If you're fond of driving, the financial capital of India should be the last place to indulge in your passion. European car parts retailer Mister Auto, which is part of the PSA Group, has released a comprehensive study that reveals the best and worst cities in the world to drive around in. The study, which surveyed 100 cities globally, ranked Calgary (Canada) as the best city for driving, due to low congestion, fatalities and affordability, while Mumbai (India) is the worst, scoring low on the same factors and ranking 100 out of 100 worldwide. While Mumbai was also ranked a low 95th on incidents of road rage, it’s placed higher than Lagos (Nigeria), Kolkata (India), Karachi (Pakistan), Moscow (Russia) and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). Survey results show that Osaka (Japan) experiences the least road rage.

Oslo (Norway) has the most expensive petrol at $1.91 per litre (Rs 135), while Lagos (Nigeria) has the cheapest at $0.40 per litre. These, and more, are the very interesting findings of this new study.

Considering that drivers spend an average of two years of their lives behind the wheel, the vehicle parts specialist decided to take a deeper look into the numerous elements that impact the driving experience. In fact, the company says that drivers lose over 200 hours a year commuting in the US alone. From infrastructure and congestion, to associated driving costs and driver behaviour itself, the result is a comprehensive study that reveals the cities which are successfully utilising infrastructure and legislation to improve driving conditions for their citizens.

Kolkata and Mumbai rank lower than Lagos

A quick glance at the 2019 Driving Index's scoreboard shows that, among the combined score using the 15 parameters covering infrastructure, safety and costs used by the study, Mumbai is at the bottom of the chart with a pitiable score of 1.00, while Calgary (Canada) aced the table with 100 points. Kolkata (rank 98) with a score of 29.99 is just above Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, which managed a score of 20.30. Among the various parameters where Mumbai lost points are – least affordable city in terms of petrol price and annual road tax, high fatality rate per 1,00,000 inhabitants, cities with worst congestion, city speed sample score and high average car age.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: 

Costs

- Most expensive cities for parking for 2 hours (price):
1. Sydney ($39.23)
2. New York ($38.54)
3. Brisbane ($30.87)

- Least expensive cities for parking for 2 hours (price):
1. Mumbai ($0.45)
2. Kolkata ($0.61)
3. Lagos ($0.63)

- Most affordable petrol (score):
1. Boston (100)
2. Dubai (99.89)
3. San Antonio (99.7)

- Least affordable petrol (score):
1. Ulaanbaatar (1.00)
2. Kolkata and Mumbai (9.18)

- Most affordable annual road tax (score):
1. Miami and Orlando (100)
2. Philadelphia (99.86)

- Least affordable annual road tax (score):
1. Copenhagen (1.00)
2. Mumbai (39.12)
3. Sao Paulo (49.87)

Safety

- Most incidents of road rage (score):
1. Ulaanbaatar (99.12)
2. Moscow (98.46)
3. Karachi (98.13)

- Least amount of road rage incidents (score):
1. Osaka (1.00)
2. Tokyo (2.54)
3. Singapore (2.65)

- Highest fatality rate (per 100,000 inhabitants):
1. Lagos (26.20)
2. Orlando (23.40)
3. Mumbai (22.6)

- Lowest fatality rate (per 100,000 inhabitants):
1. Manchester (0.80)
2. Stockholm (0.90)
3. Oslo (1.00)

Infrastructure

- Highest air quality (score):
1. Brisbane (100)
2. Salvador (99.53)
3. Stockholm (98.55)

- Lowest air quality (score):
1. Lagos (1.00)
2. Karachi (25.09)
3. Beijing (26.05).

- Most cars per capita:
1. Athens (0.77)
2. Seattle (0.68)
3. Turin (0.67)

- Least cars per capita:
1. Karachi and Kolkata (0.05)
2. Tel Aviv (0.07)

- Best daily average congestion (score):
1. Malmo and El Paso (100)
2. Detroit (99.54)

- Worst daily average congestion (score):
1. Mumbai (1.00)
2. Kolkata (55.17)
3. Ulaanbaatar (62.95)

- Best road quality (score):
1. Geneva, Zurich, and Basel (100)

- Worst road quality (score):
1. Lagos (1.00)
2. Bogota (59.31)
3. Rio de Janeiro (59.70)

- Best public transport (score):
1. New York (100)
2. Singapore (99.86)
3. Tokyo (98.89)

- Worst public transport (score):
1. Karachi (1.00)
2. Bogota (16.94)
3. El Paso (60.77)

- Best city speed sample (score):
1. Calgary (100)
2. Glasgow (95.24)
3. Seattle (94.08)

- Worst city speed sample (score):
1. Mumbai (1.00)
2. London (28.80)
3. Kolkata (28.99).

- Highest average car age:
1. Mumbai, Kolkata, and Athens (15.00)

- Lowest average car age:
1. Dubai (5.20)
2. Singapore (5.46)
3. Tokyo (6.00)