UK’s car friendliest town revealed

Motorists need to head for Dundee if they want to experience the UK’s most car-friendly town or city, new research from Virgin Money Car Insurance shows. The Scottish city edged out competition from rivals including Blackpool, Ipswich, Portsmouth and Southend.

Virgin Money Car Insurance researchers rated the UK’s 50 biggest towns and cities by population on a range of criteria including petrol prices; number of car parks; the cost of parking for two hours; the number of speed cameras on main roads into the town or city and the level of car crime.

The unique project then allotted points for towns and cities based on their ranking, with vehicle crime and the number of car parks weighted to reflect the population in order to produce the top 50 cities and towns.

Dundee performed ahead of its rivals across all categories. However drivers should steer clear of Cardiff as it is the UK’s least car-friendly ahead of Nottingham, London, Bolton and Middlesbrough. The Welsh capital scored badly as it was among the worst for car crime, has higher petrol prices, a greater number of speed cameras and was only middle-ranking for car parking costs.

Jason Wyer-Smith of Virgin Money Car Insurance said: “Driving can be frustrating and expensive whether it is a case of struggling to find a car park or struggling to pay for the car park with the cost of petrol, speed camera fines and the threat of vehicle crime thrown in.

“Anyone who drives across the country will be familiar with the feeling that some towns just seem designed to make life difficult for motorists. Now our research shows which are car-friendly and which are not quite as friendly as they should be.”

The 10 most car-friendly towns are listed below along with the 10 least friendly:

In Pole Position

1. Dundee
2. Blackpool
3. Ipswich
4. Portsmouth
5. Southend
6. Edinburgh
7. Peterborough
8. Aberdeen
9. Poole
10. Sunderland

At The Back Of The Grid

50. Cardiff
49. Nottingham
48. Birmingham
47. London
46. Reading
45. Leeds
44. Oxford
43. Sheffield
42. Bolton
41. Hull


Jason Wyer-Smith continued: “Every motorist will have their own complaints about their home town and its driving experience. There are bound to be drivers in Dundee who cannot believe their city is car-friendly just as there will be people in Cardiff who love driving there.

“However the research is an attempt to quantify what makes a town or city car-friendly and what doesn’t. And it should be a guide to people planning trips on what to expect.”

The most expensive place to park is London where a two-hour stay in a car park costs an average £11 while the capital also has the most speed cameras on major routes into the city. However it does well for petrol prices where Northampton is the most expensive.

Nottingham is rated the worst city for car crime while Bournemouth is the worst for council-run car parks. The cheapest petrol is to be found in Edinburgh while the cheapest places to park are Peterborough and Telford.