Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
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Table 3
Summary of Time and Cost of Data Collection by Different Methods

Item Manual method MMS1-4
Two-lane rural Rural interstate Urban Two-lane rural Rural interstate Urban
Mean collection time for 100 inventory elements in the field, including equipment setup and driving the roadway (person-minutes) 38 40 36 7 9 9
      8 7 10
      8 8 9
      6 7 8
Mean in-office processing time for 100 inventory elements (person-minutes) 5* 5* 5*
           
Mean inventory data extraction time for 100 inventory elements, inputting to computer, and creation of inventory database including transfer to GIS (person-minutes) 45 45 45 76 80 78
      82 77 80
      72 76 77
      84 82 75
Sum of mean collection, processing, and extraction times 83 85 81 87 92 92
One-time purchase of equipment (hardware, software, and peripherals, in dollars   30,000     250,000 and above  

= Not applicable
* = Approximately the same time for all four methods using vehicle systems
= Manual method cost includes purchase of vehicle and a computer workstation
= The cost of the methods employing vehicle systems depend on the number and type of sensors installed onboard and varies significantly