just counting cars, Mapleton director of public works Jamie Morgan told council on April 30.
The “fully integrated multi-lane bidirectional traffic statistics gathering device” provides real-time traffic data including dates, times, counts, and class of vehicles across multiple lanes of traffic.
And it comes with a price tag of $6,945 before tax.
“Instead of hiring someone to do the road with a rubber hose across the road, this is an option of tracking all our traffic movement, speeds and everything, so it’s kind of all encompassing in one. And you can do it right off an app on your phone,” Morgan said.
“We can set this up and leave it for seven days, and we can actually do counts year-round … so every five years we could provide our engineering firm with an updated spreadsheet for [average annual] traffic counts.”
Morgan said the Armadillo Tracker would also help the township monitor roads’ classifications – “if a road is sneaking from a class four to a class three for travel, we can make sure we track that.
“I think it’s a neat thing,” Morgan said. “Lots of places are moving to this rather than the rubber thing in the road. And we could use this 12 months of the year and not hire out a consulting firm to come in at large dollars for one time a year.
“I think it would be a good purchase.”
“The only downfall,” he noted, is the Armadillo Tracker does not include a GPS tracker in case of theft. “That was my only hesitation in purchasing this unit,” Morgan said.
Mayor Gregg Davidson said the County of Wellington and OPP use similar traffic trackers (Black Cats) and have never had them stolen.
And Cedar Signs, the company that would sell the township the Armadillo Tracker, said they haven’t had many reports of theft.
Morgan suggested an Apple tracking device could be put inside the Armadillo Tracker’s locked case, and then, in case of theft, “as soon as it starts to move, I would get a ding on my phone.”
Davidson said he thinks the traffic trackers are “a great idea for the township.
“I know the county and the OPP get a lot of use out of it.”
Councilor Martin Tamlyn agreed.
“I think it’d be very prudent to do this,” he said.
“I’ve noticed myself the increase in community traffic on different roads. It’d be great to monitor that dynamic.
“And also, if it’s going to save some money as far as contracting the services out, then I think it’s a very good suggestion.”
But Tamlyn noted he’d like to see a comparison price for the Black Cat Radar – a similar device.
“We could ask for more information,” said councillor Michael Martin, “but that’d just delay this even more.”
Councillor Amanda Reid said she was comfortable going ahead with purchasing the Armadillo.
Both Reid and Davidson wondered whether it would be better for the township to purchase more than one traffic tracker, and Reid noted it may save money to buy two now, rather than purchasing a second one at a later time.
Council opted to receive Morgan’s report for information, and Davidson asked him to return to council with another report “that would indicate exactly how many you need and look at the options out there as well.
“And then we’ll provide the funding, because this is the direction we are willing to go.”
