Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Weight – Treads
Patent
1990-03-20
1992-05-19
Tolin, Gerald P.
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Weight
Treads
73146, 200333, 340666, H01H 2126
Patent
active
051151090
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for use in the monitoring of the flow and speed of traffic passing along roads, streets, highways and the like.
DESCRIPTION OF BACKGROUND ART
Up until this time a real problem has been the provision of efficient and effective means for the monitoring of traffic flows and, in particular, the speed of traffic travelling along public roads. Until very recently, radar systems have generally been acknowledged to be the most accurate speed measuring devices but they suffer from a number of major drawbacks, such as their high capital cost and their inability to positively identify the source of the speed reading.
Amphometers based on so-called `treadle` switches, or on pneumatic cables, are cheap and still reasonably accurate but also suffer from a number of disadvantages. The switches themselves have poor triggering characteristics when activated by a passing vehicle, necessitating a large distance between the two required sensors in order to make an accurate speed reading. This makes them cumbersome to install, since two separate sensors must be laid on the road surface with a distance usually greater than three meters separating them.
Amphometers also suffer from their inability to identify the positions of vehicles on a road surface. Moreover, their flimsy construction makes them wholly unsuited as a road based sensor unless a very short working life can be tolerated.
By way of contrast, in the present invention, the configuration of the strip and its pressure switches allows the contact means to be spaced apart by a distance as small as, say, ten centimeters.
Policed traffic surveillance and control is extremely costly, relying on a considerable number of officers to enforce the road rules. Technology has provided some answers such as radar-based speed measuring devices and loop detector-based traffic camera installations. Both systems are expensive, with radar-based systems generally requiring an operator. Radar/camera systems do exist but because of their high cost and vulnerability to vandalism are rarely operated unmanned.
The inefficiency of these surveillance systems has made it impractical to deploy large numbers of enforcing agents in the field.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above and other disadvantages by the provision of a simple, cheap but efficient traffic monitoring system capable of being deployed in large numbers so as to obviate the need for a high level of police surveillance. Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of this invention there is provided an arrangement for monitoring traffic in the form of an elongate strip member adapted to be placed on a road surface, said elongate strip member including a base layer; at least two longitudinally extending and laterally spaced apart electrical contact means being provided on the upper surface of said base layer; a dielectric spacer layer extending over the upper surface of said base layer; a plurality of longitudinally and laterally spaced apart apertures being provided in said dielectric layer, so as to be located substantially over the electrical contact means provided on the upper surface of said base layer; a resilient material layer extending over said dielectric spacer layer; at least two longitudinally extending and laterally spaced apart electric contact means being provided on the lower surface of said resilient material layer so as to be located substantially over said apertures; said apertures, and said respective electrical contact means, forming a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart switches; each of said switches being connected to monitoring and/or timing means associated with said strip member; means being provided to supply voltage across said electrical contact means; the arrangement being such that on one or more vehicles passing over said elongate strip member, one or more of said switches will be actuated b
REFERENCES:
patent: 2783327 (1957-02-01), Luckey
patent: 3821500 (1974-06-01), Newman
patent: 3983531 (1976-09-01), Corrigan
patent: 4192394 (1980-03-01), Simpson
patent: 4401896 (1983-08-01), Fowler
patent: 4455465 (1989-06-01), Habeger
patent: 4963705 (1990-10-01), Broderick
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