Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: 2018
Estimates on vehicle compliance with speed limits on roads in Great Britain during 2018.
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These statistics provide insight into the speeds at which drivers choose to travel and their compliance with speed limits under free flow conditions but should not be taken as estimates of actual compliance or actual average speed across the wider road network.
Long-term trends in vehicle speed compliance show consistent compliance with speed limits across road and vehicle classes.
In 2018:
- 46% of cars exceeded the speed limit on motorways
- 10% of cars exceeded the speed limit on national speed limit single carriageways
- 52% of cars exceeded the speed limit on 30mph roads
- a greater proportion of cars exceeded the speed limit on weekdays than weekends
Similar relative patterns were seen for most vehicle types across all road types.
Vehicle Headway data shows a lower proportion of cars (74%), vans (74%) and motorcycles (66%) were observed leaving the minimum recommended two second gap between themselves and the vehicle in front than articulated Heavy Goods Vehicles (88%), rigid HGVs (80%) or buses (83%).
For all vehicle types, average free flow speeds were very close to the appropriate speed limits on free flow 30mph roads and under the speed limit for vehicles on motorways and national speed limit single carriageways.
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Road traffic and vehicle speed compliance statistics
Email roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk
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