The truth about Sunday drivers – and six other driving facts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/may/07/driving-uk-roads-facts

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Given the frustrations of driving on the clogged roads of Britain's towns, it's no surprise – particularly just after a Bank Holiday weekend – that a whole host of truisms about driving emerge.

The stereotypical boy racer, or Sunday driver, is a staple of motoring conversations, as are theories about who drives most safely, and more. But new data released by outdoor media analytics firm Route busts one or two driving myths (and confirms a fair few more).

They've taken data from around 29,000 UK drivers, using GPS meters, traffic diaries, and other measures to dig out new info. The purpose of their collection is to give information on outdoor ad spots, but a handy side-effect is a whole host of driving data.

The data relates only to driving in cities – not motorways or nice, quiet country roads, and so lots of the findings are affected by things like congestion. It's also possible some of the smaller differences aren't statistically significant. All speeds are in kilometers (8km is about 5 miles)

Those caveats aside, here's some of the highlights:

Yep – everything you know about Sunday drivers is wrong. Thanks almost certainly to the quieter roads, driving in UK towns is faster on a Sunday.

Men do drive faster than women, it turns out, but it's hardly anything to write home about: at average speeds, a typical man will have driven an extra 260m (850 feet) after an hour than a typical woman – hardly a big deal in the scheme of things

People in the 'top' social grades travel more than 25% faster than people in the lower classifications, the research suggests. The finding uses the social grading system favoured by political parties and market researchers alike. 'A's are top professionals, like doctors, company directors and lawyers. 'B's are professionals (teachers etc), C1s and C2s are skilled workers, Ds unskilled workers, and E people who are unemployed, retired or similar.

On a related note, perhaps unsurprisingly, having a job makes you drive faster – people in work travel about 3km/hour faster than people without a job.

Forget the stereotype: boy racers aside, young people drive pretty slowly – on average, even slower than retirees.

The real speed freaks, it turns out, are the 50-to-54 year-olds, who drive 14% faster than over-65s, and 23% faster than 18-to-24s. The hoodlums.

If you want to get where you're going quickly, you can – if you're prepared to set off early. During the week, you're best off driving at 4am, while 5am's your best bet during the weekend. But it's only at about 8am that things really snarl up, with average speeds a full 5km/hour slower than an hour before.

The UK-wide stats are all well and good – but what about your own commute? The chart above has day-by-day data for 20 UK towns. The differences are pretty stark: if you hit 15km/hour in Manchester, you're pretty lucky – while just down the road in Stoke-on-Trent, you can expect to go nearer 20km/hr. Unlucky for some.