Today is an important day. Today is the day that you will finally learn what they keep in those big, navy green boxes attached to lamp posts around the city.
Considering the sheer amount of traffic that rolls through the five boroughs, one might assume there's some pretty sophisticated technology at work to monitor it. Something with back-lit screens and buttons that go "beep boop" when pressed. Not so! This snapshot from photographer Joseph Holmes suggests that the city's traffic is counted by a device that could easily pass for a precocious middle schooler's science project. The stamp tells us that this one is located at West 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, the same one that's pictured above. Behold its simplistic majesty:
Here's another, closer shot:
What does it mean!? Our mathematically challenged brains are incapable of deriving any real understanding of traffic flow from the map, but the pretty lines do remind us of this childhood toy, the Spirograph. Do you remember those things?
Anyway, according to the state's Department of Transportation, there are 87 permanent count stations throughout New York. You can take a look at some of the data generated here.
We reached out to the DOT for more on these ubiquitous gadgets and we'll update when we hear back.
