Research from LV= car insurance has revealed that seven in ten motorists cannot name the speed limit on a rural road, single carriageway, dual carriageway, motorway or a road in a built up area. When shown photographs of different roads, 33% could not correctly identify the 60mph speed limit for a single carriageway and 52% did not know the speed limit on a rural road without street lights.
Since 2009, nearly one in ten (9%) drivers have been caught speeding and 17% of these have been caught two or three times. A freedom of information request by LV= car insurance showed that the number of motorists caught speeding increased last year with the total number of offences up by 6% compared with 2010 figures.
While the majority of speeding motorists are caught exceeding the speed limit by just a few mph, there are some who have been caught driving at breakneck speeds that would be more appropriate on a Formula One track. In 2011, Sussex Police caught Britain’s fastest speeder driving at 152mph, while another was caught by the Tayside Police driving at 149mph and the Thames Valley Police caught someone driving at 142mph.
Although we may be driving faster, the findings also show that speeding motorists are more likely to be caught by the authorities. In the past year, the number caught breaking the speed limit rose to 1.5 million (4.2% of motorists last year), notching up 2.2 million penalty points and a £41 million bill in the process.
Yet British motorists are unlikely to start putting their foot on the brake. Close to a third (30%) believe that the 70mph speed limit is too slow and a further 64% welcome the planned speed limit rise to 80mph. Currently around four in 10 (41%) drivers say they routinely break the current 70mph limit when they think they can get away with it.