On roads with a 30mph maximum, 50% of car drivers break the law, says the annual DfT report on speed limit compliance.

Statistics published today by the U.K. Department for Transport (DfT) show that in 2022 85% of the car drivers in Great Britain broke the law by driving faster than the speed limit in 20mph zones. On roads with a 30mph maximum, 50% of car drivers broke the law, reveals the annual DfT report on speed limit compliance.

The measurements are based on speed data from a sample of Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) around the country. These exclude locations where external factors might restrict driver behavior, such as at junctions, on hills, beside sharp bends or where speed cameras are visible, says the DfT report.

  • clara@feddit.ukEnglish
    151·
    11 months ago

    it’s simple. asking people to do the right thing (i.e slowdown), out of the kindness of their hearts, is laughable.

    if you build the street in such a way that driving above it’s design limits is impossible, then people wont do it. surprisingly, the threat of their car being damaged or totaled will force compliance with the intended speed limit. if this was done correctly on a large scale, speed limit posts wouldn’t even be required - the street layout would naturally dictate the speeds you can drive at.

    for UK streets, this can be retrofitted with chicanes, curb extensions, raised pedestrian crossings, etc. increasing the amount that a driver has to think to drive down a street, automatically makes them slower. oh, and none of those stupid painted chicanes and bumps either, you think anyone cares about those? lol. actually build the damned curb extensions

    • stevecrox@kbin.social
      1·
      11 months ago

      That is how you kill people.

      The design of the road, the street furniture, things like pedestrian traffic, parking, etc… will all affect how people drive along the road.

      If you just drop the speed limit people will have to actively concentrate on their speed. If you don’t actively enforce the speed limit people will concentrate on driving over speed adherence.

      Adding chicanes, speed bumps, etc… will slow people down but change how people drive a roads and can introduce new hazards.

      I know of roads with no deaths that added speed bumps which now kill a person each year, a road that added chicanes that immediately suffered multiple crashes per day until they were removed.

      Heck traffic calming where I currently live, was perfectly safe and brilliant until a new housing estate opened. The housing estate has increased traffic which has slowed the road but the traffic calming now suffers alot of near misses and emergency breaking because of the increased traffic. The road would now be safer without it and a speed camera placed at a key point.

      Road Safety isn’t something you can magically solve by dropping the speed limit or just adding chicanes. You need to think about alot.