About Us

TRAFx Research Ltd. (est. 2001) develops and sells advanced counting systems to gather, analyze and manage road and trail use data. Integral to each system is the TRAFx counter. TRAFx offers the following counter types: vehicle counter, infrared trail counter, mountain bike counter, and OHV counter.

TRAFx products are primarily used by governments and organizations in Canada, the US, Australia, Europe, and elsewhere for (1) parks and public lands management, (2) recreation studies, (3) traffic and transportation studies, and (4) visitor studies. TRAFx has created unique and innovative solutions that make us a leader in our field. One of our specialities is counting solutions for rugged, rural and remote areas.

Our office is in Canmore, Alberta, adjacent to one of the largest aggregations of parks and protected areas in the world. World-famous Banff National Park, five minutes by car from Canmore, is part of a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

TRAFx trivia

• The TRAFx Vehicle Counter has become a de facto standard for some US federal agencies (BLM, USFS, etc).
• We are located in Canmore, Canada, a popular, outdoor recreation mecca next to world-famous Banff. It serves as an ideal outdoor laboratory.
• All TRAFx products are made in our micro factory in Canmore.
• On a per capita basis, there are more TRAFx counters in Iceland than any other country. Iceland’s national parks and other destinations host over 2 million visitors annually.
• Our counters are used by some of the most iconic parks in the world: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Banff, Yosemite, etc.
• The TRAFx Infrared Trail Counter has been used to count penguins on penguin paths in the southern hemisphere.
• In New Zealand, a TRAFx Vehicle Counter washed out to sea and was found weeks later on a beach still working.
• TRAFx Vehicle Counters are truly Canadian: they have been embedded in winter ice roads in Canada’s far north for over a decade.
• Some of our customers are still using TRAFx counters purchased over 15 years ago (long potential life if well cared for).
• TRAFx counters are used and trusted by national, state/provincial, regional, and local governments around the globe.
• Two words that define TRAFx equipment: simple and reliable.

Both Canmore and the Banff townsite sit in the scenic, busy, and ecologically-important Bow Valley. Canmore is about a one-hour drive from the Calgary metro area, an urban expanse of over 1.5 million people, Canada’s fourth largest. Canada’s national highway, the TransCanada, one of the longest in the world, links Canmore to both Calgary and Banff National Park. With easy vehicle access, Banff National Park is one of the most visited in the world: approximately 8 million vehicles enter the park annually. Our designs have benefited greatly over the years from feedback provided by Banff National Park and other organizations.

The Banff-Canmore region is the most heavily visited area in North America where grizzly bears live. It is also a mecca for outdoor recreation (hiking, biking, skiing, etc). The overlap of large numbers of people, busy roads and trails, and important wildlife habitat, has created serious management challenges.

How best to manage both people and wildlife in this popular, ecologically sensitive area? The question has no easy answer, but good data is integral to good management. TRAFx Research Ltd. grew out of the need for innovative yet simple and reliable, cost-effective tools to gather, analyze and manage road and trail use data. TRAFx’s technology draws from advances in several different fields, including embedded systems design, signal processing, earth’s magnetic field sensing and web-based software systems. Most of our customers are government agencies and researchers with rigorous data requirements. Count on us!

TRAFx Research has provided advanced counting systems to over 1000 governments and other organizations around the globe, who manage, study and advocate for parks, public lands, recreation and sustainability.