Survey shows half of drivers exceed speed limits on Finnish main roads

Last year, drivers travelled more than 11 billion kilometres at speeds over the limit

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According to a recent survey conducted by the Finnish Road Administration, the total of vehicle kilometres travelled on Finnish highways and trunk roads last year was 22.19 billion kilometres.
      Half of these kilometres were driven by vehicles that were going too fast.
      In other words, 52 per cent of the cars, trucks, and buses involved were exceeding the maximum speed limits for the road section or for their vehicle by at least one kilometre an hour.
      The total of kilometres over the speed limit amounted to 11.54 billion, which comes to roughly 288,500 times around the world.
     
If the kilometres driven over the speed limit were divided evenly between the three million Finnish cars, every one of them would have travelled too fast for more than 3,800 kilometres.
      Actually, the maximum speed limit was exceeded in 50 per cent of the total number of kilometres driven by passenger cars and vans, while the corresponding figure for lorries was 70 per cent, and for buses 54 per cent.
     
The rather startling results are based on 758.6 million speed observations made on Finnish highways and trunk roads, the total length of which at the beginning of the current year was 13,171 kilometres or slightly less than one-fifth of the entire road network.
      The significance of the main road network was indicated by the fact that nearly two-thirds of all kilometres driven were on the main roads. In other words, the majority of car traffic used highways and trunk roads.
     
The total number of measuring points maintained by the Finnish Road Administration is more than 400, of which 360 are located along highways and trunk roads.
      The results of 173 such measuring points were involved in the survey.
      For safety and maintenance reasons, the measuring points are usually situated along roads that are in good condition. Obviously the speeds on such roads are also higher than usual, which is why the data gathered at such measuring points could be slightly higher than the actual speed level.
      The majority of the drivers of passenger cars and vans were the only ones to obey speed limits, but no matter what the speed limit was, 12 per cent of all types of vehicles were found guilty of speeding by more than 10 km per hour.
      In all speed limit zones, some two per cent of drivers were found to be exceeding the permitted speed limit by 20 km/h or more, a speed that leads to day-fines, a fine payment that is based on the offender’s daily personal income rather than the flat speeding ticket for minor infractions.
     
In recent years, the proportion of those who have been found guilty of exceeding the speed limit by 10 km/h and 20 km/h has remained the same, even though the speed levels on the main road network have come down by around one kilometre during the current decade.
      The speed limits of 80 km/h on motorways have been found to be particularly ineffective, as a total of 77 per cent of drivers were found to violate them in the winter, while in the summer the corresponding figure was more than 80 per cent of all vehicles.
     
In 2008, the fastest month on the main roads was May, with an average speed of 90.9 km/h, while the slowest month was January (84.7 km/h).
      The fastest day of the year on main roads was Sunday April 20th, with an average speed of 93.7 km/h.
     
The slowest day was Wednesday March 26th, with an average daily speed of 78.6 km/h.
      The figure could partly be explained by the fact that a heavy snowstorm occurred that day, and that for example the number of traffic announcements was 100, while the normal daily number is only a dozen or so.
      The average speed on weekdays is typically slower than that for an entire week. At weekends the speeds are faster. The day closest to the weekday average is Friday.
      The article is based on a survey conducted by Jouko Kangas and Jutta-Leea Kärki at the Finnish Road Administration in 2008.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  "Radar Week" sees police clampdown on speeding (20.4.2009)
  Finnish racing drivers appeal for road safety (12.3.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Road Administration

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