Accredited official statistics

Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: 2022

Published 24 August 2023

This statistical release presents estimates of vehicle compliance with speed limits in free-flowing conditions on roads in Great Britain.

These are based on speed data from a sample of the Department for Transport’s Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs), chosen to exclude locations where external factors might restrict driver behaviour (for example 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 release also presents information from a range of other sources relevant to vehicle speeds and compliance.

In 2022, under free-flowing traffic conditions, 50% of car drivers exceeded the speed limit on 30mph roads compared to 45% on motorways and 11% on national speed limit single carriageway roads.

Table 1: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limits by road class in Great Britain, 2022

Road Type	Cars	LCVs (vans)	Articulated HGVs	Rigid HGVs	Short Buses	Long Buses	Motorcycles
Motorways	45	48	2	Not available	Not available	Not available	55
National Speed Limit Single Carriageways	11	Not available	35	41	47	53	28
30mph roads	50	51	39	42	29	32	56

Overall, speed limit compliance in 2022 was slightly higher than 2021, where lower levels of compliance may be partly attributed to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on lower traffic levels.

However, vehicle speed limit compliance in 2022 has remained broadly similar when compared to vehicle speed limit compliance levels between 2011 and 2019, these years were not affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2022 the percentage of car drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 10mph was much lower than overall speeding, at 8% on motorways, 5% on 30mph roads and 1% on National Speed Limit (NSL) single carriageway roads (where the speed limit for cars is 60mph).

Car and motorcycle speed limit compliance levels tended to be highest on NSL single carriageways and lowest on 30mph roads.

The average car speed, under free flow conditions, was just under the speed limit on motorways (69mph), at the speed limit for 30mph roads (30mph) and under the speed limit on NSL single carriageway roads (51mph).

Comment on Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact

This publication focusses on the year 2022, which was mainly not affected by the period when travel patterns, traffic trends and vehicle speed compliance levels were affected by COVID-19. However, 2020 and 2021 were affected by COVID-19 restrictions such as the national lockdowns, so this should be considered if comparing results between years. An indication of changes in speed limit compliance in cars during the pandemic period can be found in the separate quarterly vehicle speed compliance statistics, which were published covering the period 2020 and 2021 in response to the change in transport levels during the pandemic.

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, for example where 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.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and, to a lesser extent, 2021 stands as a rare case where the changes were large and the context clear.

What conclusions can be drawn from the 20mph sample?

The 20mph free-flow sites have relatively few traffic calming measures or other features to restrict speed, and tend to be through-roads, so are not typical of all 20mph roads.

20mph roads should not be compared year-on-year due to the small number of sites in the sample and the relatively high turnover in sites from year to year.

Definitions

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 (for example 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. Details for other vehicle types can be found in the Background Information section, and a complete breakdown of national speed limits can be found on the GOV.UK speed limits webpage.

Car compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 1, under free-flowing conditions, 55% of cars complied with the speed limit on motorways, 89% on NSL single carriageways and 50% on 30mph roads.

On NSL single carriageway roads, 11% of cars exceeded the speed limit, compared to 50% on 30mph roads and 45% on motorways.

The percentage of cars exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on 30mph roads was 5%, whilst 1% and 8% exceeded the speed limit by more than 10mph on NSL single carriageway roads and motorways respectively.

Figure 1: Distribution of car speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for 30mph roads and NSL single carriageways, this is due to rounding.

Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV / van) compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 2, in free flow conditions, the percentage of vans complying with the speed limit was 52% on motorways and 49% on 30mph roads.

On motorways, 48% of vans exceeded the speed limit compared to 51% on 30mph roads.

The percentage of vans exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on 30mph roads was 6%, while 11% exceeded the speed limit on motorways by more than 10mph.

Figure 2: Distribution of van speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for 30mph roads, this is due to rounding.

