The District’s new traffic counting stations herald a welcome addition given the city’s past troubles clearing the streets of snow and ice: Technology able to provide the D.C. government with real-time updates on snow depth and pavement temperature.

“Some stations will be outfitted with weather stations to be used to display accurate environmental data critical to the snow removal program,” said Karyn LeBlanc, Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

The District is entering the second year of a two-year, $5.4 million effort to rebuild and modernize its 30 counting stations, which play a key role in determining what traffic improvements are needed where. At $180,000 on average, the souped-up contraptions in many cases do more than just count cars.

The devices automatically tally and classify traffic on roads throughout the city, LeBlanc said in an e-mail, exposing seasonal, daily and monthly driving trends. Some are able to collect truck-weight data “critical to ascertaining pavement life and to assisting the Metropolitan Police Department’s enforcement of truck weight violations,” she said.

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“Accurate, reliable data from these stations is critical to enable engineers to predict pavement wear and to determine the proper form of traffic control device for a particular location,” LeBlanc said. “Future capital investments are often made using data from this program.”

The Federal Highway Administration requires the District, as it does all states, to file traffic count reports as a prerequisite for receiving federal transportation dollars. Dulles-based M.C. Dean is installing the new counting stations, which should be operational by next August.

More, and more accurate, traffic data might help DDOT make decisions about intersection improvements, said David Alpert, who tracks D.C. planning and transportation issues for his blog, GreaterGreaterWashington.org. The public’s job, Alpert said, is to “try to pressure them to use the data in a good way” to upgrade the system for everyone — drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

But by reducing parking spaces, fining drivers every which way and slowing traffic to a crawl, D.C. is still on pace to become “the most car unfriendly city in America” even with precise vehicle data, said Lon Anderson, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

“If you’re really going to deal intelligently with traffic volume you need to know what those volumes are,” Anderson said. “I think that’s a good start. But I remain skeptical.”

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com