CUSTOM QUERY
ABOUT THIS PAGE
The custom query tool is for users who have a specific dataset in mind and wish to use it in their own analyses. Data will be available for download as a .CSV file only.
STEPS TO BUILD A QUERY
1. Choose a date range – Select a start date and end date.
2. Choose the days of the week to query – The default selection is all days of the week. If, for example, only weekend days are desired, unselect “Select All” and the re-select Saturday and Sunday only.
3. Select months of the year – By default all months are selected. However specific months, such as those in the summer or a specific season, may be chosen. Note that results will not be rolled together, so if January and February are selected, for example, results will show January for each year, February for each year, etc.
4. Select hours of the day – Use the sliders to select a start and end time for the day. Many of the analyses done by Whatcom Council of Governments select 8:00am – 10:00pm for border crossing data.
5. Choose how to group the day – The data may be displayed in different ways, depending on how detailed an analysis is needed. For the most detailed approach, select Group by: Day then by Minute. Note that “Minute” will choose the smallest increment available, which is 5-minute increments only.
Note that the date that shows is the FIRST date or time in the series. For example, if “Year” is selected it will show 1/1/2008 for all of 2008. Note this is important to track when choosing “All” as it will show a starting date in a range only. If a selection of 1/1/2016-12/31/2018 is made, the All field will only show 1/1/2016 for the date.
Here are some examples of how different aggregations will display:
6. Select ports and directions – Select individual ports-of-entries or directions or select “All.”
7. Select modes – By selecting “All,” data for all vehicle types for the selected ports and directions will be displayed. Or select either passenger, commercial, or bus. Passenger can be further refined to choose standard cars, NEXUS cars, and/or Ready cars (southbound only). Likewise, commercial vehicles may be refined to include or exclude FAST trucks or standard trucks (note “trucks” may also include passenger vehicles that are carrying commercial goods).
8. Select detectors – Use this option ONLY if querying individual detectors. Place a checkmark next to each detector. To pick detectors using the map, use the Detector page and right click detectors from the map and click “Create Query.”
9. Select data point(s) – Choose how data should be displayed. Typical options are usually average Delay, or Sum of volume, but multiple other aggregations are available. A separate column will be provided for each data point selected.
Crossing Measures
- Volume – the total number of vehicles entering the port-of-entry
- Delay – the estimated delay in minutes
- Service rate – The number of vehicles passing over a detector in the road per hour
- Vehicles in queue – An average number of vehicles estimated to be in the queue
- Queue length – the length of the vehicle queue in meters
Detector Measures
- Volume – the total number of vehicles entering the port-of-entry
- Occupancy – Percentage of time when the detector was occupied with a vehicle
- Speed – The average speed of vehicles over the detector in kilometers per hour. Detectors closer to the border will have less useful speeds since the queue tends to extend over them.
- Vehicle Length – An average length of vehicles crossing the detector in meters. This may be approximated for some detectors.
Booth Measures
- Volume By Mode – Volume as calculated by the booth status data system
- State Vehicles – Vehicle counts based on license plate state or province
10. After all selections are completed, click the Generate CSV button to download the data file. No data will be displayed on screen. If a large amount of data have been queried, the file may take some time to process so please be patient.