STA, 6 July 219 - The average speed recorded on Slovenian roads lowered in 2017 and 2018 compared to 2014 and 2015. The strictness of speed limits correlates to the number of violations, with the latter being more common at night. Drivers do not usually exceed the limit by more than 10 km/h, shows a study by the Traffic Safety Agency.
Recorded speeds on highways and expressways do not vary depending on the day or night, while drivers on other roads are on average faster during the night.
The study included 135.87 million of measurements of 37 speed traps between the start of 2017 and the end of May this year.
The lower the speed limit, the higher the share of drivers exceeding it - at the 50 km/h speed limit, over 35% drivers violate the limit, while at the 30 km/h limit, over 70% of them are too fast but they mostly do not exceed the limit by more than 10 km/h in general.
The 50 km/h limit area stood out because the agency recorded very high violations of driving 180 km/h at two locations within the limit.
Mora than 130 automatic traffic counters also provided data on traffic in March and October in 2017 and 2018. On highways, where the speed limit is set at 130 km/h, the average speed was 110.6 km/h. Between 2008 and 2018, this figure decreased by almost 5 km/h or 4.3%.
Some 13% drivers exceed the highway limit, while around 1% exceed the limit by more than 10 km/h during the day and some 5% during the night.
Drivers on expressways drive on average 99 km/h, with the limit being 110 km/h. During the 2008-2018 period, the average speed there decreased by 5.5%.
The average speed on main roads outside cities, towns and villages increased by some 4% between 2008 and 2015, but started declining after 2015. Some 15% of people driving on such roads exceed the limit during the day (2% exceed the limit by more than 10 km/h), while around 23% do that at night (11% outside the 10 km/h tolerance zone).
The average speed on state main roads and regional roads within urban areas decreased as well - by almost 8%, but as many as 57% of drivers on those roads exceed the limit during the day (some 10% outside the tolerance zone) and 67% of them during the night (some 25% outside the tolerance zone).
The study was conducted at the beginning of June by the Maribor Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture Faculty.
