Turnstiles and Speed Gates: Costs and Where They Make Sense
By the DC Fire & Security engineering team — installing and maintaining fire and security systems since 2010. Updated June 2026.
Quick answer
Pedestrian entrance control prices by formality: tripod turnstiles £2,000–£4,000 installed (sites, gyms, basic throughput), speed gates/optical lanes £6,000–£15,000 per lane (corporate lobbies — fast, glassy, tailgate-detecting), full-height turnstiles £4,000–£8,000 (unmanned perimeters). They solve what doors can't: per-person enforcement at volume. Below ~100 daily entries, doored access usually serves better value.
The hardware tiers and their habitats
| Type | £ installed/lane | Throughput | Habitat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tripod turnstile | £2,000–£4,000 | 15-20/min | Construction sites, gyms, leisure, factories |
| Half-height speed gate (optical) | £6,000–£15,000 | 25-40/min | Corporate/multi-tenant lobbies, campuses |
| Full-height turnstile | £4,000–£8,000 | 8-12/min | Unmanned perimeters, yards, stadia backs |
| Wide/DDA lane companion | +£1,500–£4,000 | — | Accessibility compliance alongside any of the above |
| Site logistics turnstile cabins | £5,000–£12,000 hire-or-buy | Per spec | Construction biometric/CSCS-checking gates |
When lanes beat doors (and when they don't)
The case for entrance-control hardware is per-person enforcement: doors authenticate an opening, not a headcount — one fob, four entrants (the gym guide's tailgating ladder reaches its summit here). Lanes mechanically/optically meter individuals, detect tailgaters (speed gates alarm or photograph), feed occupancy systems real numbers, and carry credential checks (cards, QR visitors, biometrics where the GDPR-weighed case exists — site CSCS gates being the established example) at volume without staffing. The against-case is equally honest: capital (a two-lane lobby spends a small access estate's budget), space (lanes plus DDA companion plus barriers-to-rail consume metres), fire-egress engineering (free-exit modes, drop-arms/breakaway — designed and certificated, never improvised), and the threshold question — below ~100 entries/day, doored control with culture and CCTV typically delivers the security per pound (the per-door economics again). Volume venues do the maths the other way.
Procurement specifics for lane projects
What lane quotes must contain: throughput modelling at your peak (8:50am, class-change, shift-turn — undersized lane counts queue people into bypassing), fire strategy integration (egress modes, interface to alarm — the building's engineer signs this; the fail-safe trinity scaled up), DDA lane provision (compliance and decency both), credential ecosystem fit (your platform driving lanes via standard interfaces — the access estate stays one estate), power/floor works (lanes want slabs, conduits, and lobby aesthetics survive planning), and maintenance reality (moving machinery at entrance duty cycles: £300–£800/yr/lane servicing — motors, sensors, safety functions; the gate automation guide's machinery logic indoors). Sector notes: construction's turnstile cabins (hire-friendly, CSCS/biometric-integrated — the site security stack's formal door) and gyms' speed-gate aspirations (usually airlock-budget realities — its guide's ladder) bracket the market we quote most.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do speed gates actually stop tailgating?
What happens in a fire alarm?
Can visitors use lanes without staff help?
Hire options for site turnstiles?
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