27.07.07 Which is the most car-friendly city in the UK?

Although Britain has become a nation reared on low-cost flights and packaged deals that promise sun, sea and sand, a growing number of holidaymakers are choosing to eschew the promise of overseas holidays in order to rediscover the quaint charms of their home isles.

According to a survey conducted by Kwik-Fit, 30 million Brits will take at least one trip in the UK this year, driven by a romantic desire to explore their own country rather than far away lands.

In practical terms, one of the benefits for those choosing to travel around their own backyard is that it is relatively small. Travellers can drive from Penzance in Cornwall to Thurso in the Scottish Highlands in less than two days. For a tiny island nation as obsessed with its motors as Britain is, car-based holidays are ideal.

The only problem is that, with so many cars on the UK's roads, there is a chance that people could have their holidays ruined by traffic congestion and poor parking.

Luckily for the nation's overworked drivers, the boffins at Virgin Money Car Insurance have carried out extensive tests and come up with a ranking of the UK's most car-friendly cities, in terms of petrol prices, congestion levels, the amount of parking places, the incidence of car crime and the number of speed cameras on main roads.

And the UK's best driving destination? The Scottish city of Dundee, which was able to edge out competition from Aberdeen, Telford, Ipswich and Dudley to retain top spot for the second year running. Meanwhile, Welsh capital Cardiff was discovered to be the worst place to drive, ahead of Nottingham, London, Leeds and Slough.

Dundee speeds ahead, Cardiff is stuck in reverse

Researchers rated each of the UK's major towns and cities as part of the national project, now in its second year. Points were allotted to the different locales based on their individual rankings in each of the categories, with vehicle crime and the number of car parking spaces adjusted to reflect the population.

Dundee scored highly in every category and was particularly impressive in terms of cheap car parking and the number of car parking spaces per 1,000 city inhabitants. Along with Ipswich, Derby, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, it was also one of the cheapest destinations to fill up the tank.

Cardiff, on the other hand, successfully retained its unenviable crown of 'least car-friendly city' for the second year, due in no small way to its lack of affordable car parks and high levels of vehicular crime.

Jason Wyer-Smith, a Virgin Money Car Insurance rep, said: "With more than 23 million UK drivers, it's clear that we are in love with the car and spend a considerable amount of time in them. Unfortunately time spent driving is not always the most pleasant and our research shows the driving experience varies widely across the country.

"Every motorist will have their own definition of driving hell whether it’s hunting for a parking space, being stuck in a traffic jam or being caught by a speed camera for a momentary lapse," he said. "There are bound to be drivers in Dundee who cannot believe their city should top the list 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 moving location or planning trips on what to expect when they get there."

Congestion makes all the difference

Ipswich, Derby, Dundee and Edinburgh were found to be the most welcoming towns in terms of petrol prices, while Stoke was the most expensive place to fill up, ahead of Southend and Cambridge. Available car parking, meanwhile, was most scarce in Leeds, Nottingham and Cardiff, while drivers stopping off in Dudley, Newcastle, Poole and Exeter found the most plentiful parking options

London, unsurprisingly, was the most expensive place to drive. A two-hour stay in a car park in the capital costs an average of £11. It also has the most speed cameras on major roads and is the worst city for traffic jams, despite the Congestion Charge, which serves to make driving in parts of London all the more expensive.

This year's study was the first to factor congestion levels into the overall equation. While the level of traffic in London is hardly surprising, the study also found high congestion in Hull, Glasgow and Huddersfield.

"Despite being a nation of car lovers, none of us enjoy the experience of sitting in traffic. A truly car-friendly city shouldn’t have major congestion problems," said Philip Hale, spokesperson for Trafficmaster, the firm that provided congestion data for the study.

"While Dundee does see congestion on the A90, in general the city centre has no major problems with most traffic directed towards the waterfront. Cardiff however, is next to the busy M4 motorway, which won’t have helped its cause in lifting itself off the bottom of the Car Friendly tables."

Future peace of mind for car-parkers

Although parking and traffic problems were encountered in even the most car-friendly cities and towns across the UK, newly proposed regulations could see a nationwide improvement in parking and congestion. The Department for Transport (DfT) recently announced that parking enforcement will be made more driver-friendly and consistent.

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said that independent adjudicators would be given power to ask local authorities to scrap fines for motorists with mitigating circumstances, while lower penalties would be introduced later in the year for less serious offences. She also made it clear that the new guidelines require local councils to use parking enforcement to cut congestion and improve road safety, rather than make some extra money.