Statistics on van compliance on national speed limit single carriageways are not collected. The speed limit applicable to different types of van on this road type depends on the maximum laden weight and construction of the vehicle, which cannot be determined by our data source.

Articulated Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVA) compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 3, in free flow conditions, the percentage of articulated HGVs complying with the speed limit were 98% on motorways, 65% on NSL single carriageways and 61% on 30mph roads.

On motorways, 2% of articulated HGVs exceeded the speed limit, compared to 35% on NSL single carriageway roads and 39% on 30mph roads.

The percentage of articulated HGVs exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on 30mph roads was 2%, while less than 1% exceeded the speed limit by more than 10mph on motorways and NSL single carriageway roads.

The low percentage of HGVAs exceeding the speed limit on motorways can be attributed to legislation requiring all HGVs over 3.5 tonnes to be fitted with speed limiters to 56mph.

Figure 3: Distribution of Articulated HGV speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for motorways, this is due to rounding.

Rigid Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVR) compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 4, in free flow conditions, the percentage of rigid HGVs complying with the speed limit were 59% on NSL single carriageways and 58% on 30mph roads.

On NSL single carriageway roads, 41% of rigid HGVs exceeded the speed limit, compared to 42% on 30mph roads.

The percentage of rigid HGVs exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on 30mph roads was 3%, while on NSL single carriageways it was 4%.

Figure 4: Distribution of HGVR speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for NSL single carriageway roads, this is due to rounding.

Statistics on HGVRs compliance levels on motorways are not collected. There are significant numbers of HGVRs both above and below the 7.5 tonne gross weight threshold, which are subject to different motorway speed limits. Our data does not collect weight information to enable vehicle data to be matched to the applicable speed limit.

Change in speed limits for HGVs over 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight

On 6 April 2015, in England and Wales only, the national speed limit for HGVs more than 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight increased from 50mph to 60mph on dual carriageways, and from 40mph to 50mph on single carriageways.

More detailed studies of the impact of the speed limit changes were produced and published in the final report on the increased speed limit for heavy goods vehicles in July 2020.

Short bus compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 5, in free flow conditions, 53% of short buses (under 12 metres) complied with the speed limit on NSL single carriageways and 47% exceeded the speed limit.

On 30mph roads, 71% of short buses complied with the speed limit and 29% exceeded the speed limit.

The percentage of short buses exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on NSL single carriageways was 5%. On 30mph roads, 2% of short buses exceeded the speed limit by over 10mph.

Figure 5: Distribution of short buses speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Statistics on short and long buses’ speed compliance on motorways are not published, as the sample size did not meet the data quality threshold required for publishing.

Short bus speed compliance data on 30mph roads were not published in last year’s release, as the data did not meet the data quality threshold. After reviewing the data for 2022 and making historical comparisons with similar data, we have concluded that short bus data on 30mph roads which have been captured in 2022 are robust and representative.

Long bus compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 6, in free flow conditions, 47% of long buses (over 12 metres) complied with the speed limit on NSL single carriageways and 53% exceeded the speed limit.

On 30mph roads, 68% of long buses complied with the speed limit and 32% exceeded the speed limit.

The percentage of long buses exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on NSL single carriageways was 6%. On 30mph roads, 1% of short buses exceeded the speed limit by over 10mph.

Figure 6: Distribution of long buses speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for 30mph roads, this is due to rounding.

Statistics on short and long buses’ speed compliance on motorways are not published, as the sample size did not meet the data quality threshold required for publishing.

Motorcycle compliance with speed limits

As shown in Figure 7, in free flow conditions, 45% of motorcycles complied with the speed limit on motorways, 72% on NSL single carriageways and 44% on 30mph roads.

On motorways, 55% of motorcycles exceeded the speed limit, compared to 28% on NSL single carriageways and 56% on 30mph roads.

The percentage of motorcycles exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on motorways was 17%, this was higher than any other vehicle types. On 30mph roads and on NSL single carriageway roads, 13% and 10% of motorcycles respectively exceeded the speed limit by over 10mph.

