A system and method for counting vehicles by detecting RF signals emitted from a portion of the vehicles is provided. An RF scanner/receiver located at a testing site is tuned to receive local oscillator (LO) signals that may be emitted from radio tuners located in a portion of the vehicles. A control unit controls the scanner/receiver, stores data related to the received LO signals, and performs other operating procedures. A central computer in data communication with the control unit performs data translation operations on the raw LO signal data. Scale factors derived from calibration formulas are applied to the system data to provide an estimated vehicle count and an estimated average vehicle speed. The central computer formats the resulting data for presentation to a user.