DRIVERS heading into central Ipswich every day might be stopped in their tracks, but today the town was labelled the most car-friendly place in southern England.
DRIVERS heading into central Ipswich every day might be stopped in their tracks, but today the town was labelled the most car-friendly place in southern England.
A national survey of Britain's 50 largest towns and cities ranked Ipswich third, after Dundee and Blackpool, for its treatment of motorists.
It looked at a number of factors including congestion, car parking, car crime, and petrol prices.
The survey, commissioned by Virgin Money, found that Welsh capital Cardiff was the most car unfriendly place in Britain, followed by Nottingham, London, and Reading.
In East Anglia Southend was just two places behind Ipswich, a place ahead of Peterborough - but Norwich was firmly stuck in the “also-rans” at 24th place.
Ipswich council transport spokesman Paul West was slightly surprised at Ipswich's high place - but pledged to try to make the town as car friendly as possible.
He said: “I've never really thought of Ipswich as being particularly car-friendly but it is always difficult to judge how good or bad somewhere is in comparison with other centres.
“I would have expected some of the larger cities to be less car-friendly than us and that seems to come out in these figures.
“We will try to make the town as friendly as possible for all road users - but it is always a difficult balance to achieve.”
Jason Wyer-Smith, of Virgin Money, said: "Every motorist will have their own complaints about their home town and its driving experience.
"There are bound to be drivers in Dundee who cannot believe their city is car-friendly just as there will be people in Cardiff who love driving there.
"However the research is an attempt to quantify what makes a town or city car-friendly and what doesn't.
The project ranked the UK's 50 most populous towns and cities according to their performance in each category before allocating points corresponding to those ranks.
Rankings for vehicle crime and the number of car parks were weighted to reflect population before the final top 50 list was produced.
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