Affiliated to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM)
Do you know why there are speed limits?
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Britain has one of the best road safety records in the world, which is something to be proud of.
However there are still 6 deaths per 100,000 on UK roads every year.
This is a sobering statistic and we should all want to improve on it, as there is still work to be done to further reduce the number of unnecessary injuries and fatalities on our roads.
That is why it is necessary to continue to work on persuading and educating motorists to be more aware of their driving habits and their speed in particular.
Whether we are motorists, cyclists, pedestrians or horse riders, all of us benefit from safer driving.
The Department for Transport annually monitors traffic speeds at around 180 sites throughout Great Britain.The total number of vehicle records processed to produce the 2003 statistics was about 677 million.
These measurements showed that in 2003:
• 58% of cars, 54% of motorcycles and 53% of HGVs exceeded the 30 mph limit
• 27% of cars and 36% of motorcycles exceeded the 40 mph limit
• 57% of cars and 59% of motorcycles exceeded the 70 mph speed limit on motorways
It is clear therefore that many of us speed at least some of the time.
The PDF document below from the Department for Transport goes explains the different speed limits.
Some photographs used in our articles are courtesy of FreeFoto.com