Milton Keynes is the best place in the UK for commuting, according to new report

Milton Keynes is the best place in the UK for commuting, according to new research.

The research analysed local authorities as well as various countries around the world, looking into various factors including average commute time and the cost of getting to work, as well as green factors including the number of electric vehicles and charging points on the roads, to reveal the best (and worst) UK regions for commuting.

Taking the top spot is Milton Keynes. The report states that while many who live in the town commute into London, it’s clearly also well set up for easy and green commuting on its own too. Milton Keynes scored highly on almost all factors looked at and had the highest number of electric vehicle charging stations (134.7 per 100,000 people) This means, it’s well set up for a greener commute in the years to come, and also had a short average commute of just 14.1 minutes.

In second place is Coventry. Like Milton Keynes, Coventry has a particularly robust charging network for electric vehicles. It was also among the cheaper towns and cities when it comes to the cost of a monthly public transport pass, which averages out at just £50.90. The city’s “Very Light Rail System” is set to be operational by 2024 and will make it even easier for locals to get to work.

By comparison, Stafford beats London as being the worst place to commute in the UK thanks to scoring poorly across all of the green factors, with low numbers of electric vehicles and chargers, as well as having high emissions per capita.

Overall, the UK came out as the second-worst country for commuters, following Ireland in first place, scoring poorly across the board, with cost, average commute time and eco-friendliness all requiring some improvement.

Florence Codjoe, car insurance expert, said: “After nearly two years of lockdowns and working from home, the world is finally beginning to open up again, which means across the globe many of us are heading back into the office and having to deal with the stress of the daily commute.

“It’s interesting to see our research reveals Ireland and the United Kingdom are the two worst countries in the world for commuting. Ireland comes out as the worst, notably having the highest public transport pass cost, followed closely by the UK which scores poorly across the board - from high transport costs to a long average commute time. Turkey came out as the best country for commuting largely due to the affordability of commuting and for scoring highly on the green factors which we looked at.

“It will be interesting to see if the daily commute improves over the coming years, with more countries adopting a hybrid way of working, which in return should hopefully see the average commute time decrease in countries across the world.”