Citizen Speedwatcher

As a County Councillor, I often get contacted by residents about speeding on our local roads. There are several ways that we can check in on the problem although sometimes it's more difficult (and expensive) than you would imagine.

Firstly, as you'd expect there is the police. We can request that the police provide additional resource to check and enforce the speedlimits

We can ask the local speedwatch group (in this case Rayleigh Town Council) to conduct a speedwatch session, although these are limited to 'police approved sites' and the availabilty of volunteers

As a member of Essex Council Council, we are able to request a 'speed survey' - the costs of these are around £300 and with budgets being limited are now under further scrutiny on how they are used.

I've now stumbled across another resource that anyone can use to check out speeding concerns in their road. Armed with just your mobile phone (sorry no Nokia's here) all hail the AI app, Speedcam Anywhere. Touted as "..an AI system that can accurately and verifiably measure vehicle speeds using a mobile phone camera" I thought I'd put it to the test. At £1.99 it's a bargain of an app and much cheaper than the £300 Essex Highways are charging for a speed survey. 

It's got some bad press from drivers (who most likely speed) but it looks like it's worth exploring further - check out the article over here 

I'm not sure if captured video's can be used with the Extra Eyes scheme at the moment which allows you to submit dashcam footage, however, much like the autospeedwatch system, it seems the police are reluctant to embrace technology.

Earlier today, I've tried the app to see how easy it was to work with and it's very simple to operate. Check out the short demo below.

If anything, at least I can try to reassure residents that speeding perhaps isn't such a problem in their road.