Accredited official statistics

Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: January to June 2020

Car driver compliance with speed limits on roads in Great Britain during January to June 2020.

Documents

Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: January to June 2020 tables

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Details

These quarterly statistics have been produced in addition to the regular annual statistics, to provide more timely information on compliance with speed limits during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

They 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 limit compliance have usually been stable over time. Without coronavirus, we would have expected this to continue.

January to March 2020 saw similar levels of compliance with the car speed limit to previous years.

In April to June 2020:

  • the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit was higher than the equivalent period for 2019
  • these differences emerged as road traffic levels reduced sharply in late March after the UK lockdown was introduced
  • 53% of cars exceeded the limit on motorways
  • 17% of cars exceeded the limit on national speed limit single carriageways
  • 63% of cars exceeded the limit on 30mph roads

As restrictions eased later in the period April to June 2020, road traffic began to return to normal and speed limit exceedance also started to return to levels seen in long term trends.

Contact us

Road traffic and vehicle speed compliance statistics

Email roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk

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Updates to this page

Published 24 November 2020

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