Frequently Asked Questions

What about maintenance and ongoing costs?

>The roadside unit has been designed to look after itself as best it can. Depending on traffic dirt, etc, you may have to wipe clean the camera window and polish the solar cell occasionally to keep it in tip-top condition. We provide user maintenance tips as a download when you purchase the unit. Or, you can return it to us for refurbishment at a modest charge.

There is a small but necessary annual cost to maintain the data connectivity for the second and subsequent years. This keeps the unit connected to the mobile network (much like a smartphone data plan) and also gives you access to the dashboard to view results.

All in all, we've tried to make the effective management of speed in your community as affordable as possible.

Does AutoSpeedWatch log total traffic volumes or just speeders?

>Yes; within it's limitations. AutoSpeedWatch is primarily focused on changing driver behaviours and identifying the worst and most persistent speeders, but a new feature does provide some location statistics, including (daytime) volumes and average speeds. Some of these stats are actual, and some are estimated; this is because the unit is solar powered and cannot always capture every speeder. It does however, provide useful information on speed and time distributions, plus average speeds, and a risk analysis of each location.

If you need precise 24hr survey information on volumes of traffic then a dedicated traffic logging product will more likely suit your need.

AutoNoiseWatch is a dedicated vehicle noise camera system for the identification of noisy vehicles. Like AutoSpeedWatch it also includes some statistics reporting, but if statistics are your prime concern then a dedicated traffic logging device will more likely perform better.

How high does the Roadside Unit need to be mounted?

>The Roadside Unit should be ideally mounted at a height of between 2.2m and 4m, with an ideal height around 2.4-3.2m. See our page on Site Location for details.

What is the size and weight of the Roadside Unit?

>The roadside unit has been built to be small and discreet. It's about the size of a book ; 200mm x 175mm x 63mm, and it weighs less than a kilo. The solar cell used to power the unit is incorporated in the top of the Roadside unit, so there's no need for mains power. Easy!

What is the Roadside Unit supplied with?

>The Roadside Unit is supplied with a medium fixing band suitable for a standard sign post (76mm - 120mm), a wrench and a security bit to fix band. It is now also supplied with a Restart Tool to ease installation by enabling the Easy Align function.

Roadside Units (2) Accessories (9) Connectivity (2)

User Guide

Data and your obligations

AutoSpeedWatch deals with potentially sensitive data; as a user you have legal responsibilities for how you access and manage that data. In using AutoSpeedWatch you are agreeing to our terms and conditions of use, but you additionally have legal responsibilities in law to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and, because you are a user of public facing cameras, the guidelines issued by the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (BSCC). Make sure you are aware of your obligations. See law for our interpretation.

For example: You must not copy, retain, distribute, publish any vehicle specific data beyond the minimum time necessary to perform the prime function of AutoSpeedWatch, i.e. other than to identify speeders to the authorities/police. Once you have done that you must securely delete any records you retain. Do not show an image of a speeding vehicle to your parish council, or anyone else, other than your authority/police. If, by chance of local knowledge, you feel you might know the registered owner/keeper of a number plate you should not record that fact, nor share that information.

Roles

Roles allow users to see what they need to see to perform their function, and no more, for compliance with data management guidelines. Therefore each user is assigned a single role per Roadside Unit.

None: can see locations by name. Cannot see specific offences

Reader: can see speeding offences, verified or not.

Validator: can see incidents as they come in and contribute to the verification process.

Coordinator: can see incidents and aggregated incidents, verify and amend records, add team members (see 'Team Members' below), and make reports. The coordinator is typically the CSW group team leader, and there can only be a single coordinator per unit.

Police roles: can see prioritised information across all locations in their region, in either a Statistician or a Manager role.

Locations

The locations page lists the Roadside Units you have installed and summarises their state. Hover your mouse over each of the icons to get more detail. The background colour changes according to state:

Green: The unit has been in contact recently and is operating normally.
Orange: The unit is sleeping, or pausing to recharge due to low light levels.
Red: The unit is not reporting as often as expected. There may be problem. Check for damage.

Coordinators can click on the name of the Roadside Unit to change it's settings. If you make changes, allow at least 5 minutes for the new settings to be updated on the Roadside Unit. Always finalise the direction the camera points before then adjusting the "Shutter delay” to make the vehicles appear within frame.

Trigger Speeds: It's often tempting to try to 'catch' everyone speeding, but our advice is to not overload yourself, or the police, with data. Instead concentrate on the worst, behaviourally high-end, speeders first. Get them to reduce their speeds, then reduce the trigger speed to target the next speeders; adjusting to suit the efforts available. E.g. depending on topography you might want to start with a trigger speed of 40 for a 30 zone. Remember also that sending records consumes a lot of battery energy....so the more you 'catch' the more frequently the unit may need to sleep to re-charge.

Average Speed Zones

Average Speed Zones, with clear signage, can be a highly effective way of reducing speeding across an entire community. To use Average Speed Zones you will need to be the Coordinator of two or more Roadside Units located on the same stretch of road, within the same speed zone, and flowing in the same direction. Simply specify the two units you want to use, the distance between them, and the minimum speed to record. Note that speeding offences will need to be verified at both Roadside Units to appear as an Average Speed Offence.

Verify Page

This should be the page you go to each time you use the dashboard. It presents a queue of offences that need verification by you and your team. Enter, or correct the VRN, in the number plate box and click on the white area below to check the vehicle details. When the image and vehicle details match you can verify the record. If the image is blank, the VRN is not readable, or there's an identifiable individual in the image then tick the delete option. Don't worry about deleting records if they aren't useful (in fact it is your legal obligation to delete them); the persistent speeders will still become very obvious and the statistics page will still show the speeds recorded.

Recent, Highest, and Persistent Speeders

Each of these pages lists vehicles according to the criteria you specify. The Recent page shows vehicles whether or not they've been verified (indicated by the background colour). Other pages only list offences that have been verified. Coordinators can click on each offence to see more detail of vehicle behaviours.

Illegal Vehicles

Similar to the Highest and Persistent pages, this page simply lists offences from vehicles which, according to the DVSA/DVLA data at the time of verification, do not have Road Tax or the correct MoT status.

Reporting

If the police access their dashboard account they will see validated speeding records across their entire region, organised into prioritised intelligence, and without the need for you to do anything. However, Coordinators can also generate reports to 'prompt' the police about specific locations, perhaps weekly, to help them. These reports can be generated and sent by email and tailored to your specific need. They can also be generated as .CSV files (to fit into legacy police processes), and even generated to specific formats should the police require it. Any reports containing specific vehicle information MUST be deleted once their purpose is complete (i.e. they have been forwarded to the police).

Team Members

Coordinators can invite other CSW members to join your team using the “Members” page, accessed from the "Account" menu. To do this click on the "+" button and fill in the request form. When they accept don’t forget to set what role they take for each Roadside Unit you have.

User Group

There’s a useful forum for users to ask questions and exchange advice….log in to a Facebook account and search for the “AutoSpeedWatch” group. It’s a non-public group so you’ll need to request to join.