Data on Ashburton’s town centre foot traffic is now being captured by two new computer-vision pedestrian counters.

The counters have been been installed near pedestrian crossings on Burnett Street and Tancred Street, near East Street.

Group manager compliance and development Ian Hyde said data captured over time would help gather reliable statistics about how pedestrians moved around the town centre.

“We’re really interested in tracking high and low pedestrian numbers, seeing trends over time, and looking at patterns that might predict change. We think the data will be useful for both council and town centre businesses for operational and long-term planning.

“The counting pods don’t collect or store any information that could identify anyone. Instead they count by detecting the shape and movement of the person, so it’s completely anonymous.”

The cost of installing the pods was about $12,000 and they have an annual running cost of around $3,000. This is being met from within existing Council economic development budgets.

The pods are powered by battery during the day and charged by electricity at night. They also monitor rainfall and temperature.

Information from the pod counters will be shared publicly at the Council’s Activity Briefings every six weeks.