On December 19, 2018 Gorski Consulting completed another videotaping session along Highway 401 at the Kenessarie Road site just east of Chatham Ontario. This now completes four sites that have been videotaped this fall. The site locations are shown in the figure below.
A fifth site was videotaped on November 15, 2016 at the Elgin Road interchange, however the procedures were not fully developed especially with respect to using cameras mounted on the overpass of Elgin Road. We have now developed a procedure which is able to document a wide range of traffic motions.
Cameras have consistently been set up at 100 metre intervals, commencing from the reference overpass, at zero, 100, 200, 300 and 400 metres respectively. These views point directly across the highway and they document the precise time when a vehicle passes a reference cone placed at the edge of the shoulder. Other cameras are typically placed at 420 and 320 metres pointing diagonally across the travel lanes such that we can observe the relative positions of vehicles in the right and median lanes. We also mount two video cameras on the overpass to look directly along the length of the highway. Finally cameras are sometimes positioned at 100 and 200 metres past the overpass to provide further documentation of vehicle positions. The figure below provides an example of the view taken from one of the cameras mounted on the overpass of one of the sites.
The figure below shows another view from the Kenesserie Road site where the line of cameras and reference cones are visible along the north side of the westbound lanes of Highway 401.
View from the overpass at Kenesserie Road showing the line of video cameras and cones placed along the north roadside of the westbound lanes of the highway.
As always Gorski Consulting is considerate of the privacy of individuals travelling along this public highway. As such we purposely adjust our GoPro video cameras to a low resolution such that details such as license plates and the identity of persons in the vehicles cannot be deciphered. All we are interested in is knowing basic facts such as the size of the vehicle (car, SUV, heavy truck, etc.), what motions those vehicles have conducted and at what speed. Unfortunately some large trucks contain various advertising along their sides which cannot be wiped from the video. However during documenting of those vehicles in a spreadsheet we do not refer to their specific identity but only by a general description such as “White tractor with a white semi-trailer”.
We understand it is important that all persons who conduct any surveying need to be considerate of other persons’ privacy especially in this developing age when technology can become unacceptably intrusive into our private lives. Yet it is also important that research be conducted that may improve the transportation safety of the public.
As with previous videos the content will be examined and reported in a future series of news items on the Gorski Consulting website. It is hoped that this data will be of help to the general public in understanding the general character of the traffic on this super-highway and thus enable that public to voice informed opinions as to how we can make this important transportation artery as economically safe as possible.
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