Put your foot down
Drivers increasingly disregard speed limits
Motorways are our safest roads, but they are also the fastest and the road type that most drivers break the speed limit.
The RAC found more than half (58%) of drivers admit to going above 70mph ‘frequently’ or ‘occasionally’, up from 57% in 2023.
The proportion of drivers who admitted to speeding on 60mph roads also rose to 47% from 45%, and on 30mph roads to 42% from 40% in 2024.
Eight-in-10 (81%) drivers say they regularly see people ‘excessively speeding’ on all types of roads.
Lead foot
While 82% report noticing other drivers breaking the limit excessively on motorways and high-speed dual carriageways, 80% say it is also common on 30mph or 20mph roads.
Department for Transport (DfT) statistics show that ‘exceeding the speed limit’ contributed to 304 (21%) fatal collisions.
Meanwhile, separate figures from the Home Office published in December revealed that almost 2.7 million motoring offences, excluding data from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), were recorded in 2023.
This is an increase of 11% compared with the previous year (2.4 million) and the highest recorded since comparable records began in 2011.
More than four-fifths (86%) of recorded motoring offences were for speeding (2.3 million), up 10% on the previous year (2.1 million) and the highest recorded since 2011.
Between 2011 and 2023, the number of speed limit offences increased faster than the amount of road traffic in Great Britain.
Slow speed
The RAC’s research on speed limit compliance showed the sharpest increase on 20-mph roads, where 50% of drivers say they have broken the limit, up from 46% a year ago.
This also reflects a longer-term trend, with 36% of drivers in 2018 saying they frequently or occasionally broke the 20mph limit.
RAC road safety spokesperson Rod Dennis describes the figures as “concerning,” especially considering government data showing that speeding contributes to 21% of all fatal collisions.
“It is particularly worrying that so much excessive speeding observed by drivers appears to take place on 20mph and 30mph roads as this is where the greatest number of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooter riders, are.”
Aiming higher
Figures from the RAC’s 2024 Report on Motoring also show that many drivers consider the speed limit a target.
Seven-in-10 drivers (72%) said they try to drive as close to the speed limit as possible.
Furthermore, over half of all drivers (55%) believe there is a culture among UK road users in which breaking the speed limit is acceptable, with only 23% disagreeing with this assertion.
“We badly need to bring an end to excessive speeding to keep us all safe,” continued Dennis. “The Government is working on the country’s first road safety strategy for many years, so we hope that tackling this will be treated as a priority.”
The increased use of average-speed cameras is perceived to be the most popular way to tackle the problem of speeding, with 39% of drivers backing this idea.
Second is the introduction of radar-activated signs that display the relevant speed limit against drivers’ actual speed, supported by 36% of all drivers.
Three in 10 drivers (31%) would like to see better speed limit signage and a similar proportion (30%) say sat-navs or in-car systems should alert drivers when they exceed the limit, a feature many new cars already have.
Only a quarter of drivers (26%) would like more extensive use of mobile speed cameras, while a fifth (21%) support more severe sentences for those who drive above the speed limit.