I'm just wondering if these report editors have driven in Tripoli or not!!!
Driving is challenging enough to do well without any added distractions - fighting kids in the backseat, a cyclist popping out between parked cars, pedestrians taking risks between speeding cars.
But if you think your commute is tough, consider these 10 spots we've found - we reckon they're the most stressful cities in the world to drive.
1- Rome
There's a terrible joke about trying to explain Italian drivers' bad driving habits - they're all failed racing drivers. But the reality isn't too far off.
Out-of-towners should be aware of the perennial tailgaters who have no trouble putting their Fiat's hood an inch off your back bumper. Rear-view mirrors are rarely used since the only traffic that matters is what's in front or beside you, and seatbelts are merely a suggestion.
This all makes the fatality rates for drivers extremely high and dozens of collisions a daily occurrence. It's best to resort to public transit or cabs if you want to keep your palms dry.
2- Mumbai
This is certainly one that needs to be seen to be believed, but driving in Mumbai will expose you to all the bad habits and dangerous manoeuvres that were drilled out of your system during driving school.
Overtaking on blind corners, accelerating off side-streets without looking, ignoring any semblance of lanes and roads that are so poorly maintained that you'll wonder how any vehicle remains drivable for long.
Oh, and did we mention the people who lie down for naps at the roadside? Or the large, overburdened buses? Animals? Tuk-tuks? It's enough to make you pull your hair out.
3- Athens
Just because the Greeks gave us a template for Western civilization, doesn't mean that driving in Greece's capital is anywhere near civilized.
A general disregard for traffic laws, combined with the lack of available parking, means that any street could be blocked by double- or triple-parked cars or trucks.
4- Ulan Bator
This city is very different from the others on this list in that Ulan Bator is a major population centre with over a million inhabitants, but only a quarter of the roads in the city are paved - and paved poorly at that. Beyond the city limits, only a small fraction of the country's 'roads' are maintained to any degree.
Mongolian driver training definitely needs some attention too, and seatbelt use is immeasurably low.
5- Paris
Paris makes the list if only for the insanity that is the Arc de Triomphe - a large roundabout that has 13 different entrances, no markings, no lines, and hundreds of other drivers who (probably) know where they're going.
Watch for children playing chicken, other drivers cutting ahead, no one leaving space ... It's a driver's nightmare, but somehow it kind of, sort of, works.
6- Beijing
With over three million vehicles on its roads - and 1,000 new ones joining them every day - China's capital city by any definition is hectic.
Like others, the basic rules of the road are generally ignored, including lane markings, stop signs and proper merging. Don't expect Beijing-ites to extend any respect to the police or emergency services either - they have no fear about honking or expressing their frustration if a cruiser is slow getting away from a stop light.
7- Orlando
Because the area is so heavily populated with tourists, carjackings at red lights are frequent. The gigantic malls are so popular that traffic anywhere nearby gets caught up in the overflow, and even the world's largest McDonald's must have the world's longest drive-through line.
8- Seoul
Perhaps the most interesting thing to note about driving in Seoul is that the transit buses are on a schedule and can legally ignore the traffic signals that everyone else follows.
Not that regular drivers obey the lights either, and pedestrians are best left ignored. Pavements are fair game too, not only to drivers looking for an extra couple of inches, but also to the swarms of tiny-engined scooters that take to anywhere paved (or not) to improve their progress.
9- Toronto
Toronto has an awful reputation as a city with some of the worst congestion around. With the continent's busiest highway (the 401) capping the city with nearly a half-million drivers a day, it is hugely intimidating.
It is also 18 lanes wide at times - and all 18 crawling ridiculously slowly anywhere near rush-hour.
10- Manila
Triple-lane changes, ignoring other drivers, never signalling, breezing through red lights ... these are all things drivers can expect when in Manila, the Philippine capital.
Others to keep in mind include using the opposite lanes of traffic to get out of traffic jams, honking your horn frantically and making left turns from the far right lane.
World’s 10 worst cities to drive in. (Quoted from MSN website)
Well i can only say without doubt you have not been to HCM City (Saigon) or Riyadh for that matter. In both cases, unrivaled i should imagine.
Are you sure they didn't confuse Manila with Tripoli.
I'm surprised that Delhi didn't make it to the list! So too Riyadh.
Globalseek wrote:I'm surprised that Delhi didn't make it to the list! So too Riyadh.
Riyadh made it on to my.......well top two if you like:P
Where is Tripoli? I think it should top the list as far as driving is concerned.
