Whether that’s because of the quality of the road surface, the number of cars on the road, the number of accidents that occur on the roads or even the cost of fuel, some roads are just more enjoyable to drive on than others. But where are the best and worst places in the world to be a motorist in 2020? We’ve taken a deep dive into some key driving factors to figure this out!
The Best and Worst Places to Drive in England
Ever wondered if your daily commute could be more enjoyable elsewhere in the country? We’ve analysed the local authorities of England to determine where in the country is the best place to drive for motorists, based on four key factors: the quality of the road, road safety, amount of congestion and the number of cars physically on the road.
Top 3 Best Places to Drive in England
- Halton - 92.26/100
- Telford and Wrekin - 90.61/100
- Rutland - 89.14/100
Top 3 Worst Places to Drive in England
- Slough - 51.93/100
- Derby - 55.24/100
- Birmingham - 56.46/100
The Best and Worst Places to Drive in the World
Looking at the rest of the world, the UK’s roads don’t even make it into the top 20 on our list, suggesting our roads are some of the least enjoyable to drive on. According to our list, it seems the smaller the country, the worse the roads are to drive on, potentially because there isn’t as much space or allocation of funds to keep the roads at their best for driving. But where in the world are the best and worst places to drive? Check out the full list below!
Top 3 Best Places to Drive in the World
- Mexico - 77.30/100
- Netherlands - 63.77/100
- Chile - 63.36/100
Top 3 Worst Places to Drive in the World
- Iceland - 35.69/100
- Italy - 39.19/100
- New Zealand - 40.90/100
Methodology
To work out the best and worst places to drive in England we looked at all of the major local authorities, using data from GOV.UK to analysis statistics for the road condition, reported road casualties and average speeds achieved in each area. Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were not included due to insufficient data.
When investigating the best and worst places to drive in the world, we looked at countries who are OECD members but excluded Australia and Colombia due to insufficient data. Our ranking factors were based on fuel prices (US dollar per litre), the quality of roads, motor vehicles per 1,000 people and the number of annual accidents per 100,000 people.
For both sections, we gave each country/authority a normalised score out of 100 for each factor, before taking an average across each factor for the overall score.