Two black parallel cords across the road?

Question

Recently two black parallel cords have been placed outside my local supermarket from one side to the road to the other about 50cm apart, I would assume that they would be police related but what do they do?

Answer 1

The cords that you've described are usually pressure sensors that are linked to counters. They are used to generate statistics about road usage.

Answer 2

they count how many cars are passing but they also can tell how fast they are going, by how quickly the 2nd one is gone over from the 1st, quite often you find a few weeks later that there is a speed camera there

Answer 3

The black fords are black air tubes.  When you run over them it causes a counter at the sideof the road to click one-up.  They are used for traffic counting.  It could have something to do with control (stop) lights, road repairs, etc.

Answer 4

They are to gauge the ammount of cars passing over them. They are usually used when they are thinking of putting in a new set of street lights.

Answer 5

I am sure they are something to do with seeing how many cars use the road or junction. I have some near mine and before them there was people counting the number of cars and vans etc that go past

Answer 6

they are traffic counters<

Answer 7

They put thse all over my city...at least for a little while...I haven't noticed them lately so they may be gone or I could just be used to it.

My guess is to determine vehicle speed for who knows what purpose.

Answer 8

Those things detect if cars are speeding at that point. if they can prove cars are speeding they will install speed bumps or one of those camera's that give you tickets in the mail.

Answer 9

They are nothing to do with speeding, they are traffic counters, often placed to check the level of road usage by the Highways Authority before considering things like speed bumps, traffic Lights, and the like.

Answer 10

Not Police but your local Highways dept. At one end they should go into a box, which is probably chained to a lamp post. They are just rubber tubes and they count the number of vehicles crossing them. They work on a pulse of air moving a counter in the attached box, and the reason there are two tubes is they count axles. So as a car has two axles, the readings are compensated for.

Answer 11

they pop up all over the place im not entirely sure what they are for i think they are there to monitor traffic but like i said not sure.  

Answer 12

Where i live they have these outside Tesco's exit and they are there to stop people taking trollys back to the nearby estate!, i kid you not the trolly locks up on contact with them, it's quite funny to watch!

Answer 13

That is how the store counts customers.

Answer 14

Why have you re-posted this question?

Answer 15

They're traffic counters.

Answer 16

They are devices to count traffic passing through a certain area. Typically, this information is used to justify changes in the signs, traffic signals, or other traffic-related things.

Answer 17

simply,just to see how much traffic is in that one area,it is a counter...