OSV Ltd has done some research to find out which country is the best for a driving experience. Their joint company director, Debbie Kirkley explained that now is around the time when people are starting to plan holidays. Debbie said that as so many people enjoy driving holidays they came up with a list of the top ten places for driving. They used a number of factors and scaled countries on those.
The factors they used included pollution & congestion, fuel prices, road deaths per 1,000 capita, road quality and driving rules enforcement. Adding up the scores for these allowed them to come up with a ranking of countries with regards to how friendly they are for drivers.
It may not be a surprise that it was the USA topped the top ten list. With many people choosing to do road trips while they are there and because of its low fuel prices (which happens to be the 33rd cheapest in the world and cheapest in the west). However, it actually shared the top spot with China, which may be more of a surprise for some. This is because it came second for road trips as well as road quality and third for fuel. In third place came the UK, which although we know has poor road quality and expensive fuel, has some of the lowest road deaths, scoring top in this category and third in enforcement of driving rules as well as pollution & congestion. It is nice to know that the UK scored so well in the safety categories, so if you decide to stay in the UK for a holiday, you know that if you choose to drive, you will be relatively safer than in most other countries.
Germany came in fourth place as its congestion score was top of the list and road deaths were second. Australia came fifth and it has the second lowest fuel prices but also scored third best for road trips. In sixth place was France which was second in the congestion category and third for road quality. Japan came seventh due to it having the best road quality, third for road deaths and fourth for pollution and congestion. In eighth place there were three countries; South Africa, Brazil and India, mainly due to them all having low fuel prices as well as Brazil and South Africa being good for road trips and Brazil being good for driving enforcement. Although these are near the bottom, they are still in the top ten and so could still be well worth considering when you are deciding what places to choose form for your holiday.