en.Wedoany.com Reported - Hayden AI, headquartered in San Francisco, announced that its civil traffic enforcement system has been approved by the UK Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) under certification number EADM063. The system transforms standard city buses into mobile enforcement vehicles, specifically designed to capture evidence of moving violations such as illegal parking, bus lane violations, driving into bike lanes or restricted routes. This marks the first certified and deployable bus-mounted enforcement tool available to English councils.
Outside London, moving traffic violations have historically been enforced by the police, but due to insufficient police resources, they have long gone unaddressed. A 2019 survey by the Local Government Association found that 67% of respondent councils reported that their local police did not actively enforce any moving traffic violations, and 90% of councils wanted civil enforcement powers to ease congestion and improve road safety. London is an exception, where such violations are treated as civil offenses rather than criminal ones. This certification does not rewrite the law but provides councils with a practical tool that matches the enforcement powers they are about to receive.
The legal window is opening. Under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, highway authorities outside London can apply to the Secretary of State to be designated as civil enforcement areas, using approved camera equipment to enforce moving violations. At the end of 2024, the Bus Lane Contravention and Moving Traffic Offences (Civil Enforcement) Designation Order designated parts of 22 council areas as enforcement zones, covering violations such as banned turns, no-entry zones, and mandatory cycle lane driving. The order took effect in December 2024. Any camera equipment deployed by councils must be approved by the VCA, making certification a mandatory prerequisite under the system, not a marketing gimmick.
The core component of the system is a forward-facing camera mounted behind the bus windshield, which automatically detects violating vehicles while the bus is in normal operation, reads license plates, and records precise location data to ensure violations occur within enforceable areas. Evidence is transmitted to local authorities, where it is manually reviewed before fines are issued. Compared to fixed roadside cameras, the bus-mounted approach offers coverage advantages: a single bus travels along its operational route, while the entire fleet forms a mobile monitoring network.
Founded in 2019, Hayden AI's technology has been deployed in major US cities. In New York, the company first signed an initial contract worth $19.6 million with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in 2022, with the contract scale significantly increasing as the MTA expanded its automated camera enforcement program. Deployments have also followed in the Washington D.C. Metro, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. The MTA reports that 86% of drivers fined for parking in bus lanes never reoffend; early work on the M14 route showed a significant increase in bus speeds after enforcement began. The company also conducted a three-month pilot in Braga, Portugal, identifying nearly 8,000 parking violations near bus stops.
Hayden AI CEO Marty Beard stated that this approval demonstrates the system meets the highest global legal and statutory standards for traffic enforcement technology, from specially designed hardware to high-precision detection software. The company hopes to help local authorities in England and across the UK improve the safety, reliability, and accessibility of public transportation. A certified, scalable enforcement system that can be mounted on existing bus fleets reduces the cost and complexity that councils have long faced in implementing bus lane enforcement, directly contributing to the ridership and mode shift goals set by England's bus strategy.
This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com
