New research from Oponeo has revealed which cities in the UK are the most car friendly. The research analysed everything from vehicle maintenance costs and safety to how easy the cities are to commute through. The results may well surprise you!
Top of the table was the Scottish city Glasgow, which the research found to be the most car-friendly city in the UK. It was closely followed by Leeds and Sheffield. At the other end of the scale, Cardiff, Liverpool and London were found to be the UK’s least car-friendly cities. Oponeo’s Giles Kirkland comments,
“Driving in big cities, especially old cities which were never developed with cars in mind, is no easy feat anywhere these days. However, there are places which are more car-friendly than others. To see which cities are doing well in this regard, we took into account criteria such as road safety, the price of fuel, insurance and parking. Some of the results came as a surprise: I used to live in Bristol and thought the traffic there was rather slow – now I know it’s the second best in the country!
“What isn’t surprising is the greatest loser of all – London. It’s the slowest, most expensive and least comfortable city in the UK for drivers. Public transport or bikes are definitely better alternatives for Londoners.”
Car costs by city
The cost of car insurance has been on the rise. Where you live has a big part to play in how much your premiums are. The most expensive place to insure a car out of the 12 cities included in the research is Liverpool. A middle-aged professional male there can look at spending £1,411.20 to insure his car worth £13,000.
The same individual would pay just £787.21 to insure his car in Edinburgh, which was the cheapest city to purchase car insurance. Bristol came in second cheapest at £802.26, and Leicester was the third cheapest at £857.92.
Parking costs
Another cost to consider when living in a city is the price of parking. The most expensive city to park in is, perhaps predictably, London. Parking there will set you back an average of £8.50 per hour. That’s way out in front of the second most expensive city for car parking, which is Edinburgh, at £5 per hour.
The cheapest city to park in is Birmingham, where it will cost you an average of just £1.50 to park up for an hour. Sheffield and Manchester aren’t far behind, costing just £1.60 and £1.63 per hour respectively.
One further cost that was considered during this research is the cost of having your car serviced. To service a Ford Fiesta would cost a reasonable £165.50 in an independent garage in Belfast, and £239 if you were to take it into a dealership.
In contrast to this, an independent garage in London would charge you £220.50 to service the same vehicle, while a dealership in the capital would cost a massive £337.50. One again, this is far more than the second most expensive city for a car service – Edinburgh – where an independent service would cost £174, and one carried out in a dealership would be £254.50.
Dodge the stress of commuting
The Oponeo research looked at the average speed that a car can drive through the city centre, and used this to work out which UK city would offer the quickest commute.
Someone driving through Leeds could expect to make their way across the city at an average of 24.23 mph, the fastest speed of any of the cities studied. Bristol comes in at a close second, with an average of 23.55 mph through the city.
In comparison, a motorist will only travel at an average of 13.54 mph in Edinburgh, and just 8 mph during the morning rush hour. Meanwhile, a London commuter drives at an average of 11.34 mph.
For those unfortunate enough to be driving through the city centre at 8 am, it is Manchester that records the slowest average speed, at just 1.25 mph. That’s about a third of the average person’s walking speed!
Safety first
The Oponeo study also considered safety. It considered how many traffic accidents there are per 1,000 inhabitants in each of the 12 cities included in the research.
Belfast saw the highest incidence of accidents, with 4.06 per every 1000 inhabitants. Conversely though, it also had the lowest percentage of fatal accidents out of all 12 cities.
At the other end of the scale is Manchester, which had only 1 accident for every 1,000 inhabitants . So perhaps there is an up side to those average 8 am speeds of 1.25 mph!
Glasgow tops the table
Taking all of these aspects into consideration, Glasgow comes out on top as the UK’s most car friendly location. The city is a cost effective, safe, and commuter friendly city to live and drive in.
Were you surprised by these findings? How important is car friendliness to you when it comes to the place that you live? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
If you live and work in the city … why would you want to drive a car ?
So that you don’t have to use our terrrible public transport!!!!
I use public transport a lot. On the whole I find it very good and getting better. It doesn’t offer the door-to-door convenience of a car but I’m not physically lazy so that’s just fine.
It’s absolutely nothing to do with being physically lazy; since I retired I frequently use the same buses to get to the city centre. It’s partly to avoid another hour of MY time being taken up in travel and also the comfort of knowing I would arrive at work warm and dry.
I find that a coat and waterproofs keeps me warm and dry. On a bus, as a passenger, the journey time IS mine – to read, doze, daydream, or whatever. Same can’t be said if I’m driving.
