Radars are devices that provide great help to traffic authorities to control not only the speed at which vehicles circulate, but also other aspects related to road safety. Some of these gadgets are specially designed to measure the level of noise emitted by cars or even, with the help of artificial intelligence, to hunt down drivers who are not wearing a seat belt or holding their mobile phone in their hand.
One of the recent developments regarding radars comes from the United States. A few months ago, the New York City Department of Transportation launched a program called “BQE Weigh-In-Motion” that aims to hunt down trucks and heavy commercial transportation vehicles that are traveling with excess loads.
The measure was adopted to prevent overweight trucks from further damaging the city’s road infrastructure, as stated in the legal text of the regulations that have been in force since August 10. The main novelty of this provision is that the weighing of vehicles is carried out through a weighing-in-motion device (Weigh-In-Motion) instead of with a traditional platform scale.
These devices, equipped with cameras capable of reading license plates, examine the vehicle’s gross weight and axle weights in motion, without the truck having to stop. Sensors synchronize with license plate cameras to issue tickets to vehicles that exceed stipulated load limits.
The penalty for driving with an overloaded truck is 650 dollars (about 600 euros). However, the authorities established a 90-day information period, starting August 10, in which violators only received a warning, without being fined.
The first weighing point was installed on the Brooklyn-Queens expressway, beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. It is an infrastructure that is severely damaged by the numerous heavy traffic it supports daily. At the end of the year, another radar of these characteristics is expected to come into operation on the same highway, heading to Staten Island, and it is not ruled out that other radars of these characteristics will be placed on other roads in the city.
In recent years, a direct relationship has been established between the deterioration of road infrastructure and the weight of vehicles. In addition to increasing the number of cars in circulation, the dimensions and weight of cars have grown significantly. The safety equipment that equips the most current vehicles forces manufacturers to reinforce the chassis structures and body panels with high-resistance protective parts.
To all this we must add the proliferation of SUV vehicles that, due to their design and functionality, are heavier than other types of passenger cars and the emergence of electric cars, which must support the weight of the batteries. For this reason, the city council of Lyon (France) announced before the summer that starting in 2024 it will establish a charging system for street parking based on the weight of vehicles, taxing owners of heavier cars more.
