The Battle of the Sexes: Male vs Female Drivers

Thursday, 01 July 2010

It is an argument which has no doubt been raging since the first cars took to the road in the UK. Are women or men better drivers?

A simple Google search or a quick chat with some men in the pub will reveal the public perception of women drivers; this being that they are worse than men.

However, organisations like the British Women Racing Drivers Club are looking to change this by promoting women in the area of motoring, while a number of car insurance providers are now specialising on female drivers.

But, what do the statistics show about the differences between male and female drivers?

A survey was released by car insurance comparison site Confused.com recently which revealed that generally it takes women longer to pass their driving test than men.

The average women needed 21 lessons before they were able to pass the test, compared to the 17 required by men.

Most of the big newspapers took the results as an excuse to claim that men were better drivers than women, but in fact a closer look at a the figures reveals that the sexes could just have very different attitudes to the test.

Twice as many men than women, eight per cent compared to four per cent, said that they had an attack of road rage during their test. In addition to this, seven per cent of men revealed that they almost had an accident on their test, while just three per cent of women had a near miss.

Females were also found to be more nervous before their test, which could have been a contributing factor.

A spokesperson for Confused.com said that while the results show that men pass their tests after fewer lessons, "with women getting more nervous about their test though, maybe this explains why men have more success".

Another topic which often comes up when people argue if women or men are better drivers is the issue of parking.

A study released last year suggests that women are in fact worse at parking than men. A female researcher at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, carried out the test on 65 drivers, who were asked to repeatedly park a car in a sealed off space.

The results showed that women took on average 20 seconds longer to park, but were still not as accurate as fitting the car in the space as men. It is thought that this is because men have greater spatial awareness and coordination which helps them better assess where the car is moving to.

Dr Claudia Wolf, who co-wrote the study, told the Mail on Sunday that it "only proves what previous studies about the spatial differences between men and women have shown".

She added: "It is just about parking – not the triumph of men over women."

However, there is one key area where statistics show men have a long way to go. Figures from the road safety charity break show that men have a worrying record when it comes to road safety.

More than 80 per cent of all drunk or drug charges, careless driving convictions, speeding offences and convictions for neglecting traffic signs were brought against men in 2008.

Men are also twice as likely to be involved in a crash as women.

In addition to this, a recent survey by Autoglass found that 35 per cent of men admitted to being distracted if they saw someone that they found attractive. This is compared to just 15 per cent of women.

All these accidents and convictions mean that men could be facing higher car insurance costs, showing it's not just female drivers who should think about shopping around for cover.

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