How fast were Bucky, T'Challa and Steve running in Civil War?

Question

In the 2016 film "Captain America: Civil War", Cap's attempt to find Bucky in Bucharest is interrupted by Black Panther, who wants to kill Bucky for his apparent involvement with

the death of King T'Chaka, T'Challa's father.

As Bucky runs from both Panther and the police, with Captain America in close pursuit, they enter a highway tunnel and run quickly past moving vehicles in the tunnel. They appear to be running much faster than the human norm, and after a few seconds of that, Cap commandeers an SUV to continue pursuing Bucky & Panther.

I know nothing about the traffic laws in Bucharest, but how fast are these characters moving if they're able to pass up vehicles speeding through the tunnel?

Answer 1

Somewhat over 62.5 mph but likely under 72.8 mph

A bit of assumption going on but...

When Captain America went for a relaxed run around Washington DC in Captain America: The Winter Soldier Sam remarks that he "ran 13 miles in 30 minutes" that equates to a 26 mile an hour relaxed running speed.

As he was sprinting in Civil War we know that he was moving much faster than this.

Usain Bolt has hit 27.8mph during sprinting in the 100m. As Cap is the peak a human can get it is only fair we compare his top sprinting speed to the current peak sprinter.

The world record for a male London marathon runner (Wilson Kipsang) is 12.85 mph (26.219 / 2.04). This is 2.16 times slower than Usain Bolt's max speed.

The average men's pace was 6.47 mph (26.129 / 4.04) this is 4.29 times slower than Usain Bolt's max speed.

While Cap was running around DC he didn't seem to be exerting himself too much, so probably not WR equivalent effort, he was also probably exerting himself more than the average marathon runner (he was showboating a little). So lets take the median of the two 12.85 + 6.47 / 2 = 9.66 mph and assume Cap's relaxed running speed is the equivalent of this, or 2.8 times slower than Bolt's max.

If the gap between his relaxed running speed and him sprinting is the same 2.8 times gap as Usain Bolt's max speed when sprinting then he can hit about 72.8 mph on full gas (26 * 2.8).

If we work this out for the upper and lower marathon paces mentioned above:

• If Cap was running around DC at WR marathon pace and had the same 2.16 gap then he can sprint at around 56.16 mph
• If Cap was running at average marathon pace and had the same 4.29 gap then he can sprint around 111.54 mph

In Romania most roads have a speed limit of 100 kmh or 62.5 mph, motorways have 130 kmh or 81 mph and rural roads have 90 kmh or 56.25 mph.

Romania only has 2 motorways both heading out of Bucharest (and not completed) and the road in the tunnel doesn't look like a rural road so it's most likely just a normal road. (cant get the actual Romanian speed limit of this road as it's filmed in Berlin in the Messedamm Underpass).

If the cars were going at the speed limit for a normal road then we can assume that Cap, Buck and T'Challa were all travelling somewhat faster than 62.5 mph, which would be realistic with the assumed 72.8 mph.

They would not be able to outrun the cars if they were running at the lower limit of 56.16 mph and they would be travelling much much faster than the cars if it was at the 111.54 mph upper limit.

Answer 2

The MCU Cap seems to have the Earth 1610's powers, and the speeds listed above line up with the speed 1610's Cap is capable of. As listed straight from the Marvel wiki,

Superhuman Speed: Captain America can run and swim at a speed between 60-80 miles per hour with ease, and potentially more while under stress.

Seeing how Bucky and T'Challa seem to be on equal level as Cap, somewhere in the the 60-75 mph range seems pretty accurate for the three of them.

Answer 3

In Captain America: The First Avenger, right after his transformation Rogers is able to keep up with the getaway car carrying the HYDRA spy, and run faster than the regular traffic. While not modern high-performance cars, cars in the 1940s weren't that much slower in regular driving conditions; from what I can find the speed limit was around 30mph on New York City streets around that time. Assuming the cars were moving roughly that fast, he could overtake them when sprinting.

A speed of 30mph is roughly 50 km/h, which is a relatively normal city speed limit in much of the world (aside from highways and freeways). In fact, in Romania 50km/h is the normal speed limit on streets. So, based on his physical performance in his first appearance, he should have no trouble passing traffic in Bucharest.