Study ranks Dublin as one of the hardest cities in the world to drive in, beating LA

Eva Osborne

Dublin has placed fifth in a ranking of the hardest cities in the world to navigate by car, beating Tokyo and LA.

Recent data shows searches for ‘is driving in Dublin hard’ have surged by 100 per cent in the last year.

New research from car leasing experts Nationwide Vehicle Contracts revealed the hardest city to navigate from a car is Mexico City, followed by Bangkok, Madrid, and Istanbul.

The ranking was formed by analysing data metrics, including congestion levels and direction-based searches.

After Dublin in fifth place is Johannesburg in sixth, Tokyo in seventh, Cairo in eighth, Hong Kong in ninth, and LA in tenth.

Dublin also has the second-highest number of direction-based searches in the world.

There have been over 4 million direction-based searches relating to being lost or misunderstanding the city's routes, the second-highest number in the world, beaten only by Madrid.

The Irish capital also ranks tenth in the world’s most congested list.

The city has a congestion rate of 47 per cent, not far behind the top-ranking destination, Mexico City, with a rate of 52 per cent, and Bangkok (50 pr cent).

Dublin's congestion rate is due to the average 10km journey taking 32 minutes and 45 seconds.