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.

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.

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.

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!

For orders above £245 and within the UK mainland, yes, postage is included. For everything else there is a variable charge depending on the service and destination. Delivery charges are detailed during the checkout process.

Anyone can buy a gift voucher on the website and forward this to the person that will buy the unit. That purchaser can then use the gift vouchers received for all, or part, payment during the check-out.

The system only needs to record data relating to the offending vehicle, and no personal information relating to the driver or vehicle occupants. Taking a picture of the rear of the vehicle helps us achieve this.

The units should last several years, dependent on environmental factors. In some environmental situations the specialist internal battery may need replacing, however the unit can be returned for overhaul at modest cost should this be required.

Often UK parish and local councils wonder if they're allowed to use AutoSpeedWatch. The answer is "yes"; it is entirely legal but you have responsibilities to ensure you remain compliant with the law. In the UK the use of any public facing cameras is overseen by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC); their function is to encourage compliance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Autospeedwatch Limited has been certified as compliant by the SCC. The law must be followed and the purchaser adopts certain responsibilities to ensure their own compliance, although not particularly onerous; please see our AutoSpeedWatch and UK Law page and our terms and conditions for details. We also provide templates to help get you started.

AutoSpeedWatch deliberately avoids recording people and no personal information is recorded. Instead it records vehicles, and only those vehicles where there is good reason to suspect it is significantly breaking the law. It records the rear of vehicles to avoid faces, and people are not identified within AutoSpeedWatch - that is left to the police should they choose to investigate further and connect a vehicle to a registered owner or keeper, and that information is not passed back to AutoSpeedWatch Therefore, should the police wish to investigate a vehicle by looking up the vehicle owner/keeper then that personal information remains entirely within the domain of the police.

Typically once a week your nominated coordinator will send an email report to their police force contact; this is automatically generated and sent at a touch of a button from their dashboard. The report summarises the total number of offenders but also lists highest and most persistent speeders since the last report, as well as a "heatmap" showing when the speeding tends to occur. There's loads more information available to the police authorities should they want it, but this report helps them to objectively deploy policing measures to tackle the worst offenders first.

Alternatively, the coordinator can download a CSV file of all the offenders (for example to combine with the results from traditional Community Speedwatch sessions), before sending this to the police.

The system is designed to aggregate low-level data into powerful intelligence for the police.....making their enforcement role easier and far more effective. No-one should expect that limited police resources will be able to always respond to all reported incidents, but the system helps prioritise their resources towards the most serious offenders, whilst keeping the public 'onside'. See typical results.

Very. The unit has been designed to make the process as simple as possible. One security band and no wiring makes the installation a ten minute job. All the required tools and fittings are included in the box. However, it is important that you first select a good location of the unit as this is crucial in its performance. You should have permission to install the unit (either from the landowner if private land, or the council if not). You must also ensure that your relevant Highway Authority are involved beforehand to ensure the unit causes no risk of distraction, obscuring views, strikes, etc. If the installation is located where pedestrian access is not separated from road traffic (by kerbs, barriers, etc), then you will probably need to use someone who is 'Chapter 8' competent to perform the installation . If in doubt, ask Highways or look it up until you are sure of what to do. We can help you find someone, if needed.

According to the police, speed camera warning signs are not required. However, this is not entirely consistent with the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA 2012) and it may be that you will need to have signage for the roadside unit as it contains a public facing camera and therefore falls within the PoFA definition of "Surveillance Camera". According to the guidelines, camera surveillance in public requires signage (and that is only fair given its prolific use when recording and monitoring law-abiding citizens; AutoSpeedWatch only records where offences have occurred). On our understanding of UK Law we recommend you use our information signs, even though an image is only captured, and the LPD assistant tool used, only after a speed offence is detected. As always, we suggest it's worth involving the local police authority, local councils and highways agency from the start. We are certified as compliant by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner; you should aim to also be compliant and this will require the use of roadside signs.

AutoSpeedWatch: No, but this can help establish one - talk to your police force road safety team; it's your community and you're suffering the speeding issue. Although it's been designed to assist existing schemes, it can be used separately as a means to establish a CSW scheme.
AutoNoiseWatch: No, but check that your local force is willing to receive the intelligence the system provides. What you need to do is report the scale of the problem to your local police authority so that they can take action to enforce speed limits. AutoSpeedWatch helps you do that. The police cannot refuse the objective data AutoSpeedWatch provides, although they will probably not have the resources to be able to follow up every incident recorded. You can even use it to get a traditional people-at-the-roadside CSW group going, should you want. Unlike traditional CSW schemes however, AutoSpeedWatch also 'connects' together the offences caused by a particular vehicle as it goes through every AutoSpeedWatch community, so the police can quickly identify the worst and most persistent speeders, helping reduce speed across all communities.

AutoSpeedWatch is for any community or organisation that is concerned about speeding traffic in a restricted speed zone. It can be used to supplement the work of an existing Community Speedwatch team, or can be helpful to set one up. AutoNoiseWatch is for any Highways Department, Council, or Community troubled by the anti-social effect of illegal noisy vehicles.

Not yet .....Our first model of Roadside Unit has daylight hours operation only, just as with traditional CSW. This is so that we don't need to use any distracting camera flashes and so that the unit can be smaller, cheaper and lower power. Most of the impact of speeding within communities is during daylight hours, so AutoSpeedWatch concentrates on that. It'll still work longer hours and more consistently than a team of people at the roadside! Similarly, our AutoNoiseWatch product currently only records vehicles during daylight hours.

HOWEVER.... we do have a version in development that can be configured to also work at night. Let us know if you're interested and we'll increase the priority for production release.