| ODOT weigh-in-motion system clears 11 million trucks and saves industry $100 million |
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| ODOT News |
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Green Light pre-clearance system
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They look like oversized light poles, but they are actually transponder readers. Placed along highways around the state and working together with weigh-in-motion scales and vehicle transponders, they screen trucks as they approach a weigh station.
The Oregon Department of Transportation’s Green Light Program, which has been in operation since 1997, allows trucks to avoid stopping at weigh stations by collecting vehicle weight, height, identification number and other data as they pass weigh-in-motion scales and transponder readers installed on the highway. Transponders inside the trucks transmit the vehicle ID information and then receive a go or stop signal from the pre-clearance system about a quarter-mile ahead of the weigh station. In most cases, the driver will get a green light, indicating they do not need to stop. A red light tells the driver to pull into the scale for a formal weigh-in.
During the week of April 6, ODOT’s Green Light program will clear its 11 million truck, hitting another milestone in the program’s history of saving the state and the trucking industry time and money.
A successful partnership
Green Light increases a weigh station’s capacity without physically expanding the facility, providing efficiencies for state regulators. But the trucking industry enjoys real benefits because operating a heavy truck is estimated to cost $1.96 per minute and stopping at a weigh station can take five minutes. On that basis, truckers saved 917,000 hours of travel time and $108 million in operating costs in the past ten years as they cleared Oregon weigh stations 11 million times.
Besides those savings, emission testing by Oregon DEQ confirms that trucks are far less polluting and far more fuel efficient when they use Green Light to avoid stopping at weigh stations. Tests found a 36 to 67 percent reduction in pollutants – particulate matter, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons – when trucks stayed at highway speed past a weigh station. Trucks that avoided decelerating to enter a station and then accelerating to exit also experienced a 57 percent improvement in fuel economy.
Additional information
Oregon started keeping track of green lights in January 1999 when it had four weigh stations pre-clearing an average of 51 trucks a day. In 2008, the 21 stations with Green Light pre-cleared an average of 4,050 trucks a day.
Green Light uses the same technology used in weigh station pre-clearance systems all around the country. Green Light transponders can be used in any other state. Truckers just need to enroll with the state and agree to the terms and conditions of its system.
The program is now serving 4,341 trucking companies with 39,686 trucks equipped with transponders.
There are currently 21 Green Light sites, but a 22nd site will be opening in summer 2010 when work is completed on a new weigh station north of Myrtle Creek on southbound Interstate 5.
Here's a recap of milestones in the Green Light program:
1 million -- Feb 2001
2 million -- Mar 2002
3 million -- May 2003
4 million -- Apr 2004
5 million -- Jan 2005
6 million -- Oct 2005
7 million -- July 2006
8 million -- Mar 2007
9 million -- Nov 2007
10 million -- July 2008
11 million -- Apr 2009
More about emission testing:
DEQ found a noteworthy reduction of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, two pollutants that have significant potential for harm to human health and the environment. Particulate matter, the fine particles that can and cannot be seen in smoke, has been linked to many serious health problems. Nitrogen oxide, the precursor to smog, is linked with serious respiratory problems and it contributes to global warming. According to one 1999 study, reductions in those emissions achieve the highest value per ton of pollutant reduced.
The DEQ study notes that since Oregon's Green Light pre-clearance system will allow trucks to avoid 1.5 million weigh station stops in 2009; this will result in 0.5 tons less particulate matter, 1 ton less hydrocarbons, 2.4 tons less carbon monoxide, 8 tons less nitrogen oxides, and 1,300 metric tons less carbon dioxide emitted by trucks this year. Moreover, avoiding 1.5 million weigh stations stops results in more than $600,000 in fuel savings.
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