The Dutchess County Transportation Council (DCTC) serves as the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Dutchess County, New York. In accordance with the provisions set forth in 23 U.S.C. 134 and 49 U.S.C. 5303, the DCTC is tasked with carrying out a comprehensive multimodal transportation planning process for the metropolitan area. This includes the development of plans and programs that promote the safe and efficient movement of people and goods across all modes of transportation. The DCTC, hosted by
the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, leverages its federal planning funds to assist communities with addressing their local transportation planning priorities. This work can include the collection of data to support corridor studies, safety assessments, and pedestrian/bicycle studies. Accordingly, the DCTC has allocated resources to complete an annual traffic count program to understand how the county’s non-State road network and walking and bicycling facilities are being used.
The purpose of this federally funded program is to continue the DCTC’s traffic count program on non-State, local roads and walking and bicycling facilities in Dutchess County. The traffic count program covers approximately 800 locations (stations), most of which are counted on a three-year cycle, along with occasional project-specific ‘odd’ counts that may be requested by the DCTC for its member agencies or special studies. Approximately 280 counts are conducted annually, inclusive of pedestrian and bicycle counts. The counts are used to inform local transportation studies, measure traffic congestion, and support the long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). The DCTC coordinates the program with local municipalities, the Dutchess County Department of Public Works, and the New York State Department of Transportation. The traffic count data is also incorporated into an online data tool that allows users to search and download traffic count data by route number and municipality: http://www.dutchessny.gov/PlnRoadCnts/Default.aspx. Dutchess County is currently updating this tool; it will soon provide a navigable map of all stations and counts, along with numerous analytical functions.
