National statistics

Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: January to March 2021

Published 12 May 2021

This quarterly statistical release presents estimates of car compliance with speed limits in free-flowing conditions on roads in Great Britain. This is being produced in addition to the annual vehicle speeds compliance release, which covers other vehicle types.

These are based on speed data from a sample of Department for Transport’s Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs), chosen to exclude locations where external factors might restrict driver behaviour (e.g. junctions, hills, sharp bends and speed cameras).

The statistics provide insights into speeds at which drivers choose to travel when free to do so, but are not estimates of average speeds across the whole network, which are available separately.

The proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit during January to March 2021, was slightly higher than during the same period in 2020, but lower than during the first national lockdown period in April to June 2020.

Figure 1: Proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit, from 2019

In January to March 2021, 50% of cars in free-flowing conditions exceeded the speed limit on motorways. On National Speed Limit (NSL) single carriageways with a car speed limit of 60mph, 13% of cars exceeded the speed limit, while on 30mph roads 56% of cars exceeded the speed limit. These figures are slightly higher compared to the same period in 2019 and 2020, but in line with trends seen over the preceding 2 years.

Context

The annual speed compliance statistics normally show very little variation in compliance with the speed limit from year to year so, without the coronavirus pandemic, we would expect speed limit compliance to have remained in line with previous years. Statistics for 2019 are included to provide comparisons to a typical year, unaffected by the pandemic.

In late March 2020, the UK entered its first national lockdown. There was an immediate large drop in daily traffic levels, which particularly affected April to June 2020, this can be seen in Figure 2. Traffic levels recovered slowly, before declining again in the autumn, when further local and national restrictions were seen due to the pandemic.

January 2021 saw England enter a third national lockdown and Scotland a second national lockdown while Wales continued its third national lockdown, which had begun in December 2020. These lockdowns again significantly reduced daily traffic levels, however, traffic levels remained higher than those seen in April to June 2020.

The trends in speed limit compliance presented in this report can often be seen to coincide with these exceptional changes in road traffic. Generally, during periods of reduced traffic, speed limit exceedances have been higher, though it should be noted that other factors, such as changes in season and weather, may also have been having an impact.

Figure 2: Daily car use on roads, since March 2020

For more information, see transport use during the coronavirus pandemic.

Key Dates

Table 1: Key dates during the coronavirus pandemic

Date of introduction	Coronavirus events
23 March 2020	UK enters first national lockdown
30 June 2020	UK introduces first local lockdown
14 October 2020	England introduces 3 tier system
23 October 2020	Wales introduces fire-break lockdown, ends 9 Nov
2 November 2020	Scotland introduces 5 tier system
5 November 2020	England enters second national lockdown, ends 2 Dec
19 December 2020	Tier 4 introduced for London, South East and East of England
20 December 2020	Wales enters third national lockdown
26 December 2020	Large parts of England enter tier 4
5 January 2021	England enters third national lockdown. Scotland enters second national lockdown

Understanding and interpreting these statistics

What do free flow speeds tell us?

• free flow speeds reflect the speeds drivers may travel at when free to do so
• they are not representative of the level of speeding across the whole road network, which we would expect to be lower

What roads are covered?

Only sites where the road conditions are free flowing and there are no junctions, hills, sharp bends, speed enforcement cameras or other traffic calming measures. The statistics do not cover roads where the road layout or traffic calming measures are likely to constrain vehicle speeds. This includes smart motorways

Comparing data between years

Only broad-scale comparisons of patterns in compliance and speeds over time periods of 5 or more years can be made confidently, unless the changes are large and the context is clear. This release covers January to March 2021 and therefore cannot be directly compared to annual publications. Quarterly statistics in 2019 and 2020 are provided throughout the release for comparative purposes.

Comparing data between quarters

Comparisons should generally be made with the same quarter of previous years, otherwise seasonal factors such as differences in light or weather conditions may distort the result.

Comparisons with a different quarter of the year may be biased by seasonal patterns. If a difference between quarters was the same in other years, this is likely down to the seasons.

Key Terms

Exceeding the speed limit

Vehicles travelling at a speed higher than their applicable speed limit are defined as “exceeding the speed limit”.

Free flow speed

Free flow speeds are observed in locations where external factors which might restrict driver behaviour (e.g. junctions, hills, sharp bends and speed enforcement cameras) are not present.

Speed limits

Speed limits for cars are 70mph on Motorways and 60mph on National Speed Limit Single Carriageways. A complete breakdown of national speed limits can be found on the speed limits webpage.

Distribution of car speeds by road type

In January to March 2021, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit was higher than the same period in 2020 and 2019 across all three road types (see Table 2):

• on motorways, 50% of cars exceeded the speed limit compared to 46% in 2020 and 48% in 2019
• on NSL single carriageways (60mph limit), 13% of cars exceeded the speed limit compared to 10% in 2020 and 9% in 2019
• on 30 mph roads, 56% of cars exceeded the speed limit compared to 53% in 2020 and 54% in 2019

Further lockdown measures were introduced in January 2021 for England and Scotland (late December 2020 for Wales). When comparing speed limit exceedance to the first period of national lockdown in April to June 2020, overall levels of speed limit exceedance across different road types were lower in January to March 2021. This may be in part due to the seasonal differences between quarters.

