The traffic data that will shape future road, trail, and safety spending in Land O' Lakes, Odessa, and Lutz is now being crunched.
The Hillsborough County Transportation Planning Organization completed its spring 2026 traffic count season using 281 stations across the county, according to a TPO announcement published Tuesday, July 28. It's the largest multimodal count effort the agency has ever conducted.
Of those 281 stations, 200 tracked motor vehicles and 81 were multimodal sites recording vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. Crews collected data between March and May 2026, timing the effort while schools were in session to capture typical weekday travel patterns rather than summer or holiday volumes.
Because Land O' Lakes, Odessa, and Lutz are unincorporated, their road investments flow through the TPO's Long Range Transportation Plan rather than a city budget. Projects must appear in that plan to qualify for federal highway and transit dollars.
Why it matters locally
The TPO's current plan, Access 2050, allocates an estimated $18 billion over 25 years for roadway maintenance, major projects, safety upgrades, and transit. But the agency has identified $47 billion in total need, leaving a projected $29 billion shortfall, according to TPO planning documents.
With limited dollars, the traffic count data will help planners decide which corridors get funded and which wait. Hillsborough County's population is expected to grow from roughly 1.5 million residents to more than 2 million by 2050, a nearly 35% increase that will put added pressure on roads already struggling with reliability and safety, according to the TPO's 2024 State of the System report.
That same report found the county is not meeting its targets for travel-time reliability on interstates or for reducing serious-injury crashes.
How the data was collected
Video cameras mounted on telescopic poles and secured to public property recorded traffic at each station. The consulting firm Benesch handled the fieldwork. The TPO previously updated its vehicular counts in spring 2024, when it identified 440 locations for counting in partnership with Hillsborough County and the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant City. Before that, the last vehicular count had been in 2020.
The multimodal camera program launched in 2023 with 80 cameras deployed along High Injury Network corridors, roads with the county's highest crash rates.
What's next
The TPO said the new data is being added to its interactive Traffic Count Station map, which is publicly accessible and displays volumes at each location. The TPO has not announced a specific release date for the full report.
The TPO Board approved its FY 2028–2032 List of Priority Projects at its Wednesday, May 13 meeting, a list that guides federal funding toward projects including the Hillsborough County Smart Traffic Network, bridge rehabilitations, and trail segments.
The TPO did not make a spokesperson available for comment on the count results. Residents can contact the agency at [email protected] or 813-272-5940. The TPO is located at 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., 18th Floor, Tampa.
