Average Daily Traffic (OI0659)

This metric is intended to capture the volume of traffic in a particular market, expressed as total number of vehicles using an urban road per day on average over the course of a year. Organizations may also choose to report average traffic for other periods of time (e.g., traffic per month). Traffic on a road, particularly over time, serves as a proxy for the qualitative contribution of new transportation infrastructure to economic activity.

Providers of GPS traffic data frequently offer traffic counts by side of road, day of week, and time of day.

International Finance Institutions (IFIs) often use this metric as part of their transportation analysis. When toll roads are not part of a project, this metric is not a good indicator of impact performance, unless the corresponding transport or transit agency monitors traffic congestion.