When I was still working, to get to work by 9, I would have had to leave home by 8, walk to a bus stop with no shelter, and at the other end walk half a mile to work, regardless of the weather. By car, I could leave home at 8.30 and drive door to door. At night, I could be home by car before 5.30; by bus I would have all the walking plus standing on the bus and get home closer to 6. Any more stupid questions?
Those two half mile walks would have done wonders for your health.
Oh, a councillor. A breed of people who still thinks everyone wants to jump on public transport because they think just because someone lives in a city that they still work in the same city and in the centre. Some thoughts for you and your ilk to consider:
1. A large proportion of the population work in other places where using public transport would add a significant extra amount of time and cost – in my case, an extra 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hrs in the evening – for a 15 mile journey.
2. Many people live in suburbs and work in business parks around the city’s PERIMETER. Very few, if any cities, seem to offer a bus service between suburbs and business parks.
3. Why do you all still design – even on new estates – roads without even a ‘semi’ bus pull-in that would allow cars to ease past and allow a bus to pull out easily when ready? Instead, the stopped buses cause all other road users to come to a halt, worse, you put in pedestrian islands right by the bus stop so cars can’t overtake (legally)
4. Why do you think I would rather stand in the cold/wet at a bus shelter, wait for a late bus and sit on a sweaty/dirty seat when I can sit in the luxury and warmth of my own car?
5. City centres are dying because parking charges are a barrier. Why would I want to visit a town centre for a 10 minute errand and have to pay £1.60 for a full hour? In France city centres thrive because even in the big cities parking is free for the first 30 minutes and in many towns it’s free all day. Make parking free for 30 minutes and I might start supporting more city centre businesses, in turn they would pump more into local council coffers through business rates. Currently, you’re losing out with half-empty car parks which in turn could be more full and supporting businesses.
Someone remind me it’s 2017 but councils are still run by people with a 1970s mentality.
*sighs*
BRISTOL? The second fastest city drive through ? Somebody is having a laugh, 23 mph indeed. More like 13 mph.
If Leeds – “Motorway City of the Seventies” – is close to being best, heaven help the rest. Leeds City Council seems intent on driving motorists out, and on the rare occasion I need to go into the City Centre I park on the periphery and catch the bus. Leeds is the largest city in Europe without a proper rail public transport system, be it tram or metro, but the Council just fritters away money on more futile bus schemes.
Motorist want driving out or all towns and cities Let’s all start walking again that’s if some remember that they once could walk further that a few yards Drive everywhere all the time because I have forgotten how to walk
It’s a viscous cycle. People who drive everywhere get a false impression of how far things are and end up thinking that they can’t possibly walk anywhere.
Malmo in Sweden made an effort to break the cycle (it gets cold and wet there too, by the way): http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/09/no-ridiculous-car-journeys-malmo-sweden.html
Malmo in Sweden has made a concerted effort to encourage people to ditch their cars when they could easily walk or cycle: http://grist.org/article/2010-09-29-how-one-swedish-city-gets-people-to-trade-silly-car-trips-for-bi/
so where is the list of 10???
https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/ranked-the-most-car-friendly-cities-in-the-uk
Just click on the link ‘most car friendly’ in the first line.
Thanks, why are so many web designers these days no longer capable of making pages usable?
Oxford has got to be up there in the most unfriendly list.
Parking is FREE in the CITY of Ely.
Thanks Hally, that’s a great excuse to visit Ely Wines in my 6.2litre!
Glasgow is NOT a car friendly city and continues to get worse. The council and “passenger Transport” quango have been building bus stops in the middle of 2nd lanes to hold up cars while they stop for passengers, and converting lanes to underused cycle lanes – in cold wet Glasgow – that shows how really brainless the council roads staff are! If there was ever a communist scheme to frustrate drivers and create more pollution, this is the city. Any money spent on tar should be for the potholes, not blocking off lanes.
The traffic lights across the city don’t seem to talk to each other either, and a lot don’t adjust at night or to busy periods, meaning unnecessary pollution and journey times. Complete contrast to the targets for the trunk roads by Transport a Scotland – but that’s a govt agency, not a brainless council.
Don.. if its any consolation the planks we have running manchester are just as bad. Back in November 2015 they closed one lane of the main A580 to use as the “Leigh guided bus lane”. Caused huge traffic problems, so bad that commuters just gave up and used the bus lane anyway..just ttok the fine. Remembering this happened in November.. when interviewed a councillor happily announced “Oh we dont get the buses until March”….
