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news
20mph sign (CC licensed by EdinburghGreens via Flickr)20mph speed limits ignored by four in five drivers
Government speed compliance statistics for 2016 indicate that 81 per cent of car drivers exceeded the speed limit on 20mph roads, as did 80 per cent of light commercial vehicle drivers and 71 per cent of HGV drivers.
Between 2011 and 2016, there has actually been a gradual increase in compliance with speed limits for most vehicles on most roads.
Nevertheless, the figures indicate that 46 per cent of drivers exceeded the speed limit on motorways; 8 per cent exceeded the speed limit on national single carriageways; and 53 per cent exceeded the speed limit on 30mph roads.
It was also found that 15 per cent of drivers exceeded the 20mph limit by more than 10mph.
Neil Greig, director of policy and research at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart commented:
“The main problem is clearly getting drivers to comply on the ever increasing number of roads in our towns and cities with a 20mph limit.
“IAM RoadSmart have always felt that blanket 20mph limits, enforced by signposts only, are simply not enough to convey the reason for slowing down to drivers. Targeting the worst locations with traffic calming and other engineering features is a much more effective way to make 20mph limits self-enforcing. Speed limits on roads with consistent compliance problems need to be reviewed more frequently.
“We must all work to make it easy to stick to the speed limit and our main concern is that widespread confusion over 20mph may be undermining a more general trend to slow down.”
There have been a number of studies into car impact speed and the likelihood of injury. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents cites one which showed a pedestrian fatality risk of 1.5 per cent at 20mph versus 8 per cent at 30mph.
Furthermore, according to 20’s Plenty, lowering urban and residential speed limits to 20mph has been found to decrease child pedestrian accidents by up to 70 per cent.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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40 comments
46% speed on the motorway - think they may be lying...
'Widespread confusion over 20mph'... errr how is that? It's signposted, most people anyway drive on familiar roads most of the time, how hard is that to understand? Most drivers simply don't accept a 20mph limit and don't believe they will be sanctioned for it. In that belief they are entirely correct.
It would be interesting to know how many successful prosecutions have been mounted nationwide for exceeding a 20mph limit. My guess is only in cases where 30mph is exceeded. The problem is systemic — but then so too was drunken driving.
To be fair looking at the top 10 of a local Strava segment where the average speed is 38.4mph I'm guessing a lot of cyclists ignore them too.
You know these speed limits are only applicable to motor vehicles right?
Are you sure it's not km/h? That seems very fast indeed...though perhaps it is a descent?
Don't mind you driving at 20mph in these limits as ling as if yo uride you remember the speed limit does not apply to push bikes and maintain a higher speed.
I agree with the 'private' or 'partly private' enforcement. Government should just set up an NGO Quango thing to enforce all the traffice regulation and allow it to self fund via prosecutions as well of course using the ring fenced VED for a good purpose not just bypasses.
Note if it worked then the fines would have to rise to continue to fund this new traffic regulation police allow them to prosecute all offences up to law breaking where they'd have to call in the proper copper (not plural as I think we are down to one policeman in my county).
Of course no matter what speed I attain cycling in a twenty zone I have to be overtaken! So I seem to be encouraging the numpties. It would be great to see a closs pass copper doing these people for both their close pass AND their speeding!!
All this report demonstrates is that it is taking a lot of people a lot of time to adjust to the new speed limits. If you've been driving at 35mph in towns for twenty years, you aren't immediately going to slow down to 20mph, but you might slow down to 25mph.
Personally, I like sticking to these limits when I drive, just to enjoy the queues behind.
I think the key is to privatise the regulation of motoring enforcement.
At present lets be honest with ourselves, the government isn't motivated at all to even consider reducing road violence in any meaningful way as they keep playing at it. The police response is a lottery and even when they do anything it amounts to chocolate teapot territory...the entire response is usually a sick joke.
Now, if a private authority was given the reigns to enforce and fine the motoring fraternity we would see a rapid change as the business growth would be incredibly rapid. Even sitting on just 1 road anywhere in the country filming drivers on their phones at say £500 a pop and 6 penalty points would be a very lucrative affair.
Government could take a share of the cash to plough into hospitals and other very good stuff, the private industry creates employment opportunites and we all win because roads get safer meaning insurance premiums can also drop. This is without the added gains of KSI reduction and all the costs that go with dealing with that such as emergency care, hospital beds, prolonged physiotherapy, medication blah blah.
The only industry that might object to all this would be the funeral industry as they'd lose A LOT of business.
Yeah, because the privatised parking enforcement industry gets such good press...
Have a think about what this means
I agree. I reckon the insurance companies would stand to benefit from safer driving, so it would be in their interest to enforce road laws. However, I doubt that the funeral industry would be concerned - they've got guaranteed business, but it's just the timing of it that's in question.
I’m not convinced, I heard that it’s a dying trade....
I'll get my coat
Would it not be sufficient to just allow local authorities to do it, and keep the proceeds?
