Importance

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Abstract

An improved vehicle road sensor is provided for signalling the passage of a vehicle over a predetermined location on a roadway. The vehicle road sensor includes a membrane switch which includes a first member and a second member. The first member includes a non-conductive substrate, a pair of electrically-conductive stripes upon the non-conductive substrate, an electrically non-conductive gap separating the electrically-conductive stripes, and an electrically-conductive lead connected to each electrically-conductive stripe. The second member includes an electrically-conductive strip which is superposed upon the electrically-conductive stripes on the first member. The second member is normally out of electrical contact with the electrically-conductive stripes on the first member. The second member is sufficiently flexible, so that, under a compressive load, it deflects to shunt across the electrically non-conductive gap, thereby to permit electric current to flow from the electrically-conductive stripes to the second member. Various arrangements of separate, but connected sensitive zones may be provided along the length of the sensor. Vehicle wheels of different widths would activate a different number of active sections, thereby approximating tire widths, for detecting the presence of one tire or two tires.

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First Claim