I-5 Origin & Destination Study in Washington State

The Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) desired an evaluation of travel patterns to identify trip ends and through trips over a 13-interchange span of I-5. The Origin/Destination Study along I-5 took place with details on internal to external, external to internal, external to external, and internal to internal trips by vehicle classification in the study area. To collect license plate data along a 6-lane freeway with vehicles traveling at highway speeds (frequented with rain and fog), The Traffic Group identified best locations for installing 25 Evo8 CA traffic cameras. Upon completion, all data was reviewed, summarized, and evaluated to provide the requested information. The successful conclusion of this project was the license plate capture rate was over 90% – even with vehicles travelling at speeds in excess of 60 MPH. With the excellent capture rate, valuable information was processed for the future planning needs of TRPC and WSDOT regarding travel behaviors through the study area.