Almost half of UK drivers break the speed limit… and that’s an improvement

Almost half of UK drivers are suspected of breaking the speed limit when driving in 30mph zones, according to the latest estimates from the Department for Transport (DfT). And while that may sound shocking, it’s actually an improvement over the last few years.

The Government doesn’t seem to have much faith in the UK public’s ability to adhere to speed limits, as official figures estimate that 43 per cent of drivers will speed in 30mph zones when there’s free-flowing traffic and no speed cameras.

Although undeniably alarming, it’s actually a significant step forward from 2017, when more than half of drivers (51 per cent) were thought to be straying over the limit in these circumstances. 

However, things are even worse when you consider 20mph zones, as the Government reckons the amount of people going faster than the law permits jumps up to around three-quarters (76 per cent), with 10 per cent of drivers exceeding the limit by more than 10mph.

These figures haven’t been pulled out of thin air; the DfT has created these estimates by using data collected from Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) – the discreet strips of wire you sometimes see stretched across the road. These obtain information such as the speed and volume of traffic and are typically placed away from bends and junctions to gather an accurate picture of how traffic is progressing.

Speeding isn’t exclusive to slower roads, either; 44 per cent of drivers are thought to exceed the limit on the motorway, although interestingly, this drops to just nine per cent in national speed limit zones on A and B roads.

It’s no surprise, then, that in 2024, a total of 205,522 drivers were found guilty of a speeding offence – an increase of 87 per cent since 2011 – with more than 1.8 million attending a speed awareness course last year.

The most cited reason for speeding by offenders, according to the RAC’s 2024 Report on Motoring, is that they were matching the speeds of others. However, a spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs Council told Auto Express: “Driving in excess of the speed limit is a conscious decision. You can choose not to do it and many lives can be saved as a result.

“Thousands of people are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year as a result of excessive speed and for each one of those people there will be multiple friends, families and communities affected, so the true impact is almost impossible to quantify.”

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