The UK’s best and worst areas for speed limit compliance have been revealed by analysis of ‘ground-breaking’ new connected vehicle data, obtained exclusively for RoadPeace.
The figures, analysed by transport data experts at Agilysis and provided by Basemap, have highlighted for the first time, the police force areas where drivers exceed the speed limit more excessively than others.
The data has been released to coincide with National Road Victim Month, which gets underway today (1 August), to highlight the risks posed by vehicles driving at excessive and inappropriate speeds every day on our roads.
It shows North Yorkshire to be the most compliant police force area, with only 3.05% of drivers exceeding the speed limit, followed by Northamptonshire (3.94%).
Rounding off the top five are:
- Durham (4.43%)
- Central Scotland (4.90%)
- Lincolnshire (5.02%)
Conversely, the analysis found Grampian (Scotland) to be the area with the lowest level of compliance, with 12.65% of drivers exceeding the speed limit.
In second place was Strathclyde (Scotland), at 12.34% – followed by London (11.38%), Merseyside (10.39%) and Cleveland (9.75%).
RoadPeace says speeding is a major contributory factor in road collisions – and that the charity has supported countless crash victims and bereaved families, whose lives have been torn apart by speeding drivers.
Nick Simmons, CEO of RoadPeace, said: “Several decades ago, drink driving, although illegal, was considered socially acceptable and many drivers thought nothing of getting behind the wheel after they had been drinking.
“Thankfully, after years of education about the huge risks posed by drink driving, the majority of road users would never dream of driving after a drink, and drink drivers are rightly seen by society as the selfish, reckless people that they are.
“Speeding is a major contributory factor in the majority of collisions on our roads – it shatters lives, destroys families and communities live in fear of it – so why don’t we see speeding as the antisocial epidemic that it is?
“We hope by sharing the stories of some of our members, whose lives have been torn apart by speeding drivers, who have courageously told their stories, that people will think twice before putting their foot down. Speeding is selfish, unfair and it puts so many lives at risk.”
Those numbers are extremely low. In 2021, according to DfT figures, 51% of car drivers exceed the 30mph limit in free-flowing conditions: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2021/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2021
I suspect this latest research is more concerned with “excessive speeding” (whatever that might be) which in itself is tacitly admitting that it’s socially acceptable to speed just a little bit.
Simon John Taylor, Nottingham
+2
7 years I have been requesting my MP, current member told me he has no influence, local councillors, and Cleveland police to enforce the 30 mph limit on the road I live on. 50 mph is a daily occurrence, 60 mph is not unknown. I’ve been asked to produce evidence! How I would like to know.
Nothing has been done. Now my emails are ignored.
Kevin Church, Yarm
0
1. We have always held that “compliance” does not tell us much about the risk on roads. This is particularly the case when comparing across areas with inconsistent setting of speed limit. A county taking a pro-active approach to setting local speeds limits to be less than national limits may well have a poorer compliance record than one adjacent that is less interventionalist.
2. I am afraid speed is by its very nature a “one trick pony” when it comes to crashes. Speed is implicated in almost every crash. The simple test is “If the speed of the participants had been lower, could the crash have been avoided or the consequences diminished?” If the answer is “yes”, or even “maybe” then speed clearly was a “contributory factor” in the incident turning into crash which turns into a casualty with severity determined by speed.
To make a comparison with the HSE is very good. If there were a manufacturing production line then the speed would be set so that even if an operator makes a mistake then death or serious injury would not be a result.
MR ROD KING, Lymm, Cheshire
+9
Road safety delivery has to move on from being a one trick pony focused purely on the issue of vehicle speed. Whilst speed can be a factor in the outcome it is not necessarily the cause. It should be possible to make the roads both safe and efficient for all road users. There are a lot of things that could be done that aren’t being done that would directly reduce the likelihood of collisions resulting in death and injury from occurring. Workplace safety has been dramatically improved by having an authority , the HSE, that is clearly acting in the leadership role and if the methodology that they have successfully applied was adapted and adopted for road safety delivery substantial improvement could be made.
Derek Cozens, Hertfordshire
+5
Fraser Andrew (or is it Andrew Fraser?) .. no matter…if you are seemingly questioning the statement about speeding being a major contributory factor in road traffic accidents, why have you been promoting Intelligent Speed Assistance over the years?
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
+3
“Speeding is a major contributory factor in the majority of [road traffic accidents] on our roads”, is it? Not in my rather more lengthy experience in the arena than that of latecomers “RoadPeace”.
While they may do some useful work in “supporting” casualties and their relatives, they are contributing absolutely nothing by telling lies.
Fraser Andrew
--1
I struggle to see a purpose for this data being used in this way, I also note that Road peace have included inappropriate speed in the release something which is not included in the data.
Roads & drivers aren’t restricted by force boundaries also interesting is that the second most compliant force suffers twice the national avg for road deaths.
Chris Harrison, Bristol
+4
From RoadPeace’s website: “The majority of modern private and commercial vehciles on our road network are now ‘connected’ – they are constantly connected to the internet, transmitting data in real time.” (This includes speeds and locations apparently) Is this widely known, or is it like e-Call, as recently referred to in this news feed – another technological advance which doesn’t seem to be widely publicised? Whatever -it seems like a good resource. I wonder if it is sophisticated enough to record speeds moments before collisions…now that would be a revelation.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
+5