The best and worst cities for driving across the globe and the UK cities ranked the lowest

The best and worst cities for driving across the globe have been revealed, with ten UK cities making it into the 100 strong global index. 

In the UK, drivers spend an average of two years of their lives in total behind the wheel, but where will they be safest when it comes to driver behaviour, costs and safety on the roads? 

The city with the lowest congestion is Glasgow, while London has the highest, this is while Birmingham ranks 27th worldwide for its driving quality.

On the global scale, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Belfast, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Edinburgh and London all made it onto the index with many comparing poorly to their international counterparts. 

In order to determine the best cities to drive in a number of factors were examined, such as the number of cars per capita, traffic congestion, road and public transport quality.

This is while  air quality levels were also investigated in order to determine the city’s commitment to providing fresh air and good visibility for its drivers and pedestrians alike.

The research by Mister Auto found that the best city in the world for drivers was Calgary, Canada.

This was followed by Dubai, UAE, Ottawa, Canada, Bern, Switzerland, El Paso, USA, Vancouver, Canada, Gothenburg, Sweden, Dusseldorf, Germany, Basel, Switzerland and Dortmund, Germany.

It also revealed the worst cities in the world and Mumbai in India was found to have the poorest conditions for drivers. 

This was followed by Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Kolkata, India, Lagos, Nigeria, Karachi, Pakistan, Bogota, Colombia, São Paulo, Brazil, Mexico City, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Moscow, Russia.

Those complaining about the cost of running a car in the UK should take pity on their Australian counterparts, as the study found that Sydney was the most expensive city for parking in the world, with two hours setting you back over £32.00.

This is while the most affordable city was Singapore. 

The price of petrol was also a major focus for the researchers which found that cities Oslo was the most expensive followed by Utrecht and Rotterdam while the cities with the least expensive prices are Lagos followed by Dubai and San Antonio. 

Managing Director of Mister Auto Sébastien Rohart said that despite advances in the accessibility of transportation, cars remain the most commonly used mode of transport in the world.

He added: ‘Whether running on fuel or electric power, cities will continue to have to make adjustments so that they can accommodate the flow of vehicles.

‘While many cities already have the infrastructure and legislation in place, there’s still a lot of work to be done towards making driving safe and affordable across the board.’ 

Many people across the world would have experienced road rage in their lifetime, and the study also looked at how safe cities were when it came to angry road users taking out their anger on others.

The cities with the most incidents of road rage were Ulaanbaatar, Moscow and Karachi. This is while the cities with the least were Osaka, Tokyo and Singapore.

Fatalities were also examined in the safety category and it was found that Lagos Orlando and Mumbai had the highest rates, while Manchester and Oslo had the lowest.

Mr Rohart added: ‘Certain cities tend to be more prone to incidents of road rage than others. We knew we had to survey citizens about this aspect of driving in the study because the frequency of road rage is a very revealing indicator of a city’s overall driving culture.

“Firstly, it’s a measure of the aggressiveness of its drivers, and secondly, it exposes the level of frustration experienced due to stressful city driving conditions like traffic and congestion.’