America and China Race Ahead in the Best Driving Experience – New OSV Research Reveals

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America has long been known as the road trip capital of the world, but it might surprise you to know that China offers an equally good driving experience. According to data compiled by leading independent vehicle specialists, OSV Ltd, both countries excel in a variety of factors which unite to deliver exactly what drivers want. While the USA is number one for both road trips and fuel prices (33rd in the world in total, and the top of all western countries), China comes second for road trips and road quality, and third for fuel. When all other factors are countered in, the two countries secure joint first place in OSV’s driving experience index.

Using a variety of data to rank each country for its driver friendliness – including fuel prices, road deaths per 1,000 capita, driving rules enforcement, road trips, pollution and congestion, and road quality – OSV created a metric to provide a definitive Index ranking the top ten countries. Pleasingly, the UK comes in in third place.

Although the UK’s fuel prices are among the worst, ranking ninth place, just ahead of France, we have some of the lowest road death statistics, making the UK number one in this category. Correlating nicely with this figure, Britain also did well in driving rules enforcement, ranking joint third place with China and Germany. And while Londoners may raise their eyebrows, the UK as a whole also ranked third place for pollution and congestion, just behind Germany in first place, and France in second.

The rest of the countries to make OSV’s driving experience top ten are:

  • 4th place Germany, which came first for congestion and second for road deaths

  • 5th place Australia, which offers the second lowest fuel prices and third best road trips

  • 6th place France, which came second for congestion and third for road quality

  • 7th place Japan, which had the best road quality and came third for road deaths and fourth for pollution and congestion

  • Joint 8th place South Africa, which came fourth for fuel prices and road trips

  • Joint 8th place Brazil, which ranked fifth for fuel prices, driving enforcement and road trips

  • Joint 8th place India, which came fourth for fuel prices.

OSV joint company director, Debbie Kirkley comments: “Holiday season is just around the corner and driving holidays really fit in with the current trend for experiential travel. We hope that this index might help people in their decision-making this summer.

“America has always been the number one choice for Brits heading off on a road trip, but this index shows that there are many other places worth considering – if China is a journey too far, why not stay at home? Our roads are as a safe as they come and we’re pretty good when it comes to congestion and pollution too. In fact, any one of the countries in our top ten would be worth considering – South Africa, Brazil and India may be at the bottom of the list, but they’re still better than all the other countries out there!”



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