City of Bend installs traffic data camera on Portland Avenue Bridge
Tyson Beauchemin
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The city of Bend has installed a camera on the Portland Avenue Bridge, but it’s not for surveillance. The camera sits atop a light pole on the bridge and is designed to record traffic data.
It’s not just cars – it’s recording the number of people walking and cycling over the bridge. It can also tell the difference between cars, trucks and motorcycles.
The camera replaces several different devices that were built into the bridge.
The project lead, Colleen Miller, is the city of Bend’s Geographic Informations Systems (GIS) manager. She explained on Wednesday why the city went with a camera: “Any time we would do surface treatment of the bridge, those (traffic-counting road) loops would need to be replaced. For bike and pedestrian counting, we use infrared sensors and pressure plates. And those also needed some maintenance and required battery changes regularly. This new equipment will require less maintenance, because it has a constant power connection.”
The camera uses artificial intelligence to tell the difference between the types of vehicles and pedestrians in the area.
The city of Bend stresses that the video taken by the camera is not stored. Every 15 minutes, it’s converted into traffic data and then discarded.
This camera also does not detect faces, nor license plates.