Free flow vehicle speeds in Great Britain: 2014
Speed of traffic in free flowing conditions on roads in Great Britain during 2014.
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Previously published figures for 2013 have been revised. Whilst producing our 2014 statistics, some small errors were identified in the calculations of data for articulated HGVs in 2013.
These statistics provide insight into the speeds at which drivers choose to travel and their compliance with speed limits, but should not be taken as estimates of actual average speed across the road network.
The average free flow speed figures show that:
- since 2002, average free flow speeds for all vehicle types across each road type have remained broadly stable.
The figures on exceeding the speed limit show that:
- for nearly all road and vehicle types, the percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit declined between 2002 and 2014. However, for non built-up single carriageways, the proportions of both LGVs and articulated HGVs exceeding the speed limit has increased since 2002, from 7% to 9% and from 68% to 75% respectively
- 45% of cars exceeded the speed limit on 30 mph roads in 2014. This is a fall from 59% in 2002
- for motorways, 11% of cars, 17% of motorcycles and 13% of LGVs exceeded the speed limit (70 mph) by more than 10 mph in 2014. This compares to 18%, 27% and 15% respectively in 2002
- 21% of articulated HGVs exceeded the speed limit by more than 10 mph on single carriageways, but only 1% on dual carriageways
Information on free-flow vehicle speeds, including the pre-release access list
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