Which city in India is the safest to drive in?

Which is the safest city in India to drive in? Which city has India’s best drivers? Which city has the best roads in India? In which city do drivers almost always wear seat belts? These are some intriguing questions related to road safety and ones that now have some answers, thanks to a Road Safety survey by ICICI Lombard in association with IMRB.

THE ANSWERS

• Mumbai is the safest city to drive in
• Bangalore has the best drivers in the country
• Delhi has the best roads in the country.
• Kolkata has the highest instance of drivers wearing seat belts.

(Scroll to bottom for data slides)

There are plenty more interesting findings from this survey that covered 987 respondents across five metros in India – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The answers reveal some interesting mindsets about Indian motorists as well.

The survey points out that 17% think that Mumbai is one of the safest cities to drive in, followed by Bangalore and then Delhi. It also shows that Mumbai has the most disciplined traffic, followed by Delhi and only then Bangalore, while Chennai was among the lowest in traffic discipline. As far as the perceived quality of roads goes, Delhi was seen as having the best roads by 24%, while only 16% thought Bangalore had good roads.

An interesting finding was that car drivers in Bangalore rated themselves really high on driving skills with 82% saying they were very skilled and could drive on all kinds of roads and situations, while drivers in Kolkata were the most unsure about their driving skills. Delhi too has a fairly high percentage (41%) of drivers who are quite unsure about their skills.

But contrast that finding, with ICICI Lombard’s own data and it’s a study in contrasts. The highest number of motor accident claims in the past three months according to the company’s data came from Bangalore!

In terms of safety consciousness, Kolkata drivers were the most safety conscious with 71% saying they always wore a seat belt, while Delhi was next with 65% saying they always wore seat belts. Among the five cities, Ahmedabad was the worst with only 29% of drivers saying that they always wore a seat belt.

That also points to a lax implementation of laws. Where there is a strict penalty, drivers tend to obey rules more – as is the case with Kolkata and Delhi – especially with the seat-belt rule. Interestingly, most of the respondents believe that by hiking penalties, more adherence to traffic rules could be enforced.

Goes to show that where there’s a cop, there’s discipline, as seen in this experimental video that the company shot a while ago:

Watch video:

Share your thoughts on this. Which do you think is India’s safest city to drive in?

See Road Safety Survey data: