New research by Confused.com has showed Ireland to be the 45th most car congested country in the world with 20 cars per km of its 99,830km road network.
To reveal the average number of cars per kilometre of road in each country, the study calculated the total number of vehicles and divided this by the size of the road network for 64 of the world’s major economies. This figure was used to rank each country’s roads from the highest to lowest volume-to-capacity ratio.
In total, there are 2.25 million cars in UAE, all sharing 4,080 km of road – or put another way, for every km of road in the country, there are 533 cars jostling for space. That’s 37% more than the next most congested destination, Hong Kong and almost 520% more than the UK.
Hong Kong ranks second, with 390 cars per km of road, across a total network of 2,107 km. Following in third place is Singapore, with 192 cars per km on its 3,500km wide road network. Turkey (171 cars per km) and Bulgaria (160 cars per km) are close behind in fourth and fifth position, respectively.
Europe and Asia dominate the top 20, with Mexico and Egypt the only countries to feature from other continents.
The United States is nowhere to be seen in the top 20 and the United Kingdom features as the 11th most congested country, but ranks the lowest of any country when it comes to pollution levels, with 8 micrograms of air pollution per cubic meter of air. That’s 90% less than Egypt.
Alex Kindred, car insurance expert at Confused.com, commented on the study, saying:
“Whether you’re driving in your home country, or further afield, it’s important to check the latest congestion rules and charges when driving in a new city. Driving without realising the regulations could lead to fines – or even worse points on your license, which can affect future car insurance policies, particularly when looking to hire or drive a car abroad.
Knowing how congested roads might be while driving in another country or city can also help you travel much more efficiently and spend as little time as possible stuck in traffic jams (and more time exploring)!”