AND THE LOSERS ARE…
THE WORST CANADIAN CITIES FOR DRIVING
Ask anyone who drives in Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto to describe the experience and “crippled” comes up as a fitting adjective. No wonder some people want autonomous cars; driving in crowded cities can be a maddening monotony of minuscule movements, a task better left to computers than our big, creative brains.
But not all big cities suck at dealing with traffic and the mobility of their citizens. Some are surprisingly good at getting people around. In Europe, online retailer kfzteile24, one of the largest German online shops for car parts and accessories, examined 500 cities around the globe, circling those with the highest number of registered vehicles in their initial scope. Its goal was to find the 100 best (and thus worst) cities to drive in.
The survey then whittled down the list to 100 cities based on which ones had the most available traffic data, so the study is skewed to those major urban centres that tend to keep track of these things. For example, even though Calgary and Edmonton are roughly similar, Edmonton doesn’t make the list, but Calgary does.
Still, the kfzteile24 study provides an interesting look at the five Canadian cities that made the list. It takes into account nine parameters. They include: congestion levels based on data from TomTom, public transport options, the cost of parking, cost of gasoline and diesel, air pollution, the average speed between the city centre and the international airport, road fatalities, road quality and road rage. From those data points, it distilled the ranked list of 100 best and worst. Globally, Düsseldorf, Germany, ranked No. 1 while Kolkata, India, was last.
In Canada, only Calgary presented well. Congestion caused by “temporary” construction work was not taken into account for the study, so Toronto and Montreal got a boost they don’t currently deserve. Still, of the five Canadian cities, which all fall within the top 50 in the study, lowest-ranked Vancouver scored 48 out of 100. Put another way, Vancouver ranks as the worst place to drive in Canada among its biggest cities, but middle of the pack compared with the rest of the world, according to kfzteile24. That’s followed by Ottawa as the next worst, Toronto in third, Montreal at second and finally Calgary.
Here’s a breakdown of how each city fared, from best to worst.
Rank: 10/100
Calgary’s congestion was ranked among the lowest of Canadian cities with a score of 20 out of 100, one point behind the top three cities in world. It also scored the cleanest air. Calgary might have done better
Rank: 13/100 Rank: 14/100
overall were it not for its expensive downtown parking, where the Alberta city ranked more expensive than London, but better than the most costly place to park, New York City. Calgary also ranked relatively badly on the road-rage scale. Road rage was based on the results of a poll conducted in each of the cities that asked more than 1,000 drivers to rate their perception of road rage, combined with the number of reported incidents in the past 12 months. Still, Calgary’s final score put it in the top 10 in the world.
Drivers in Montreal, long frustrated with the nightmare that is the Champlain Bridge, the war zone known as Highway 720 or the gridlock known as route 40 or 15 will be stunned to see it ranked as the second-best major city in Canada to drive. Despite a terminal case of construction, Montreal’s ranking in the kfzteile24 study comes, in part, from its good score at minimizing road rage, but also for its Métro subway and transit system, which helps take a lot of cars off the road.
A decent subway and public transit system, comparatively low price of fuel, modest downtown parking costs and fairly quick time to Toronto Pearson International Airport all helped the city achieve its third-best Canadian rank, despite problems on highways 401 and 400, the Don Valley Parkway, Gardiner Expressway and numerous other arteries. Road quality was slightly better than average at 31/100, according to the study, although countless motorists will no doubt disagree.
Rank: 22/100
Anyone who regularly drives in Toronto and Ottawa will happily choose Ottawa traffic over Toronto’s, but Canada’s capital still lacks a subway system, though an LRT route is under construction and expansion plans are in the works. Indeed, Ottawa ranked better than Montreal and Toronto on the congestion score and parking costs, but had poorer quality roads than Toronto.
Rank: 48/100
For regular commuters along Highway 1, Vancouver’s last-place rank in Canada will be no surprise. Worse than London, Vancouver’s rating comes from its high congestion, partly the result of lacking major north-south or eastwest arteries, but also because of the sheer volume. It’s also hurt by the usually slow crawl to the airport, but helped by its low pollution compared to other major cities. Vancouver ranked third overall in Canada behind Calgary and Ottawa as having the least air pollution.