Vehicle speed compliance statistics for Great Britain: 2020
Estimates on vehicle compliance with speed limits on roads in Great Britain during 2020.
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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.
These statistics cover periods affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Long-term trends in vehicle speed limit compliance have usually been stable over time. Without coronavirus, we would have expected this to continue.
In 2020:
- 53% of cars exceeded the limit on motorways
- 12% of cars exceeded the limit on national speed limit single carriageways
- 56% of cars exceeded the limit on 30mph roads
Speed compliance was slightly lower than previous years, which can be partly attributed to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on traffic levels.
In late March 2020, the UK entered its first national lockdown. There was an immediate large drop in daily traffic levels. Traffic levels recovered slowly, before declining again in the autumn and winter, when further local and national restrictions were seen due to the pandemic.
The trends in speed limit compliance presented can often be seen to coincide with these exceptional changes in road traffic. Generally during periods of reduced traffic speed limit exceedances have been higher on most vehicle types, though it should be noted that other factors such as changes in season and weather may also have been having an impact.
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