Report: Tourists Rank the World’s Drivers by Politeness

How enjoyable driving is can be majorly impacted by the manners and the behavior of the other drivers on the road, especially when you are visiting another country and might not be used to the way people drive there. A new survey by DiscoverCars.com has used customer data from nearly 5000 tourist drivers to create a ranking of the countries with the politest drivers.

DiscoverCars.com surveyed their own customers to see how tourists rated the politeness of drivers around the world, from 1 to 10. Only ratings from foreign tourists were counted, and only countries that have been rated 50 times or more were included in the research.

One state in the US appeared in the ranking, with the joint lowest score – Florida was given an average rating of 7.14. While it’s not a low score, it is significantly lower than the countries at the top of the ranking. Tourists left some negative reviews of the drivers of Florida, including one visitor to Miami who said, “Drivers in South Florida have little respect for other drivers and for the basic courtesy between drivers.” Another, who was visiting Orlando, said, “Why is everyone in such a hurry?”

The findings showed that Cyprus was rated the politest country, with an average rating of 8.83. New Zealand came in second place, rated 8.77 by tourist drivers. In third place, Turkey scored 8.73. Australia was next, with a rating of 8.60. In fifth place, Portugal scored 8.54.

Germany landed in sixth place with a rating of 8.45. The Canary Islands were rated 8.31, followed by mainland Spain which was given an average score of 8.29. Poland and Mauritius ranked in joint ninth place, both scoring 8.25. In tenth place, the mainland of Italy scored 8.02.

In contrast, the five countries with the lowest ratings were as follows:

With the lowest score, Sicily was given a rating of 7.14, as was the US state of Florida. Next, the United Arab Emirates scored 7.80. With a slightly higher score, France was rated 7.84, and finally Morocco scored 7.97.

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There were a few common threads in both the praise and the criticism of drivers on the roads. For instance, patience was valued highly, with one tourist giving a positive review of drivers in Portugal calling them “very patient” and another saying driving in the country felt “civilized and calm”. In contrast, negative reviews from tourists often talked about the high speeds of local drivers, with tourists who visited the UAE and Sicily commenting on how much speeding they saw, and one tourist who visited France remarking, “They do not like people who drive slowly !”

Aleksandrs Buraks, Head of Growth at DiscoverCars.com, comments:

“We always enjoy working with our internal data to see what real DiscoverCars.com customers are saying about their experiences. It’s great to see that tourists mostly found the other drivers on the roads polite and friendly on their travels.

“It was interesting to see some significant regional variation in the data – for instance, Sicily scored a whole point out of 10 lower than mainland Italy, ranking in the bottom 5 countries on our list.

“Don’t forget that there are so many beautiful places to explore in these countries, even if the customs on the road take a little more getting used to.”

Tips for driving abroad

Familiarize yourself ahead of time with local driving laws and customs. Some countries use the horn in very different ways, with drivers in the Netherlands only using it in emergency situations, but drivers in Turkey and Spain using it to signal that they are about to overtake.
Giving other drivers the benefit of the doubt, especially when you are traveling somewhere that is new to you, will help you stay calm while you drive, and help you avoid unnecessary stress.
Be extra careful in situations where you are uncertain, and pay close attention to the roads, especially if they are narrower than you are used to.

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This post was previously published on discovercars.com.

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