Driving can be an annoying experience at the best of times. Tailbacks, roadworks, and others’ bad decisions is often enough to make you tear your hair out…but what part of England has it the worst?
Our friends at Moneybarn carried out a study to find out just that.
They took data from 47 different places in England, based around 4 common annoyances:
• Speed Cameras
• Potholes
• Slow Traffic
• Delays
By normalising the data on a scale of 0-10 (0 being the least frustrating, and 10 being the most), they were able to find out what regions really got on driver’s nerves.
The Top 5
1. Greater London – overall frustration score 8.63
2. Greater Manchester– overall frustration score 7.67
3. West Midlands – overall frustration score 6.06
4. Lancashire– overall frustration score 5.68
5. West Yorkshire– overall frustration score 5.07
It’s probably no surprise to any of you to see London heading up the list. It has a population higher than Greater Manchester and the West Midlands combined – meaning more cars and more annoyances. It also ranks relatively highly for individual annoyances, coming second for its number of potholes and topping the rankings for slow traffic and delays.Even its lowest score – for speed cameras – is 5.83 out of 10, placing it in 4th.
When it comes to each separate category, the results are a bit more varied.
Lancashiremay be known as the home of the hotpot and one half of Morecambe and Wise, but it’s also got lots to answer for in terms of its speed cameras. Data from Speed Cameras UK used in the study found a total of 274 speed cameras in the county – almost 80 more than its closest rival Essex.
In terms of potholes, East Sussexhas the most, with it ranking a solid 10/10 on the frustration scale. This might be confusing, but becomes less so when you realise that the number of potholesin the area totalled a car-shaking 7,245!
Another place whose ranking might amaze you is Kingston upon Hull. This port city in Yorkshire ranked second for its slow traffic behind London – and by a very small margin at that. The average speed on its local A-roads only gets up to 16.6 miles per hour.
In the same vein, Kingston upon Hull also takes second place for frustration with delays. It scores an 8.21 for annoyance on that, behind London but above Greater Manchester. Per vehicle, per mile, a car is usually delayed there for 87 seconds on average.That may not seem like much, but when you consider how people in each of these places drive the same routes every day to get to or from work, or complete the school run, it’s easy to see how it can all add up…
Top 5 Least Frustrating Places to Drive
1. East Riding of Yorkshire – overall frustration score of 0.31
2. County Durham– overall frustration score of 0.67
3. Northumberland– overall frustration score of 0.72
4. Shropshire– overall frustration score of 0.86
5. Herefordshire– overall frustration score of 1.05
On the other hand, people seem to have a much easier time of things in the North East. The East Riding of Yorkshire was ranked the least frustrating place to drive, and all of the five places you see listed above came pretty low in the rankings for individual annoyances too.
Herefordshire was second-to-last for people’s annoyance with speed cameras, with only 6 reported in the area. County Durham had the third lowest number of potholes, with only 401 reported.
And taking the coveted place at the bottom of the list for both delays and slow traffic is once again the East Riding Of Yorkshire. The average speed on their localW A roads is 36.6 miles per hour – which, in comparison to some of the others on the list, seems positively speedy!
What about in Derbyshire?
All these statistics are well and good, but they did leave us at WrightStart wondering how we did in our neck of the woods.
Well, we’re pleased to report that Derbyshire did very well. Its overall frustration score is a satisfactory 2.77, with the majority of the individual scores in the low threes. Our highest score was on speed cameras, where 100 of them got us a score of 3.58 (exactly the same as Bedfordshire).
So, what does this study teach us? Well, there’s definitely a split between the urban and the rural. If you want to keep clam on the roads, the Yorkshire countryside is the place to go. One of its lessons is something most of us already know, though – avoid driving in London. Take the tube instead…
What frustrates you most about driving in your area? Do you think there’s anything Moneybarn’s study missed out? Let us know!
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