Summary:
  Time dependent origin to destination matrices are not yet directly observable therefore its estimation must rely on indirect methods either based on Kalman Filter approaches or on discrete time approximations based on Mathematic Programming approaches. In any case a reliable origin-destination matrix is a crucial input to traffic simulation and Advanced Traffic Management Systems. Estimation procedures usually are based on traffic counts which layout strongly influences the quality of the results. This paper proposes a reformulation of the detection layout problem reformulating the classical set covering approaches with side constraints and solving it efficiently by a tabu search metaheuristic.