Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: 2023
Vehicle speed compliance statistics on free-flowing roads in Great Britain.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
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Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly by emailing roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards.
These statistics provide insight into 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.
These statistics 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).
In general, over the longer term there has been a slow decrease in the percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit on 30 miles per hour (mph) roads and relatively little change on motorways. This is based on a comparison of the average for the 5 years from 2011 to 2015 with the average for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 (the latest available 5 years excluding 2020 and 2021).
In 2023:
- 44% of cars exceeded the limit on 30 mph roads
- 9% of cars exceeded the limit on national speed limit single carriageways
- 45% of cars exceeded the limit on motorways
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Road traffic and vehicle speed compliance statistics
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