Tyre tread depth camera the future of enforcement?

A German company by the name of Pro Contour have won a design award for their laser triangulating system that can read the tread depth of a tyre on a car while it’s moving. When on show in Germany the road enforcement authorities were showing a lot of interest in the device.

The device can be securely hidden inside a manhole cover and used to measure the tyre tread depth of cars as they pass by. At present only two types of driving offence can be enforced by a camera, speeding and driving through red lights. This device would mean another type of automated enforcement is added to the armory used by road traffic enforcement.

Extensive research has shown that having worn our tyres does affect the safety of the car significantly. As the tread depth gets less and less the stopping distance becomes more and more. Often with a 30% difference between a set of new tyres and a set of worn ones. A car running on bald tyres does pose a safety risk. It will be interesting to see what the reacion would be if this kind of enforcement came onto UK roads.

Lets finish with the thought of an inventor in his shed trying hard to come up with an automated drink drive enforcement system…. now how would that work?

Filed under: Traffic enforcement