# Road operating speed

**URL:** <https://forum.irap.org/t/road-operating-speed/1129>\
**Category:** CycleRAP\
**Created:** [November 27, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.irap.org/t/road-operating-speed/1129 "2025-11-27T11:42:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RoxyTacq](https://forum.irap.org/user_avatar/forum.irap.org/roxytacq/32/19_2.png) [@RoxyTacq](https://forum.irap.org/u/RoxyTacq)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.irap.org/t/road-operating-speed/1129/1 "2025-11-27T11:42:31Z")

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If more detailed speed data is available, should this be used instead of the ‘mean speed’ (which is prescribed in the user guide)?

Example:

 ![image](https://forum.irap.org/uploads/default/original/1X/a03d11c87d2553a1a32d41d464cdbc9c58d58f10.png)

On this road the V85 speeds are 10km/h higher than the average speed.

Almost 10% of people drive faster than the speed limit.

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**Author:** ![shanna.lucchesi](https://forum.irap.org/user_avatar/forum.irap.org/shanna.lucchesi/32/386_2.png) [@shanna.lucchesi](https://forum.irap.org/u/shanna.lucchesi)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.irap.org/t/road-operating-speed/1129/2 "2025-11-27T14:56:01Z")

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Hi Roxy. For consistency and comparasion among other projects, we advise to use the mean speed. Please note that **t** he mean speed is the average speed at which motorised vehicles travel in free flow conditions along the road. Mean speed may be smoothed along homogeneous lengths of road, but should reflect the changes in operating speeds due to traffic calming measures, intersection design and other design features.