Mancunian, considering how difficult it is to get into this country in the 1st place (visa etc) I think we can rest assured they have NEVER been here, or if they were only drove on a Friday morning 
Clansman wrote:Mancunian, considering how difficult it is to get into this country in the 1st place (visa etc) I think we can rest assured they have NEVER been here, or if they were only drove on a Friday morning
Bulls eye!
Clansman wrote:Mancunian, considering how difficult it is to get into this country in the 1st place (visa etc) I think we can rest assured they have NEVER been here, or if they were only drove on a Friday morning
LOL! Good one 
Going through the cities listed I personally think Paris, Orlando and Toronto do not rank that high to merit a mention in the worst 10.
There are other worse contenders for the dubious honour.
Tripoli, Tehran, Delhi, Karachi............ The problems mentioned for Toronto, Orlando and Paris won't even raise anyone's heart rate used to driving in Tripoli, Tehran etc.
What a complete joke of a list. Forget the top ten, not even the top fifty would feature any cities outside of sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. Tripoli doesn't come close to making the top 100 either. If you think the Tripoli is horrible enough to deserve a top ten spot then you clearly haven't seen or at least tried to educate yourself about less developed parts of the world.
By far the worst city in the world to drive in is Kinshasa, DR Congo. It easily beats all comers for the amount of hardships you have to face as a driver:
1. Complete gridlock from 8:30 AM until the evening on weekdays in most of the city.
2. Either high tropical temperatures or pouring rain to make your snail's pace crawl through the traffic miserable (not to mention the smog).
3. Unpaved roads in most of the city. Both the paved and unpaved roads have not been maintained for decades and can feature potholes as big as bathtubs. When it rains, you can't see the potholes at all which is extremely dangerous for both you and your car.
4. People walking through the traffic trying to sell things, beg, or rob you (especially once they notice you're an outsider). Occassionally they may be carrying hammers or other heavy items and may threaten to damage your car if you don't give them what they want. And it's unlikely anyone in the cars around you will want to lift a finger to help you.
5. Corrupt policemen stopping you for imaginary driving infringements the instant they notice you're a foreigner. From a certain blog I have read:
I heard from other expats that the cops here are something else. They hassle drivers all the time with made-up infractions in the hope of getting a little cash thrown their way for them then overlooking it. No joke, we were stopped by the cops three times in the course of driving around for four hours. Allow me to recap our offenses:
INCIDENT #1: Boy, you know... I'm pretty sure your turn signal wasn't turned on early enough there as you approached this intersection.
INCIDENT #2: I think your stop at this intersection was a little too sudden for my liking.
INCIDENT #3: Umm... your, uh... let's see... um, your papers might not be up to date.
In each case, we were stuck on the side of the road for at least 20-30 minutes while our Acme driver argued with the cops about these bogus charges and they did their best to not come out and simply demand a bribe from us... There are no hard and fast traffic laws here so the police make up whatever they want and see if they can get you to pay.
(source: http://yearinkinshasa.blogspot.com/2008 … ghair.html)
6. Pretty much all the reckless driving, tailgating, etc mentioned in the article in the (less crowded) outskirts of the city and the roads outside of town. The crucial difference of course being the condition of the roads. If you don't end up dying from a heart attack then at least prepare for all your teeth to be rattled out of your skull.
Toronto made the list?? WTF??
i think 1-tripoli
2-tripoli
3-tripoli
4-tripoli lol
Thebigtuna wrote:What a complete joke of a list. Forget the top ten, not even the top fifty would feature any cities outside of sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. Tripoli doesn't come close to making the top 100 either. If you think the Tripoli is horrible enough to deserve a top ten spot then you clearly haven't seen or at least tried to educate yourself about less developed parts of the world.
l.
So you have driven in over 100 cities then to make that statement ?. Oh as an aside, why would anyone spend their waking hours trawling through websites about how difficult it is to drive in places they are never likely to be (apart from me. see post below 
)?.
I couldn't resist, i have to share this, i have never been to Tripoli but i'm sure that India should top the list.... 2nd place is not too bad
Holy cows- cars stop when cows are crossing (Indians venerate cows), there's horse-driven carts called 'Rikshas', bicycles,cars, motorcycles, three wheeled vehicles-tuk-tuks, all in the same lane.... Car insurance companies should double their ROI...
FAO Thebigtuna - http://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/gallery. … 241&page=7 Tells a slightly different story to the one you are saying, but I suppose a complete search of the web (who would be sad enough to do that now ?)would throw up a whole load of different stats.
Clansman wrote:So you have driven in over 100 cities then to make that statement?
> implying all knowledge is worthless unless it was obtained firsthand
Clansman wrote:Oh as an aside, why would anyone spend their waking hours trawling through websites about how difficult it is to drive in places they are never likely to be ?.
