The city Department of Transportation on Tuesday said the number of overweight vehicles on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway dropped by 60% percent due to the installation of weight sensors.
New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today released a new report that said the DOT's weight-in-motion sensors and subsequent enforcement has proven to be an effective tool at deterring overweight trucks from using the roadway.
“Modern problems require modern solutions, deploying cutting edge technology is the key to addressing our city’s most complex infrastructure needs,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez.
The WIM system utilizes roadway sensors to weigh passing vehicles in conjunction with adjacent cameras to capture the identifying information of vehicles that are overweight. Using this technology, those that violate the state maximum weight limit for their truck’s weight/vehicle class are issued a $650 violation.
Prior to the use of this technology, the DOT found an average of 7,920 overweight vehicles driving in the Queens-bound direction on the city-owned portion of the BQE each month. During the first year of the use of WIM technology, this figure dropped to 3,041 vehicles on average. Now the numner of trucks are in the hundreds.
The sensors are currently in what is known as BQE Central, or a half-mile portion of the expressway around Downtown Brooklyn.
The authority to use WIM sensors is sunsetting in 2025. Rodriguez was in Albany on Tuesday to discuss reauthorization and expansion of its use to other infrastructure statewide.
