The UK’s best and worst areas for speed limit compliance have been revealed, thanks to ground-breaking new connected vehicle data, obtained exclusively for RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims.
The pioneering 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 kicks off today (August 1, 2023) in the UK, to highlight the risks posed by vehicles driving at excessive and inappropriate speeds every day on our roads.
Speeding is a major contributory factor in road collisions, and RoadPeace has supported countless crash victims and bereaved families, whose lives have been torn apart by speeding drivers.
In the 30-year period since RoadPeace was formed, between the start of 1992 and the end of 2021, a staggering 81,315 were reported killed and 7,245,833 were reported injured.*
The five most speed compliant counties (based on data collected between April 2021 and March 2022):
| Drivers speeding, by police force area | Percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit |
| North Yorkshire | 3.05% |
| Northamptonshire | 3.94% |
| Durham | 4.43% |
| Central Scotland | 4.90% |
| Lincolnshire | 5.02% |
The five least speed compliant counties (based on data collected between April 2021 and March 2022):
| Drivers speeding, by police force area | Percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit |
| Grampian, Scotland | 12.65% |
| Strathclyde, Scotland | 12.34% |
| London (Metropolitan Police area) | 11.38% |
| Merseyside | 10.39% |
| Cleveland | 9.75% |
Nick Simmons, CEO of RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, 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 a 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.”
Victims’ voices RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, has produced a series of videos, funded by the Department for Transport, designed to raise awareness around the devastating impact of speeding.
Throughout August, during National Road Victim Month, RoadPeace will be sharing the videos widely to urge drivers to think twice about driving at excessive or inappropriate speeds.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKXpVsmO7OuxXtuljDbHl3kBrve-bNClL
About connected vehicle data
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 data is used to calculate both the average and high-end (85th percentile) speeds across the whole road network, which is matched to known speed limit and traffic volume data, to provide an estimated number of speeding drivers across any part of the road network.
This has been aggregated by police force area to show the percentage of vehicles breaking the speed limit in each of these areas.
The data in this particular sample was taken between April 2021 and March 2022 and is based on 14 billion journeys on roads across Great Britain.
Richard Owen, CEO of Agilysis, said: “For the first time we are able to gauge levels of compliance to speed limits and quickly identify any problem areas for targeted improvements in safety.
“As vehicles become more connected, the data they provide gives incredible insight into how the roads are being used at all times.”
He added: “This type of data can’t be used for tracking individual vehicles, but is perfectly placed to get a good sense of speeds on our roads. Much in the same way that something like Google Maps might show traffic delays, this allows us to see where speeds are significantly above the limit.”
Prevention
The data signals a major step forward in road casualty reduction, with local authorities and police forces now able to understand where drivers are exceeding the speed limits before collisions occur.
This intelligence will help them to increase preventative measures on problematic routes, such as increased enforcement or improved engineering – helping to prevent a speed-related collision.
In the past, they had to rely on labour-intensive speed surveys at specific locations, speed camera offence statistics or casualty data to understand how prevalent speeding was in their area – which only provided a limited picture. And relied heavily on waiting for crashes to happen or for people to be injured in order to take action.
RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, provides information and support services to people bereaved or seriously injured in road crashes and engages in evidence-based policy and campaigning work to fight for justice for victims and reduce road danger.
To seek the charity’s support, please contact 0800 160 1069 or at helpline@roadpeace.org
There are a number of local area support groups in place across the UK to provide local support to crash victims.
*30 years of RoadPeace, Where are we and where are we going with road danger reduction?
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For media enquiries, please contact Rebecca Morris, Head of Communications at RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims at rebecca.morris@roadpeace.org or on 020 3987 5196.
The full data can be found below (based on data collected between April 2021 and March 2022):
| Drivers speeding, by police force area | Percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit |
| Grampian, Scotland | 12.65% |
| Strathclyde, Scotland | 12.34% |
| London (Metropolitan Police area) | 11.38% |
| Merseyside | 10.39% |
| Cleveland | 9.75% |
| West Midlands | 9.24% |
| Avon and Somerset | 9.10% |
| Lancashire | 8.83% |
| Cumbria | 8.63% |
| Lothian and Borders | 8.51% |
| Sussex | 8.34% |
| Surrey | 8.31% |
| Greater Manchester | 7.90% |
| Dorset | 7.70% |
| Kent | 7.59% |
| West Yorkshire | 7.41% |
| South Wales | 7.40% |
| Northumbria | 7.24% |
| Dyfed-Powys | 7.20% |
| North Wales | 7.19% |
| Hampshire | 7.13% |
| Northern Scotland | 7.00% |
| Cheshire | 6.95% |
| Gloucestershire | 6.95% |
| Norfolk | 6.92% |
| Thames Valley | 6.86% |
| Nottinghamshire | 6.75% |
| Suffolk | 6.66% |
| Wiltshire | 6.36% |
| Essex | 6.27% |
| Gwent | 6.25% |
| Hertfordshire | 6.03% |
| West Mercia | 6.01% |
| Humberside | 5.93% |
| Staffordshire | 5.53% |
| Devon and Cornwall | 5.53% |
| Bedfordshire | 5.52% |
| Warwickshire | 5.42% |
| Derbyshire | 5.32% |
| Cambridgeshire | 5.30% |
| Fife, Scotland | 5.25% |
| Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland | 5.20% |
| Tayside, Scotland | 5.19% |
| South Yorkshire | 5.16% |
| Leicestershire | 5.12% |
| Lincolnshire | 5.02% |
| Central Scotland | 4.90% |
| Durham | 4.43% |
| Northamptonshire | 3.94% |
| North Yorkshire | 3.05% |
Updated on: 1 August 2023