Surveys find half of drivers ‘still ignore’ 30mph limits

12 April 2007

Snapshot Department for Transport surveys suggest the number of motorists complying with 30mph limits is growing, but half of drivers are still breaking the law, one-fifth potentially dangerously.
Automatic counters at 36 sites where a 30 or 40mph limit applies revealed that 49% of drivers exceeded 30mph limits in 2006, compared with 65% in 2001 and 72% a decade ago, suggesting compliance is continuing to improve.
Average speeds at the surveyed sites – chosen because speeds were not constrained by road geometry, congestion or speed cameras – were at or below both the 30mph and 40mph limits. However, there remains a significant minority recorded as travelling at 35mph or more on roads with a 30mph limit – 19% of car drivers, and 25% of motorcyclists.
Figures highlighted by MPs show that the chance of a pedestrian or cyclist surviving collisions with a car travelling at 35mph is half that, at 30mph.
The number travelling at 35mph or higher was, however, significantly down compared with recent years – 25% three years ago, and 32% in 2000.
Motorcyclists had the most extreme speeding behaviour, with 11% travelling at 40mph or higher on a 30mph road, 2% at 50mph or more. The percentage of motorists travelling 10mph or more above the limit was higher than other road-users for all road types.
The survey also showed that compliance on 40mph roads actually worsened, but from a much lower base than on 30mph roads. The numbers travelling faster than the limit were up by 4%, to 28%.
Paige Mitchell, of the Slower Speeds Initiative, said it appeared that speeds overall were ‘creeping down’ year-on-year. Particularly welcome was the reduction in those travelling at 35mph or more in a 30mph zone.
But the question was: ‘Are the current limits the right ones?’ Most pedestrians would survive a collision at 20mph, but many would not, even at 25mph, and half would not at 30mph.
Brake spokeswoman Rachel Burr said that it was ‘extremely worrying’ that the number of people speeding along 40mph roads was still getting worse. Many of the incidents were in urban areas.
The most recent DfT campaign focused on 30mph roads. ‘We clearly need to see more hard-hitting publicity campaigns highlighting the dangers of speeding on a variety of roads,’ she said.

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Surveys find half of drivers ‘still ignore’ 30mph limits

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