A vehicle detection and classification system which comprises a plurality of proximity sensors is distributed in a fixed spatial array relative to a road such that a distance of each sensor to the nearest adjacent sensor is less than a minimum horizontal dimension of a vehicle to be detected. The array has a maximum dimension greater than the minimum horizontal dimension of a vehicle to be detected. Each of the sensors is configured to determine presence or absence of a vehicle and to communicate data regarding said presence determination to a data processing system, wherein the data processing system is configured to use data from a plurality of the sensors to detect and classify a vehicle on the road based on at least one dimension of the vehicle.