It looks to me that the likes of Sadiik Kahn are trying to make the life of the motorist a living hell. Eventually it will be the very rich
allowed on the roads and the rest of us on public transport ,or bikes if your fit enough. The Brave New World is closing in
I love 20 miles from Edinburgh and couldn’t even get a direct bus till recently our community put on a bus and surprise surprise the bus company wants to reintroduce a bus. Car are an essential not a luxury
I remember when people used to choose places to live that enabled them to easily travel to work, or vica-versa. If you make choices that restrict your travel options then you have backed yourself into a corner. That is not the same as a car being ‘essential’.
£1….1 hour …..multi story ..Huddersfield …Town centre.
I work three different shifts. When my car required major work; I could only get to/from work by bus on one of the three shifts. I’m 20 miles North of London and one of the towns I’d like to travel to/from is a County Town but in this day & age it’s still not possible. It’s ridiculous.
Early shift (6am – 1:50pm) only buses coming from work, NONE going to at that time of morning.
Late shift (1:45pm – 9:35pm) I can get there but buses cease to go back to the County Town after about 8:30pm but come in the opposite direction until approx. midnight.
Night shift. (9:30pm – 6:05am) Wow! Can get to AND from work on bus!
BUT, the only two times I bought returns, the second bus was cancelled ( thanks Arriva NOT!)
Thank heavens my 6.2 litre Vauxhall VXR8 is back on the road. Getting rid of the car means losing my job. I really cannot believe how poor public transport is in this day & age…
Glasgow is the most car friendly, why headline it with a picture of the Mall in London (12th).
I am one of the long suffering Manchester commuters… and the problem is exacerbated by idiot councils, paining white lines all over the road to cut down available road space… adding small sections of bus lanes forcing two lanes of vehicles into one lane, causing a jam which traps the buses so they derive no benefit from the bus lanes. The closure of Oxford Road in Manchester has will cost me around £600 a year in lost salary and means I will use an additional £150 of fuel… causing more pollution.
Our new Mayors response? We are having a survey!!!
If you live and work in the city … why would you want to drive a car ?
So that you don’t have to use our terrrible public transport!!!!
I use public transport a lot. On the whole I find it very good and getting better. It doesn’t offer the door-to-door convenience of a car but I’m not physically lazy so that’s just fine.
It’s absolutely nothing to do with being physically lazy; since I retired I frequently use the same buses to get to the city centre. It’s partly to avoid another hour of MY time being taken up in travel and also the comfort of knowing I would arrive at work warm and dry.
I find that a coat and waterproofs keeps me warm and dry. On a bus, as a passenger, the journey time IS mine – to read, doze, daydream, or whatever. Same can’t be said if I’m driving.
When I was still working, to get to work by 9, I would have had to leave home by 8, walk to a bus stop with no shelter, and at the other end walk half a mile to work, regardless of the weather. By car, I could leave home at 8.30 and drive door to door. At night, I could be home by car before 5.30; by bus I would have all the walking plus standing on the bus and get home closer to 6. Any more stupid questions?
Those two half mile walks would have done wonders for your health.
Oh, a councillor. A breed of people who still thinks everyone wants to jump on public transport because they think just because someone lives in a city that they still work in the same city and in the centre. Some thoughts for you and your ilk to consider:
1. A large proportion of the population work in other places where using public transport would add a significant extra amount of time and cost – in my case, an extra 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hrs in the evening – for a 15 mile journey.
2. Many people live in suburbs and work in business parks around the city’s PERIMETER. Very few, if any cities, seem to offer a bus service between suburbs and business parks.
3. Why do you all still design – even on new estates – roads without even a ‘semi’ bus pull-in that would allow cars to ease past and allow a bus to pull out easily when ready? Instead, the stopped buses cause all other road users to come to a halt, worse, you put in pedestrian islands right by the bus stop so cars can’t overtake (legally)
4. Why do you think I would rather stand in the cold/wet at a bus shelter, wait for a late bus and sit on a sweaty/dirty seat when I can sit in the luxury and warmth of my own car?
5. City centres are dying because parking charges are a barrier. Why would I want to visit a town centre for a 10 minute errand and have to pay £1.60 for a full hour? In France city centres thrive because even in the big cities parking is free for the first 30 minutes and in many towns it’s free all day. Make parking free for 30 minutes and I might start supporting more city centre businesses, in turn they would pump more into local council coffers through business rates. Currently, you’re losing out with half-empty car parks which in turn could be more full and supporting businesses.
Someone remind me it’s 2017 but councils are still run by people with a 1970s mentality.
*sighs*
BRISTOL? The second fastest city drive through ? Somebody is having a laugh, 23 mph indeed. More like 13 mph.