Figure 7: Distribution of motorcycle speeds by road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for 30mph roads, this is due to rounding.

Speed limit compliance by time of day

In free flow conditions, most vehicle classes saw a higher percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit during the night (between 6pm and 5am the following day) and a lower percentage during the day (between 6am and 5pm), as shown in Figures 8a and 8b.

Motorways showed the least difference in percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit between during the day and during the night when compared to NSL single carriageway and 30mph roads.

Figure 8a: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by time of day in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0113)

Figure 8b: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by time of day in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0113)

Speed limit compliance by day of week

On all road types, the percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit is generally consistent from Monday to Friday and from Saturday to Sunday. Therefore, we are able to categorise speed limit exceedance by weekday or weekend.

As shown in Figures 9a and 9b, in 2022:

• on motorways, 43% of cars exceeded the speed limit during weekdays, rising to 49% on weekends
• on 30mph roads, 48% of cars exceeded the speed limit on weekdays compared to 54% on weekends
• 10% of cars exceeded the speed limit on weekdays for NSL single carriageways rising to 13% on weekends

For most vehicle classes and road types, the percentages of vehicles exceeding speed limits on weekends were higher than the percentages exceeding the speed limit on weekdays. 30mph roads typically saw the smallest differences between weekday and weekend compliance, with motorways and NSL single carriageways seeing slightly larger differences.

Figure 9a: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit on weekdays and weekends in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0115)

Figure 9b: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit on weekdays and weekends in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0115)

Exceeding the speed limit by day of the year

Seasonal factors such as differences in light or weather conditions may affect compliance throughout the year, particularly for motorcycles. However, for most vehicle types, there were generally only small differences in compliance through the year, as shown in Figures 10a and 10b.

Figure 10a: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit in Great Britain, 2022

Figure 10b: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit in Great Britain, 2022

Average free flow speeds by road and vehicle type

This section presents the average free flow speeds at which drivers choose to travel as observed at sampled ATC locations. The average free flow speed for each vehicle type is correlated with the applicable speed limit for that road type. These are not average speeds across the whole network - these can be found at road congestion and travel time.

As shown in Figure 11, for motorways, the average free flow speed was at or below the designated speed limit for each vehicle type, with the exception of motorcycles where the average free flow speed was at 71mph.

For NSL single carriageways, the average free flow speeds were at or below the relative speed limits for all vehicle types.

For 30mph sites, the average free flow speed was slightly above the speed limit for vans and motorcycles, with averages for all vehicle types ranging from 28mph to 32mph overall.

For the 20mph sites (which are not thought to be representative of all 20mph roads), the average speeds were above the speed limit for all vehicle types, ranging from 22mph to 28mph but below the average speeds seen on the 30mph roads.

Figure 11: Average free flow speeds by vehicle type and road type in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Vehicle speeds on 20mph roads

The department also has data for a number of ‘free-flow’ sites with 20mph speed limits, however the data from these need to be interpreted with additional caution for the following reasons.

By their nature, roads with 20mph speed limits are particularly likely to have traffic calming measures in place, or not be ‘free flow’ for other reasons (for example narrow, or with many corners and bends). DfT guidance suggests that 20mph limits are most effective when they have traffic calming measures or when average vehicle speeds are already below 24mph.

The 20mph ‘free flow’ sites, by contrast, tend to be on ‘through routes’ rather than smaller residential streets – reflecting the constraints both of finding ‘free flow’ traffic conditions and locations suitable for the installation of automatic traffic monitoring equipment. Quieter residential streets, which make up a large proportion of 20mph roads, will be under-represented in the data.

Therefore the ‘free flow’ 20mph sites in this data set will tend to be unrepresentative of 20mph limits in general, and this effect will be much greater than for other speed limits considered above. These factors need to be considered when looking at the results for 20mph sites available in this data set.

