TRAFFIC DATA: Are Tyler residents staying at home?

TYLER, TEXAS (KLTV) - Traffic engineers with the city of Tyler are performing traffic counts to identify traffic flow related to the effectiveness of the stay-at-home order.

According to the city, there are a couple of intersections where they can collect Bluetooth data that can be used to calculate travel times between certain points. The intersections are at Loop 323 and Frankston Highway (TX-155) and Loop 323 at South Broadway Avenue.

This chart shows the total number of Bluetooth reads at two major Tyler intersections. — This chart shows the total number of Bluetooth reads at two major Tyler intersections.(City of Tyler)

Based on their findings, the city said they started seeing a drop in traffic after Tyler ISD’s spring break when event organizers started cancelling large gatherings and some people started working from home. The data also shows a dip in weekend traffic on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15. A larger dip in traffic came on the weekend of Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22. The weekend of Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29 shows a greater decrease in traffic following the issuing of the Smith County stay-at-home order.

A city spokeswoman said this system doesn’t detect every vehicle and vehicles with multiple devices make it difficult to directly equate it to traffic volumes.

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