Skip to main content

Eastern Europe has the most noxious drivers in the continent

The Czech Republic has the highest levels of toxic emissions caused by drivers, in a study of 25 European countries conducted by The Eco Experts. It found that Poland, Estonia, Croatia and Slovakia ranked in the top five counties for noxious drivers, making Eastern Europe the most toxic region in the continent. Czech drivers ranked the highest for using old and poor quality cars that are just over 14 years old. Results also showed that the number of cars powered by sustainable fuel alternatives is at 0.7
March 29, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The Czech Republic has the highest levels of toxic emissions caused by drivers, in a study of 25 European countries conducted by The Eco Experts. It found that Poland, Estonia, Croatia and Slovakia ranked in the top five counties for noxious drivers, making Eastern Europe the most toxic region in the continent.


Czech drivers ranked the highest for using old and poor quality cars that are just over 14 years old. Results also showed that the number of cars powered by sustainable fuel alternatives is at 0.7%, which is nearly 22 times less than Poland.

Poland came second for having the most toxic drivers in Europe. However, the inquiry also revealed that the country has the highest proportion of alternative fuel vehicles at 15%. These figures, according to The Eco Experts, suggests that the country’s efforts to combat its high air pollution levels are heavily dependent on the roll out of sustainably powered vehicles.

The initiative cross-referenced data for the percentage of alternative fuel cars, average vehicle age, the number of vehicles per 1,000 people and ambient air pollution. Individual rankings were then combined to give an overall impression of the countries that have the most toxic motorists.

Fran Whittaker-Wood of The Eco Experts said: “Road transport is one of the biggest sources of air pollution and although our research shows that poor quality vehicles is the biggest contributing factor to toxic driving emissions, the reality is that most people can’t afford to replace their cars with sustainable alternatives because they are just too expensive. If governments are serious about cutting driver pollution levels then more needs to be done to make these cars affordable to everyone.”

Sweden ranked in first place overall for having Europe’s greenest motorists. Additional findings are available %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external here false https://blog.theecoexperts.co.uk/most-toxic-drivers-europe false false%>.

Related Content

  • ‘Risky tailgating and speeding rife on UK motorways’
    May 22, 2014
    Six in ten UK drivers own up to risky tailgating (57 per cent) and a similar proportion break the limit by 10mph or more (60 per cent) on motorways and 70mph dual carriageways, with men by far the worst offenders, a survey by Brake and insurance company Direct Line reveals. Almost all drivers say they worry about other drivers tailgating on motorways: 95 per cent are at least occasionally concerned about vehicles too close behind them; more than four in ten (44 per cent) are concerned every, or most, tim
  • Designers explore the future of transport and passenger experience
    May 1, 2013
    Industrial designers from around the world are meeting in London next month to explore the future of transport systems, how to improve the passenger journey from home to destination and how greater integration and connectivity can enhance the transport user experience. Paul Priestman, designer and co-founding director of international design consultancy Priestmangoode will lead the debate in the Wired Transport: Connected trains, planes and automobiles session at the Product Design and Innovation Conference
  • Call for papers for ITS World Congress 2019
    October 2, 2018
    ITS experts are invited to submit papers to be considered for presentation and publication at the ITS World Congress 2019 in Singapore. The International Programme Committee says submissions must be centred around themes and sub-topics such as crowdsourcing and big data analytics, cybersecurity and data privacy, innovative pricing and travel demand management and intelligent, connected and autonomous vehicles. Entries can also be based on the multimodal transport of people and goods, safety for drivers
  • GTT displays Canoga 9000 Series
    September 7, 2014
    GTT (Global Traffic Technologies) is unveiling its pioneering detection technology here at ITS World Congress Detroit. The company says best in class reliability and flexibility, specifically designed to address the challenges traffic professionals face today, are at the core of the new Canoga 9000 Series solutions design.