In 2018, DfT published the results of a detailed research study into 20mph limits on roads without traffic calming measures, which can provide a more detailed and rounded picture for these roads.

Figure 12a: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit in Great Britain on 20mph roads, 2022 (Table SPE0116)

Figure 12b: Percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit in Great Britain on 20mph roads, 2022 (Table SPE0116)

As shown in Figures 13a and 13b, under free flow conditions, 85% of cars exceeded the speed limit at 20mph sites. On 20mph roads, 16% of cars exceeded the speed limit by more than 10mph. With the exception of buses, all vehicle types saw over 9% of vehicles exceed the speed limit by more than 10mph.

On 20mph roads, 84% of cars exceeded the speed limit during weekdays, and 86% during the weekend (Table SPE0115).

On 20mph roads, all vehicle classes, except buses, saw a higher percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit during the night and a lower percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit during the rush hour periods (Table SPE0113).

Figure 13a: Distribution of vehicle speeds on 20mph roads in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for light commercial vehicles and rigid heavy goods vehicles on 20mph roads, this is due to rounding.

Figure 13b: Distribution of vehicle speeds on 20mph roads in Great Britain, 2022 (Table SPE0111)

Note: The 3 individual exceeding the speed limit percentages do not add up to the total percentage for short and long buses on 20mph roads, this is due to rounding.

Reasons given for breaking the speed limit

The RAC Report on Motoring 2022 asked users to select up to 3 reasons why they exceed the speed limit for each road class.

As shown in Figure 14, the top reason from respondents who admitted to exceeding the speed limit on motorways was “I drive according to the speed of other road users”, which was cited by 42% of motorway users. On 20mph roads, users’ top reason for exceeding the speed limit was “speed limit being inappropriate for the road”, which was cited by 47% of 20mph road users.

Figure 14: Reasons for breaking the speed limit on motorways, 30mph and 20mph roads (Source: RAC report on motoring, 2022)

This data comes from the RAC’s Report on Motoring 2022. The report is published annually and is based on drivers’ attitudes to motoring, including a section on speeding and attitudes to speeding. It is based on an online quota-based survey of UK motorists. Drivers who admitted to exceeding the speed limit on particular types of roads were asked their reasons for doing so, which are shown here. These are not National Statistics but are included here to provide additional context.

For motorways, there is a category in the reasons given called “It’s sometimes safe to go faster than the applicable speed limit”. For 30mph roads, this category is not present but there is another category called “very few other vehicles or pedestrians on the road”. These 2 have been taken together in this analysis, as it is deemed that they are covering broadly the same safety issue but fitted for the differing nature of the different road types.

The results are taken from respondents who self-reported as speeding “frequently” or “occasionally” on the listed roads.

The sample size was higher for motorways (1,350) than for 30mph roads (824) or 20mph roads (992) with each respondent able to choose up to 3 answers. As respondents are able to select more than 1 answer, the total percentage exceeds 100% for each road type; this does not indicate more individuals exceeding the speed limit, but a wider variety of reasons given for exceeding the speed limit.

Speed Offences

This section reports on previously published data directly relating to speeding offences and road traffic collisions involving speeding.

Definitions

Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN)

Offered to motorists to avoid prosecution for various motoring offences (for example, speeding, neglect of traffic directions and using a mobile phone while driving) by paying a prescribed financial penalty.

Speed awareness courses

National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) is a set of schemes unique to the UK, where a motorist who has been caught committing a traffic offence at a ‘low level’, such as speeding, is given an opportunity to attend a course focusing on re-education designed to achieve greater compliance with the Road Traffic legislation.

Conviction ratio

The number of convictions as a percentage of the number of proceedings. These are calculated on a principal offence basis.

Motor vehicle offences relating to exceeding the speed limit

Outcomes following speed limit offences

The Home Office recorded 2.4 million speed limit offences in England and Wales in 2021, an increase of 59% compared to 2011.

