Motoring

Nearly half of drivers break speed limit on 60mph UK country roads

By Anna Ellis • 18 February 2023 • 13:55

Nearly half of drivers break speed limit on 60mph UK country roads. Image: RAC.

This is the highest level seen by the RAC since 2016.

Are you a bit of a speedy driver when you get behind the wheel? Apparently, there has been a significant rise in the proportion of drivers who admit to speeding on 60mph rural roads in the UK.

These are roads where more deaths occur than on any other road type, new RAC data has found.

Nearly half (48 per cent) of the 3,102 drivers questioned for the RAC Report say they have driven faster than the limit in the past year on these roads, up from 44 per cent in 2021 and matching the highest figure ever seen by the RAC in 2016.

In 2021, 514 people were killed in a total of 11,827 collisions on 60mph non-built-up roads, a fatality rate of 4 per cent, which is higher than on motorways.

On motorways and high-speed dual carriageways, the UK’s fastest roads, as many as 60 per cent of drivers say they have broken the 70mph limit, either on most journeys (16 per cent) or on up to half of their trips (43 per cent) in the last 12 months. This is up by five percentage points compared to 2021 when 55 per cent admitted to having exceeded the limit.

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