Waze: Netherlands and France are the best countries to drive in
Driving and navigation app Waze releases its 2016 satisfaction index, ranking the best and worst places to drive.
Rush hour traffic on Osmena Boulevard, in Cebu City, Philippines.
If you think your daily commute is bad, be thankful you don't have to drive through the traffic in Cebu, Philippines.
Using data from 65 million users across 185 countries and 235 metro areas, driving and navigation app Waze released its driver satisfaction index for 2016. Waze calculated the best and worst places to drive by averaging scores -- 10 being satisfying and 1 being miserable -- from six categories. The categories include traffic, safety, driver services (as in the availability of gas stations and parking spots), road quality, social economy (which takes in account the accessibility of cars and gas prices) and general levels of happiness.
Out of 38 countries, the Netherlands kept its first-place spot from last year's index, followed by France and the United States. New to the index is Australia, which ranked 14, and the United Kingdom came in at 17. The worst country to drive in is El Salvador, then the Philippines and Guatemala.
In terms of the 186 metro areas ranked, the four most pleasing cities to drive in were all in France, with Greensboro, North Carolina in the US rounding out the top five. The worst area to drive in is the province of Cebu, Philippines, with a safety score of 2.1 and a happiness score of 1.4. Sydney, Australia ranked at 98, while London, England landed at the 126th spot.
San Francisco came in at 83, with a happiness score of 2.4. (Oddly, its driver services score was an unreasonably high 8.63. If there really is that much accessible parking in San Francisco, a large majority of CNETers aren't able to find it).
For a look at the rankings, including an interactive map, check out the report here.