The scope of the Home Office series includes those cases which resulted in either a FPN being issued to the driver, a driver retraining course (such as a speed awareness course) was attended by the individual, or cases where the individual faced court action.

The 2022 figures for speed limit offences are scheduled for release by the Home Office in November – December 2023.

Speeding offences

221,927 people were found guilty of a speed limit offence in 2022, this is an increase of 98% since 2011.

Speed awareness courses

In 2022, 1.64 million drivers attended a speed awareness course in the UK, an increase of 113% since 2011, as shown in Figure 15. There was an 91% conviction ratio for people proceeded against for speed limit offences in England and Wales in 2022.

The speed awareness course data include those Driver Retraining Course Attendances processed in Scotland, Northern Ireland or locally by police forces that are not included in Home Office’s FPN series.

Figure 15: Indices of motor vehicle offences relating to exceeding the speed limit, 2011 to 2022 (Table SPE0201) Sources: Home Office (HO), Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and National Driver Retraining Scheme (NDORS)

Speed as a contributory factor in road collisions

This section provides information about road collisions where speed was reported as a contributory factor in 2021. Therefore, the period covered in this section covers time periods affected by the coronavirus pandemic. More information about these road safety statistics in general can be found at Road safety statistics.

Definitions

Collision

Involves personal injury occurring on a public highway (including footways) in which at least 1 road vehicle or vehicle is in a collision with a pedestrian which becomes known to the police within 30 days of its occurrence. Damage-only collisions with no human casualties or collisions on private roads or car parks are not included.

Fatal collision

A collision in which at least 1 person is killed.

Serious collision

One in which at least 1 person is seriously injured but no person (other than a confirmed suicide) is killed.

Slight collision

One in which at least 1 person is slightly injured, but no person is killed or seriously injured.

All collisions

Means all fatal, serious, or slight collisions.

Contributory factor

Contributory factors provide some insight into why and how road collisions occur. They are designed to give the key actions and failures that led directly to the actual impact to aid investigation of how collisions might be prevented.

When police officers attend the scene of a collision, they are able to select up to 6 factors they believe contributed to the collision. These can be assigned to vehicles, casualties or uninjured pedestrians involved. Please note that this does not assign blame for the collision to any specific road user but gives an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the collision.

In 2021, for all collisions, 4% (4,980) of vehicles had an exceeding the speed limit contributory factor allocated to them. This percentage increased from 2014 until 2020, before decreasing slightly in 2021, as shown in Figure 16.

In 2021, motorcycles had the highest percentage of collisions of any vehicle type (7%) where exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor. Exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor for 22% of fatal motorcycle collisions, compared to 10% for all vehicles.

HGVs had the lowest percentage of collisions (1%) in 2021 where exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor. This may relate to HGVs being speed limited or the drivers being professionally trained.

Figure 16: Percentage of vehicles with an exceeding the speed limit contributory factor by vehicle type, split by severity, 2021 (Table SPE0203)

Vehicle headway

This section provides information about the time gaps between pairs of vehicles. This time gap is referred to as headway.

Definitions

Headway

Headway is the measurement of time between the 2 vehicles. The Highway Code (rule 126) states that all drivers “should allow at least a 2 second gap between you and the vehicle in front on roads carrying faster moving traffic”, and “this should be at least doubled” in inclement conditions.

More information can be found on the Highway Code webpage.

In 2022, 79% of cars, 78% of LCVs, and 69% of motorcycles left the recommended 2 second gap between themselves and other vehicles, as shown in Figure 17.

A higher percentage of vehicles with slower speed limits left the recommended minimum 2 second gap: 89% of HGVAs, 83% of HGVRs and 87% of buses and coaches.

Adherence to the recommended 2 second gap has remained relatively stable since 2011, with the exception of 2020 where adherence increased, partly linked to the decreased traffic levels on roads during the COVID-19 pandemic period causing less congestion on roads.

