The indirect approach for measuring the bridge frequencies from the dynamic responses of a passing vehicle is a highly potential method. In this study, the effect of road surface roughness on such an approach is studied through finite element simulations. A two-dimensional mathematical model with the vehicle simulated as a moving sprung mass and the bridge as a simply-supported beam is adopted. The dynamic responses of the passing vehicle are solved by the finite element method along with the Newmark ${eta}$ method. Through the numerical examples studied, it is shown that the presence of surface roughness may have negative consequence on the extraction of bridge frequencies from the test vehicle. However, such a shortcoming can be overcome either by introducing multiple moving vehicles on the bridge, besides the test vehicle, or by raising the moving speed of the accompanying vehicles.