Figure 3: Distribution of car speeds by road type in Great Britain, January to March 2019, 2020 and 2021

Table 2: Percentage of cars exceeding the speed limit by road type (Table SPE2501)

Road type	Speed limit exceedance	2019 Q1	2019 Q2	2019 Q3	2019 Q4	2020 Q1	2020 Q2	2020 Q3	2020 Q4	2021 Q1
Motorways	Exceeding speed limit	48	52	50	44	46	53	49	47	50
Motorways	Exceeding speed limit by 10mph and over	11	13	12	9	10	15	11	11	12
NSL Single Carriageways	Exceeding speed limit	9	10	9	9	10	17	9	10	13
NSL Single Carriageways	Exceeding speed limit by 10mph and over	1	1	1	1	1	3	1	1	2
30mph roads	Exceeding speed limit	54	56	54	51	53	63	55	52	56
30mph roads	Exceeding speed limit by 10mph and over	6	6	6	5	6	8	6	6	6

Compliance with the speed limit by time of day

In January to March 2021, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit during the day (between 6am and 5pm) was higher than the same period in 2020 and 2019 across all 3 road types:

• on motorways, 48% of cars exceeded the speed limit during the day compared to 43% the previous year and 45% in 2019
• on NSL single carriageways, 12 % of cars exceeded the speed limit during the day compared to 10% the previous year and 9% in 2019
• on 30mph roads, 55% of cars exceeded the speed limit during the day compared to 52% the previous year and 54% in 2019

Comparing January to March 2021 with the same quarter in January to March 2020:

• the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit during the early hours of the morning was lower
• on motorways, the reduction in speed limit exceedance usually seen during the evening rush hour period was largely absent

Across all road types, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit throughout the day in the third national lockdown did not reach levels seen during the first national lockdown in April to June 2020 (see Table SPE2502).

Figure 4: Proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit by time of day in Great Britain, January to March 2019, 2020 and 2021

Compliance with the speed limit by day of week

In January to March 2021:

• on all road types, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit on weekdays was higher than the same periods in 2020 and 2019
• on motorways and NSL single carriageways, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit on weekends was higher than the same periods in 2020 and 2019
• on 30mph roads, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit on weekends was similar when compared to the same periods in 2020 and 2019

On all road types, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit remained higher on weekends than on weekdays. Sundays saw the highest proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit of any day of the week.

Figure 5: Proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit by day of week in Great Britain, January to March 2019, 2020 and 2021

Although seasonal differences may play a role as demonstrated in the charts below, weekday speed limit exceedance during January to March 2021 did not rise to levels seen in the first national lockdown. Weekend levels were more similar to those seen in the first national lockdown for motorways and NSL single carriageways.

Figure 6: Proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit on weekdays and weekends from 2019 (Table SPE2503)

Background information

What’s included in this release

This release has been produced in addition to the annual publication, published every summer. It provides a quarterly breakdown of car speed compliance statistics during periods covering the coronavirus pandemic, to investigate car speed compliance trends during the pandemic period.

This fourth quarterly release covers the period January to March 2021. It looks at car speed limit compliance on motorways, National Speed Limit single carriageways and 30mph roads.

A daily time series analysis of car speed limit exceedance between January to March is provided. A separate daily time series chart of car usage on roads is included to provide additional context.

Vehicle definitions

Car: Includes cars, car derived vans and dual purpose vehicles.

Sources, strengths and weaknesses of the data

Following an annual sample review, these estimates are based on traffic speed data collected from a current sample of 78 Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) operated by DfT. In some cases (e.g. motorways), two ATCs may be covering different directions of traffic flow at the same location. The number of individual cars observed in the production of the January to March 2021 statistics was 32 million. The breakdown for each year is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of Automatic Traffic Counters and vehicles used to produce free flow vehicle speed statistics for Great Britain, 2011 to 2021

Year	Automatic Traffic Counters Used	Vehicles used (millions)	Significant proportion of data removed from (number of sites)
2011	99	685	3 motorways
2012	99	702	3 motorways
2013	98	605	3 motorways
2014	105	567	3 motorways
2015	107	743	3 motorways
2016	107	725	0
2017	92	637	0
2018	102	655	0
2019	79	510	0
2020 January to June	78	91 (cars only)	1 motorway
2020 July to September	77	66 (cars only)	1 30mph road
2020 October to December	77	50 (cars only)	0
2021 January to March	78	32 (cars only)	0

The ATC technology used to collect this data can experience technical failures and produce output data which is incorrect and not representative of the traffic passing the counter. The methodology accounts for these occasions and removes any data which is not accurate. The ATCs classify vehicles using the number of axles, the axle spacing and the length of the vehicle.

Full guidance on the sources and methods used to compile these statistics, plus information on speed limits, can be found on the guidance page.

Average speed statistics for both local authority managed ‘A’ roads and the Strategic Road Network are available online as part of a suite of travel time measures from the Road congestion and reliability statistics series. Note that this series also uses the term “free flow speed” but this is calculated in a different way (e.g. ‘capped’ at national speed limits) and using a different data source to the statistics presented in this release. The data for this release has been recorded consistently well during times when traffic volumes are abnormally low or high.

Next update

The April to June 2021 quarterly release is due to be published in August 2021. We are continuing to review methodologies and the coverage of these statistics and further changes may be reflected in the next publication. We welcome feedback on this publication including content, timing, and format via email to road traffic statistics.

National Statistics

National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs.

Free flow vehicle speed statistics were assessed by the UK Statistics Authority against the Code of Practice and were designated as National Statistics in February 2013.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access page.

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