It is, for the most part, locals who have to tolerate the negative effects of speeding motorists, so why should they not benefit from the fines collected?
So many places where there are speed-measuring signs that do nothing but offer timid suggestions that drivers consider obeying the 20mph limit. Why not just replace those useless decorative things with speed cameras and use the proceeds to pay for remodelling roads to reduce speeds and provide better cycle (and pedestrian) infrastructure?
Plenty of people have been caught in Bristol doing more than 20 in 20 zones. Can't see that it's made much difference except in the few yards before and after the mobile cameras
Those "traffic calming" features are often more dangerous than the speeding cars for cyclists. The width restrictions with cycling bypasses that are blocked by parked cars but drivers still expect you to use them. Speed humps with cut outs that cars try to get to before you. Cyclists end up like a rolling road block or pushed to the gutter to allow cars to negotiate the obstacles at speed
Maybe speed limits should increase given the massive increases in braking and handling technology since they were originally drawn up? I mean surely you can't compare a Ford Anglia to a Nissan gtr on the stoppers?
Sorry, I'm just stirring but speed limits aren't the be all and end all of road safety, a cull of those with lesser abilities would be a start , like all the half blind coffin dodgers that doctors seem to never want to grass up to the dvla.
Increases in braking and handling technology still only make a difference if the driver is paying attention.
Yes, braking systems may have improved, but reaction times have not, probably worse going by the amount of people using phones while driving.
The (over-confident, complacent?) Nissan driver will be doing 80 mph where the Anglia driver was doing 40. He will likely believe that all the fancy race-derived technology and safety features allow him to driver much faster and everything will be fine.
They probably will - for him, but not for anyone outside the car (though the images on the Audis in houses page makes me wonder if modern cars are really as crash-resistant as the bullshitting manufacturers like us to think).
Good brakes mean f..k all if you hit gravel or you're playing with your mobile phone.
Despite all that, the speed limit is a LEGAL limit. It's the law. Or can we allchoose which laws to ignore?
There will also be a lot more distracting dials and readings for the driver in the Nissan GTR slowing down the reaction time vs the Ford Anglia. So if I had to bet, in a real life situation I would expect the braking safety to be equal or slightly in the Ford Anglia's favour.
The sad thing is if driving standards were much higher and we had psyche tests for those wanting to operate machines that are capable of terrorist like killings you could drive perfectly safely with a 30 limit taking into account children milling out of school, people on bikes, oldies crossing with a stick.
The 30 is the absolute maximum limit in perfect clear conditions (& that's something else they could have added in the HC update!), 99.99999% of motorists simply ignore that they should go much much slower than the limit when there are vulnerable road users and pedestrians/hazards in the near vicinity.
80% non compliance is b/s, be honest and just let's call it 100% law breaking.
I don't believe in those 20%.
Damn right.
I live on a 20mph street, but it's 800m long and dead straight (although with parked cars each side). The local lads in their lowered Novas regularly do double the limit (or more) and if you drive down it at < 20mph a queue of impatient drivers forms behind you.
Kids used to play in our street, not any more.
I've always thought that 20mph zones were to get people to drive at 30, rather than them doing 40 in a 30 zone.
"traffic calming and other engineering features" - personally I'm less fazed by speeding vehicles than by those that drive straight at you on single-laned sections of road and expect you to find a way to conveniently vanish.
Followed a police van in a Bristol 20mph in my car , and it was pulling away from me at a fair lick when my GPS speed indicated 21mph and no, it didn't have any blue lights, nor was it tailing anyone, Thought about reporting it but couldn't be bothered as no doubt they would have ignored it.
My commute takes me down a nice wide road, with a bus lane each side, a 20 mph limit and a camera. The traffic is extraordinarily well-behaved as a result, except for the learner moped riders who know nothing and don't even know that properly.
Put speed cams in the 20mph zones , at least a few and that will cut speeding motorists down to a handful of BMW drivers.
As for general speeding and law breaking why not start with 12 points on your license and have it go down 3 points every year? That would certainly make you obey the speed limit!
Almost every driver breaks almost every pertinent law which applies to every journey they do.
Some cyclist jump red lights, I agree and they should be prosecuted for it, but not any more often than cars jump them, its just more obvious becuase they are generally moving slower.
Here is a plan.
Give every driver an electronic license which can automatically update on the fly.
Change the current points system to 100 points max.
Change speeding points to be a single point per offence.
Punishment for max points is automatic ban for 12 months, vehicle crushed and loss of any job which requires a driving licence.
Now, you break the speed limit by more than 2mph for more than 2 seconds while the vehicle is being powered ( meaning your accelerator is more than 0% ).
I could put money down and say the roads would be near empty in less than 3 months OR people would be driving a whole lot slower and safer.
I know that the 20mph zones near me are very poorly signed, the painted circled 20 on the roads have worn off and the mounted signs are hard to see. Added to this that the speeds are not enforced, in fact I am not sure that they are enforcable (I seem to recall that they are advisory rather than mandatory) so it's little wonder that they are ignored.
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