For some, driving can be a very pleasant experience and a great way to travel and discover new countries. For others however, driving is more a necessity, rather than an enjoyable activity, and for those people having to drive can even become stressful.
To those who would like to take a road trip, but fear the stress of driving will ruin their plans, Confused.com analysed 48 countries, taking into account a range of different factors, and ranked them on the stress level of driving in them.
1. Methodology
“As a driver, there are a lot of factors that contribute to whether your driving experience is a safe and stress-free one or not. If you’re planning on driving in a new country, it’s important to do your research before deciding to drive around. Ensure you’ve got the correct car insurance, as well as planning out your route and stops. As our research highlights, driving conditions and rules can really vary from country to country.”, says Alex Kindred, car insurance expert at Confused.com
Confused.com found 4 main elements that contribute to the stress level of driving in a country: road quality, number of speed cameras, fatal accidents per country population and the number of cars per km of road.
For road quality, they used data from the World Economic Forum, which had already scored countries on their road quality. One speed camera every km of road represents the total number of speed cameras in a country, divided by the total length of its roads, resulting in the average distance between speed cameras.
Luckily, many of the factors that contribute to stressful driving – including accidents, congestion and poor road infrastructure – can be improved. Many of the countries around the world are dedicating time and resources to improving their roads and making driving a safer experience for their drivers.
Alex Kindred, car insurance expert at Confused.com
For the number of fatal accidents, they aggregated data on the population of each country and the reported road accidents and revealed the number of fatal accidents per 100,000 people. Lastly, the number of cars per km of road represents the total number of vehicles found in a country divided by the total length of its roads.
After revealing all the numbers, they calculated an overall stress score for each country. “As road quality and deaths per population are likely to cause more stress to drivers than congestion and speed cameras, we also calculated a weighted average in which the congestion and speed camera factors each account for 20% of the average score and road quality and fatal accidents each account for 30% of the average score.”, Confused.com reveals.
2. The 10 most stressful countries to drive in
3. The 10 least stressful countries to drive in
