Trax of Elektronika.ba has written an article detailing his inductive loop detector that uses PIC microcontroller and Colpitts oscillator with a large coil buried in pavement to detect vehicles:
Inductive Loop Detector works by detecting an inductance change in wire loop (coil) that is buried in road. It does that by measuring the frequency of the internal oscillator which powers the mentioned coil. When a metallic object moves over the coil it changes its inductance and that in turn changes the oscillator frequency which is measured by the microcontroller. It is used for vehicle access control at door and barrier controls, for monitoring the occupancy and for vehicle counting in parking garages, for traffic light installations and traffic controllers, for direction and speed detection of vehicle traffic (if dual channel version is used), in car-wash plants, etc.
Via the contact form.