Two-thirds of drivers who speed break the speed limit simply because they enjoy driving fast – at least that's according to new research.
A survey of more than 3,000 drivers by private number plate website Click4Reg found that 67 percent of people speed because they ‘like the thrill’, while 58 percent said they sometimes break the limit because they are running late for work.
Other reasons given by drivers to account for their speeding misdemeanours included peer pressure from other road users, needing the toilet and ‘showing off’.
When it came to particular roads, two-thirds of those who were questioned said that they were most likely to exceed the limit on motorways, while 14 percent said they would be most likely to speed on quiet side roads.
Just 14 percent of those who were questioned said they never exceeded prescribed speed limits, yet 93 percent described themselves as safe drivers.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, almost one-third (29 percent) of respondents said that they had received a speeding ticket at some point in their lives, while one in five drivers said that they had been on a speed awareness course (21 percent).
However, almost three-quarters (71 percent) said all drivers should be made to participate in a speed awareness course to make them more aware of the consequences of speeding.
Elie Fakhoury, managing director of Click4Reg, said: ‘Despite good intentions from the government by increasing the speeding penalties, shockingly, the financial cost doesn’t seem to be a harsh enough deterrent for some drivers. This is something that must be amended by the government to attempt to put an end to the rising speeding fines and number of fatalities from exceeding the speed limit.’
