Multilane traffic counter

Claim 1

IN A SYSTEM FOR COUNTING THE NUMBER OF VEHICLES PASSING THROUGH A DEFINED PASSAGEWAY HAVING A WIDTH PERMITTING AT LEAST TWO VEHICLES TO PASS THERETHROUGH SIMULTANEOUSLY, A PLURALITY OF VEHICLE DETECTION MEANS BEING LOCATED ACROSS SAID PASSAGEWAY AND DEFINING RESPECTIVE DETECTION ZONES MORE CLOSELY SPACED SUCCESSIVELY THAN THE WIDTH OF ANY VEHICLE AND EACH BEING SO CONSTRUCTED AND ARRANGED AS TO PROVIDE A MOMENTARY OUTPUT SIGNAL UPON THE PASSAGE OF A VEHICLE THROUGH THE RESPECTIVE DETECTION ZONE, COUNTING MEANS FOR COUNTING DISCRETE INPUT SIGNALS SUCCESSIVELY APPLIED TO ITS INPUT CIRCUIT, MEANS FOR COUPLING EACH SAID VEHICLE DETECTION MEANS TO SAID INPUT CIRCUIT, SAID COUPLING MEANS RESPONDING TO SUBSTANTIALLY SIMULTANEOUS OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM VEHICLE DETECTORS RESPECTIVELY DEFINING ADJACENT DETECTION ZONES BY SUPPLYING A SINGLE INPUT SIGNAL TO SAID INPUT CIRCUIT OF SAID COUNTING MEANS BUT RESPONDING TO SUBSTANTIALLY SIMULTANEOUS OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM VEHICLE DETECTORS RESPECTIVELY DEFINING NON-ADJACENT DETECTION ZONES BY SUPPLYING TIME-SPACED INPUT SIGNALS TO SAID INPUT CIRCUIT, WHEREBY A SINGLE VEHICLE PASSING SIMULTANEOUSLY THROUGH ADJACENT DETECTION ZONES IS COUNTED SINGLY BY SAID COUNTING CIRCUIT MEANS BUT A PLURALITY OF VEHICLES PASSING SIMULTANEOUSLY THROUGH NON-ADJACENT DETECTION ZONES ARE SEPARATELY COUNTED BY SAID COUNTING CIRCUIT MEANS.