If Leeds – “Motorway City of the Seventies” – is close to being best, heaven help the rest. Leeds City Council seems intent on driving motorists out, and on the rare occasion I need to go into the City Centre I park on the periphery and catch the bus. Leeds is the largest city in Europe without a proper rail public transport system, be it tram or metro, but the Council just fritters away money on more futile bus schemes.
Motorist want driving out or all towns and cities Let’s all start walking again that’s if some remember that they once could walk further that a few yards Drive everywhere all the time because I have forgotten how to walk
It’s a viscous cycle. People who drive everywhere get a false impression of how far things are and end up thinking that they can’t possibly walk anywhere.
Malmo in Sweden made an effort to break the cycle (it gets cold and wet there too, by the way): http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/09/no-ridiculous-car-journeys-malmo-sweden.html
Malmo in Sweden has made a concerted effort to encourage people to ditch their cars when they could easily walk or cycle: http://grist.org/article/2010-09-29-how-one-swedish-city-gets-people-to-trade-silly-car-trips-for-bi/
so where is the list of 10???
https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/ranked-the-most-car-friendly-cities-in-the-uk
Just click on the link ‘most car friendly’ in the first line.
Thanks, why are so many web designers these days no longer capable of making pages usable?
Oxford has got to be up there in the most unfriendly list.
Parking is FREE in the CITY of Ely.
Thanks Hally, that’s a great excuse to visit Ely Wines in my 6.2litre!
Glasgow is NOT a car friendly city and continues to get worse. The council and “passenger Transport” quango have been building bus stops in the middle of 2nd lanes to hold up cars while they stop for passengers, and converting lanes to underused cycle lanes – in cold wet Glasgow – that shows how really brainless the council roads staff are! If there was ever a communist scheme to frustrate drivers and create more pollution, this is the city. Any money spent on tar should be for the potholes, not blocking off lanes.
The traffic lights across the city don’t seem to talk to each other either, and a lot don’t adjust at night or to busy periods, meaning unnecessary pollution and journey times. Complete contrast to the targets for the trunk roads by Transport a Scotland – but that’s a govt agency, not a brainless council.
Don.. if its any consolation the planks we have running manchester are just as bad. Back in November 2015 they closed one lane of the main A580 to use as the “Leigh guided bus lane”. Caused huge traffic problems, so bad that commuters just gave up and used the bus lane anyway..just ttok the fine. Remembering this happened in November.. when interviewed a councillor happily announced “Oh we dont get the buses until March”….
It looks to me that the likes of Sadiik Kahn are trying to make the life of the motorist a living hell. Eventually it will be the very rich
allowed on the roads and the rest of us on public transport ,or bikes if your fit enough. The Brave New World is closing in
I love 20 miles from Edinburgh and couldn’t even get a direct bus till recently our community put on a bus and surprise surprise the bus company wants to reintroduce a bus. Car are an essential not a luxury
I remember when people used to choose places to live that enabled them to easily travel to work, or vica-versa. If you make choices that restrict your travel options then you have backed yourself into a corner. That is not the same as a car being ‘essential’.
£1….1 hour …..multi story ..Huddersfield …Town centre.
I work three different shifts. When my car required major work; I could only get to/from work by bus on one of the three shifts. I’m 20 miles North of London and one of the towns I’d like to travel to/from is a County Town but in this day & age it’s still not possible. It’s ridiculous.
Early shift (6am – 1:50pm) only buses coming from work, NONE going to at that time of morning.
Late shift (1:45pm – 9:35pm) I can get there but buses cease to go back to the County Town after about 8:30pm but come in the opposite direction until approx. midnight.
Night shift. (9:30pm – 6:05am) Wow! Can get to AND from work on bus!
BUT, the only two times I bought returns, the second bus was cancelled ( thanks Arriva NOT!)
Thank heavens my 6.2 litre Vauxhall VXR8 is back on the road. Getting rid of the car means losing my job. I really cannot believe how poor public transport is in this day & age…
Glasgow is the most car friendly, why headline it with a picture of the Mall in London (12th).
I am one of the long suffering Manchester commuters… and the problem is exacerbated by idiot councils, paining white lines all over the road to cut down available road space… adding small sections of bus lanes forcing two lanes of vehicles into one lane, causing a jam which traps the buses so they derive no benefit from the bus lanes. The closure of Oxford Road in Manchester has will cost me around £600 a year in lost salary and means I will use an additional £150 of fuel… causing more pollution.
Our new Mayors response? We are having a survey!!!