The next time you’re driving on a residential street or a freeway, pay close attention to the road. During your journey, it’s likely that you will come across black cables that have been thoughtfully positioned on the ground.

Even if driving over them is totally safe, what use do they serve?

Local transportation organizations can quickly and easily obtain vital information about the traffic patterns in a certain area by using road tubes.

Usually, they are positioned in discrete locations to minimize any disturbance.

A burst of air is sent through the rubber tubing to the on-site counter, which gathers all the data, whenever a car tire strikes the tube. Data is gathered and analyzed once the tubing and counter have been installed for a predefined period of time.

The tube counts cars, but it also uses the time between air bursts to calculate peak traffic. Even additional information, such as vehicle class, speed, and direction, can be obtained when the tubing is used in pairs.

Then, whenever an organization wants to decide whether to update signage or adjust speed limits, it can use this data.

What those black cords were has always baffled me! Reading about how much information they can gather with just a puff of air is interesting.