Noticed the cords running across Bellingham streets? Here’s why they’re there
If you’ve been driving in Bellingham lately, you might have noticed sets of cords running across certain streets.
No, they’re not the world’s least-effective speed bumps. According to the city’s public works department, they’re traffic counters.
“The pneumatic tubes … are for the Whatcom Council of Governments regional travel demand model update,” Connor Harron, communications and outreach coordinator for Public Works, said in an email to The Herald. “WCOG is contracting with a vendor to lay the tube counters.”
But the tubes aren’t there to measure Bellingham’s everyday traffic patterns. According to Harron, they’re part of a Washington State Department of Transportation effort to track freight routes and are primarily looking for trucks.
“The two tubes collect vehicle volume as well as the number of axles on the vehicle — this axle count gets translated into a vehicle classification system, specifically the FHWA 13 Vehicle Category Classification,” Harron said. “They are interested in traffic counts for FHWA vehicle classes 5 through 13, which correspond to freight traffic.”
What is WSDOT’s Freight and Goods Transportation system?
The data will be used to update the models in WSDOT’s Freight and Goods Transportation System.
“They use a formula to calculate the tonnage of freight on a specific route using these traffic counts,” Harron said. “WSDOT then categorizes the freight routes based on the tonnage. The traffic counts are also used for calibrating our regional travel demand model.”
According to WSDOT’s website, the Freight and Goods Transportation classifies each of Washington’s freight corridors, including train and shipping routes, by the amount of freight that each handles in a given year. The system is updated every two years. The 2023 report says that the data is used for the statewide freight plan, as well as studies, local transportation plans and investment decisions.
How long will there be freight counters in Bellingham?
According to Harron, there are more than 30 of the traffic counters around town, and they’ll only be around for another few weeks.
“The counts will be around Bellingham until early July. There are about three dozen locations in Bellingham — not all of them collected at the same time.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM.