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

24 November 2020

Information from the Department for Transport.

This statistical release is a new quarterly release and is in addition to the annual Vehicle Speeds Compliance release.

It presents estimates of compliance with speed limits in free-flowing conditions on roads in Great Britain. These are based on speed data from a sample of DfT’s Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs), chosen to exclude locations where external factors might restrict driver behaviour (e.g. 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 proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit during the UK coronavirus lockdown was higher than for the equivalent period of 2019. 

These differences emerged as road traffic levels reduced sharply in late March after the UK lockdown was introduced. As restrictions eased later in quarter 2 2020 (April to June), road traffic began to return to normal levels, and speed limit exceedance also started to return to levels more similar to 2019. 

To download the report please click here.