The social history might be that walking is one of the oldest mobility forms and yet the least datafied one. Hence, laser scanners are used to automatically count pedestrians in highly frequented zones to produce data about these infrastructure users. The traffic group of pedestrians, while often overlooked, is an economically important group when it comes to shopping streets or last-mile workplace commuting. The laser scanners could be talked about as part of an increasing datafication and / or surveillance of the public sphere - they might remind of security cameras on the outside facades of private buildings within public spaces. Due to the laser, the scanners however do not actually produce personal data of the individual pedestrians.
The laser scans all pedestrians above 90cm that cross an imagined line within one hour. Because the line is produced in more-dimensionally, it can measure the walking direction, different zones on the street, and the pedestrians' height. However, it does not discriminate between individual pedestrians - so, crossing the laser repeatedly in a counting interval means the pedestrian is counted multiple times.