Congested motorways, gaping potholes, and dangerous roads. These may very well make Poland the final boss for beginner drivers.
According to a new study by Czechvignette.cz, its roads are the hardest to take on in Europe, scoring 99.43 out of 100. The report ranked motorways on factors such as congestion levels, road quality and car density: the higher the score, the more stressful the roads are.
Poland combines some of the highest traffic congestion levels (54.77) with poor road quality (4.3 out of seven) and — more seriously — one of the highest road death rates per million residents (52).
Poland’s first place “doesn’t come as a shock,” Czechvignette.cz CEO Mattijs Wijnmalen told Europe in Motion, as it has “more vehicles on the road than the infrastructure can comfortably handle.”
“A beginner driver crossing into Poland on the older A18 stretch from Germany will experience immediate, loud tyre noise at highway speeds that only improves when district maintenance administration changes,” he said. “That abrupt shift in road quality is genuinely demanding, regardless of national averages.”
Neighbouring Czech Republic ranks second, with a stress score of 94.92, driven by high traffic congestion (53.5) and below-average road quality (3.9 out of 7).
The country also has one of the highest car densities in the ranking, with 608 registered vehicles per 1,000 people, adding further pressure on its busy roads.
On-the-ground observations highlighted other hidden stressors, such as sudden zero-visibility fog patches on the heavy-freight D5 corridor, as well as confusing construction zones on the D3 that force all traffic onto narrow, shared parallel roads, the study says.
Romania, Bulgaria and Greece: The ‘unforgiving’ trio
The rest of the top five is made up of eastern European countries, with Romania third, followed by Greece and Bulgaria.
There, roads tend to be less congested, but also get more dangerous, with the highest death rate on the road per million people among the countries in the study.
Romanian roads, in particular, “are exceptionally unforgiving for beginner drivers”, says Wijnmalen, as “the state of the surface itself becomes a hazard before congestion is even considered.”
Aggressive speed limit drops, for example, from 130 to 40km/h in a short span, pose additional pressure to inexperienced drivers, who tend to be under strict surveillance by cameras and police enforcement.
Italy is sixth in the overall ranking, largely due to the country’s significant car density — with nearly one vehicle registration per resident.
At the other end of the spectrum, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain emerged as the least stressful places to drive.
What are the most challenging moments for inexperienced drivers?
The study claims that some of the most demanding moments for drivers tend to be transitions.
For example, the first kilometres after crossing into a new country, with a sudden lane drop in a construction zone, or navigating an unfamiliar toll gantry.
“In countries like Bulgaria and Romania, camera enforcement starts the moment you join the motorway with no reliable grace period.”
“That layer of instant pressure simply does not exist in the headline numbers, but it is exactly where a beginner driver’s confidence either builds or breaks”, says Wijnmalen.
The study gathered data from the TomTom Traffic Index, the ETSC 2025 PIN report, the World Economic Forum, Eurostat, and World Population Review.