What happened to our Telraam traffic counter?
What began with two miracles, ended suddenly with an unexpected roadblock.
In December last year we began a campaign to raise funds for a Telraam traffic counter, a device which mounts inside the window of a house to count the number of pedestrians, cyclists, cars and heavy goods vehicles that pass in front of it.
As explained in the video above, the primary motivation was the Township of Langley’s plan to eliminate mazegates / baffle gates along the Parry-Evans trail. We wanted to use the counter on the trail to see whether eliminating maze gates would encourage more people to use the trail for walking and cycling.
It was the first time our organization had attempted a true fundraiser, so it was a real roll of the dice. Would people actually donate?
We raised the full $365 needed within 24 hours. The Telraam was ordered and arrived by January, thanks to generous donors who believed in our mission. Thank you!
I tested the device in my house and it appeared to be working well. So the next challenge was trying to find a suitable host for the device along the trail.
Asking around the community was not producing results. There are only a small number of homes that have a good view of the trail, and many homes in the west portion of the trail are unoccupied new construction.
Advocate Gaith Sarhan and I took to the trail at the end of February to put up posters: we asked people who use the trail if they would be willing to participate in the study, with a QR code that linked to a website where people could see if they qualified and sign up.
We received a couple of nice emails from people supporting the project, but not situated near the trail, for the first few days it looked like all hope was lost. Then on March 4th an unexpected email, someone who lived along the trail was willing to host the Telraam!
Steve was our second stroke of luck for this project. This lovely retired man reached out to me offering to host the counter with a great view of the trail from the third floor of his townhouse.
However, this is when we ran into the biggest roadblock of the project. The Telraam requires a clear unobstructed view. Unfortunately most homes along the trail have trees between the homes and trail, understandably so for privacy and greenery. Steve and I spent hours trying to get it to work, but the Telraam simply failed to capture anyone walking along the trail. This was further complicated by the fact this part of the trail had an intersection. In short, we weren’t in compliance with the guidelines on Telraam’s own website.
This left us in a tricky spot. For some time, we considered an outdoor mount with a solar panel and weatherproof box along the trail, but finding a suitable location at the right height and that wouldn’t be at risk of theft or damage was difficult, in addition to getting the required approvals. The idea for this project was always to try and find someone to host it, and even though we did (incredibly), the device requirements didn’t match up with what we had in mind.
For now, we have set the device up facing 208 Street near 84 Avenue.
And our Telraam is the first one to be set up in British Columbia.
You can check out the real-time stats for our Telraam right here: https://telraam.net/en/location/9000011057
Even with the Telraam installed here, we’re getting valuable data. We are already observing that a significant number of cars on 208 Street exceed the posted 50kph limit (which isn’t terribly surprising given the road design and width).
This is the kind of data that supports what we fight for at Strong Towns Langley: wider roads equal higher speeds, regardless of the posted limit. Roads need to be “right sized” or kept away from urban areas for safety.
There are also discussions of extending 208 Street’s concrete protected bikes lanes all the way up through Willoughby, so if that happens in the years to come, we will be able to observe the before and after effects of these changes.
However, we are still open to installing a Telraam device along the trail, so let us know if you think your home might be a candidate.
We are also discussing other ideas, such as working with elementary schools to install counters there as part of education around modes of travel and data collection. We’re open to these kinds of suggestions, ideas and would love to hear from people interested in advancing them.
I want to personally apologize to the donors that we weren’t able to make this project a reality as originally intended. But we promise to keep working hard to advance this concept - it’s important that we count and recognize the number of people walking and cycling within our community and do what we can to accommodate them. If you want more Telraam counters operating around Langley, you can donate or buy one for your home and let us know!
Strong Towns Langley is a community group dedicated to making Langley, British Columbia a better place. We advocate for incremental development, sustainable transportation solutions, housing accessibility, public spaces, and responsible growth strategies. Our group is part of the larger Strong Towns movement, focusing on creating financially resilient and people-oriented communities.
To learn more visit https://strongtownslangley.org