You may have noticed some strange new items locked onto our Capitol Hill streetscape lately. We noticed at least two of these boxes — one near Pike and 11th and the one pictured here at Pine and Broadway. Seattle Department of Transportation tells us they are “camera counters” being used for “traffic data collection.” From what we can tell, the cameras replace the old manual method of somebody in a bright safety-green jacket with a clipboard taking notes on busy intersections. We’ll see if we can find out a little more about what the captured images will be used for and why SDOT chose these locations for the boxes — and if we can get a peek at the data. Let us know if you’ve seen any more around the Hill.