> implying the blog I linked to is dedicated to discussing driving conditions in the DRC
> implying I care enough about the topic of driving in other countries to spend hours a day actively researching it
Thebigtuna wrote:Clansman wrote:So you have driven in over 100 cities then to make that statement?
> implying all knowledge is worthless unless it was obtained firsthandClansman wrote:Oh as an aside, why would anyone spend their waking hours trawling through websites about how difficult it is to drive in places they are never likely to be ?.
> implying the blog I linked to is dedicated to discussing driving conditions in the DRC
> implying I care enough about the topic of driving in other countries to spend hours a day actively researching it
WTF 
Nope sorry you lost me there 
Clansman wrote:http://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=21970241&page=7 Tells a slightly different story to the one you are saying, but I suppose a complete search of the web (who would be sad enough to do that now ?)would throw up a whole load of different stats.
Did you read the headline of this topic by any chance? The headline is "world's worst cities to drive in", the key words being "worst" and "cities".
If you'll read the article, you'll understand that "worst" is meant by the author(s) to mean "most stressful/mentally taxing driving experience".
The article you have linked to is entitled "most dangerous countries to drive in".
"Most dangerous" simply means which countries have the most fatalities.
Because of the above, the article you have linked to is not at all relevant to the point you are trying to make, which is that I am a donkey for dismissing Tripoli as an exceptionally bad/"stressful" place to drive in.
You also clearly don't understand why Libya is so high on that list. The majority of Libya's car accidents and almost all fatalities occur outside the major cities. Mainly on the mountainous road going between Benghazi, alBayda, and Tobruk, on the road between Benghazi and Tripoli, and on the smaller desert roads. Most of these accidents are caused by young men who drive recklessly fast on these roads and cross into the the opposite lane in order to overtake people in front of them. What raises the number of deaths is that a lot of the time these guys aren't driving alone but rather are carrying minivan-taxi full of passengers.
So in a nutshell: high accident rate on intercity roads + lots of people dead in each accident = Libya's place at fourth on that list.
"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that."
Homer J. Simpson
"Facts are meaningless - you could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!"
Homer J. Simpson
Thebigtuna wrote:Clansman wrote:http://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=21970241&page=7 Tells a slightly different story to the one you are saying, but I suppose a complete search of the web (who would be sad enough to do that now ?)would throw up a whole load of different stats.
Did you read the headline of this topic by any chance? The headline is "world's worst cities to drive in", the key words being "worst" and "cities".
If you'll read the article, you'll understand that "worst" is meant by the author(s) to mean "most stressful/mentally taxing driving experience".
The article you have linked to is entitled "most dangerous countries to drive in".
"Most dangerous" simply means which countries have the most fatalities.
Because of the above, the article you have linked to is not at all relevant to the point you are trying to make, which is that I am a donkey for dismissing Tripoli as an exceptionally bad/"stressful" place to drive in.
You also clearly don't understand why Libya is so high on that list. The majority of Libya's car accidents and almost all fatalities occur outside the major cities. Mainly on the mountainous road going between Benghazi, alBayda, and Tobruk, on the road between Benghazi and Tripoli, and on the smaller desert roads. Most of these accidents are caused by young men who drive recklessly fast on these roads and cross into the the opposite lane in order to overtake people in front of them. What raises the number of deaths is that a lot of the time these guys aren't driving alone but rather are carrying minivan-taxi full of passengers.
So in a nutshell: high accident rate on intercity roads + lots of people dead in each accident = Libya's place at fourth on that list.
Sorry misunderstood the thread title, but I would argue that facing death on a daily basis is quite "stressful" wouldn't you ? Actually it isn't just the fatalaties that I am on about, it is the amount of accidents that happen on a daily basis IN Tripoli that adds to the fact it IS one of the most stressful places to drive. You do come across as quite condescending at times as well, with comments like "you clearly don't understand". What may I ask makes you such an expert in this area ?
Clansman wrote:You do come across as quite condescending at times as well, with comments like "you clearly don't understand". What may I ask makes you such an expert in this area ?
He has internet access.
Clansman wrote:Sorry misunderstood the thread title, but I would argue that facing death on a daily basis is quite "stressful" wouldn't you ?
Go back and read my post again, because you haven't paid attention to anything I've said. That's all I have to say.
Arguing about misinterpretations over how crap something is? Quit flirting you two! Dim the lights, put on some Showtunes and share a round of Woo woos. 
I guess all the rumors about Mudman training for the Town Drunk title are not unfounded after all 
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