Limitations of the effectiveness of Weigh in Motion systems

Abstract

Overloaded vehicles pose a real threat to road safety and significantly contribute to the degradation of the road surface. High-Speed Weigh in Motion (HS-WIM) stations are the commonly used method of eliminating them from traffic. In Poland, HS-WIM stations operate in pre-selection mode, sending information to services about the potential exceedance of acceptable standards by a specific vehicle. The article presents the results of the data analysis from selected HS-WIM stations operating on the national road network in Poland indicating significant limitations of the effectiveness of the whole system. The main reason for this may be that carriers use the knowledge about the HS-WIM stations location and working time to avoid inspections. The results presented in the paper indicate, among other things, that in some locations the share of vehicles overloaded with traffic increases significantly outside the working hours of the controlling services. For Light Commercial Vehicle, the share of overloaded vehicles in this group is also significant. Also, the paper indicates that the effectiveness of the procedure for determining vehicle overload has been limited due to errors in classification.

Keywords

• weigh in motion systems
• overloaded vehicles
• vehicles classification
• road safety
• road infrastructure