The percentage of vehicles leaving a gap of over 6 seconds was in line with what was seen in previous years, with the exception of 2020 which saw higher levels of vehicles leaving a gap of over 6 seconds. Again, this can be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

Figure 17: Distribution of time gaps between vehicles, split by type of vehicle behind, 2022 (Table SPE0114)

Background information

What’s changed in this release

Since the last release of this series, we have conducted another review of our list of ATC sites to ensure they continue to reflect free flow sites of each road class. Sites that have been removed have changed road class, road layout, or have in-road traffic calming measures such as chicanes or speed bumps. Motorways undergoing smart motorway works or which have become smart motorways have been excluded from the sample.

Vehicle definitions

Table 2: Definition of vehicles

Vehicle type	Definition
Car	Includes cars, car derived vans and dual purpose vehicles
LCV (van)	Light Commercial Vehicle, goods vehicle of 3.5 tonnes gross weight and under
HGV	Heavy Goods Vehicle, goods vehicle of over 3.5 tonnes gross weight. For the purpose of these statistics, rigid 2-axle HGVs cannot be assigned definitively to a national speed limit, since it is not known whether or not they are over 7.5 tonnes gross weight. Therefore, no speed limit compliance statistics can be produced for these vehicles for motorways. All other observed HGVs are assumed to have more than 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight and therefore have been assigned the speed limit for such vehicles
Motorcycle	2-Wheeled Motor Vehicle, here simplified to motorcycles, including scooters and mopeds
Short Bus	Includes buses and coaches of 12 metres length or below
Long Bus	Includes buses and coaches over 12 metres in length. Long buses have different speed restrictions on motorways to short buses

Speed limits on different road types

All vehicles have the same speed limit on 20mph and 30mph roads.

For motorways and NSL single carriageways, for the purposes of these statistics, speed limits have been assigned to the vehicle categories used in the analysis as shown in the following table. For further information on the complete breakdown of national speed limits see the speed limits webpage.

Table 3: Speed limits used for motorways and national speed limit single carriageways, by vehicle type

Vehicle type	Motorway speed limit (mph)	National speed limit single carriageway (mph)	Notes
Car	70	60	No notes
LCV (van)	70	50	No notes
Motorcycle	70	60	No notes
Short bus (under 12m)	70	50	No notes
Long bus (over 12m)	60	50	No notes
Rigid 2-axle HGV (under 7.5t)	70	50	No notes
Rigid 2-axle HGV (over 7.5t)	60	50	Note 1
Rigid 3-axle and more HGV	60	50	Note 1
Articulated HGV	60	50	Note 1

Note 1: England and Wales only. Speed limits for HGVs over 7.5t on NSL single carriageway roads were increased in 2015 in England and Wales, but not in Scotland. Therefore, for these road and vehicle type combinations, from 2015 onwards, statistics are calculated for sites in England and Wales only. Prior to this, statistics reflect the former speed limits, and sites from all of Great Britain.

Information about data sources used in this publication

The vehicle speed estimates in this report are based on traffic speed data collected from a current sample of 77 ATCs operated by DfT. In some cases (for example motorways), 2 ATCs may be covering different directions of traffic flow at the same location. The number of individual vehicles observed in the production of these statistics was 524 million.

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 accurately recorded, as well as during times when traffic volumes are unexpectedly low or high.

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, and background quality report, can be found on the vehicle speed statistics guidance page.

Detailed information on the reported collisions data used in this release can be found in the latest reported road casualties annual report.

Detailed information on the Home Office data used in this release can be found in the User guide to police powers and procedures.

Detailed information on the Ministry of Justice data used in this release can be found at quarterly criminal justice statistics releases.

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 (for example ‘capped’ at national speed limits) and using a different data source to the statistics presented in this release.

Next update

The 2023 release is due to be published in 2024. 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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