Who are Better Drivers – Men or Women?

Who Drive Better? Men or Women?

Most people have their answers to this question ready, mainly because they like this stereotyping.

“Men are overconfident, and it is their downfall,” a certified driving instructor said. “Even if a man doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s more inclined to say he does.”

The results of DMV tests in some states may hint in the same direction.

Results from state DMV tests show lower passing rates for young men, while young women are more likely to pass their knowledge test the first time.

Is the Stereotype True?

You can find differences between men and women in various fields, such as mental health, cognitive abilities, personality, and aggression. Psychologists explain these gender differences as a complex interplay of biological, developmental, and cultural factors.

Or, to put it simply.

Research shows that men tend to be more aggressive than women.

By expressing aggression directly, it has, as you can expect, also an impact on driving.

Men also engage in more competitive and risk-taking behavior, which is likely to result in a higher probability of crashes. The biological reasons include testosterone, the male sex hormone.

Men break the rules more often than women, as evidenced by the number of traffic violations, including exceeding speed limits, running red lights, and DUIs.

In 2015, 52 percent of men in fatal collisions were unrestrained , compared to 42 of women. Research has also shown that men are 10% less likely to wear seat belts than women.

Men show higher levels of sensation-seeking and risk-taking in different situations.

In other words, men and women are different. Men take more risks, show aggression, and seek thrilling sensations when driving.

Men cause more accidents, have more expensive and frequent insurance claims, and are found guilty of more traffic violations, which is true in most countries.

At the same time, men often consider themselves better drivers. In a Canadian poll, about 48% of the men said they were superior drivers, while only 25% of the women said they were better.

So, Women are Better Drivers – or Not?

In the United States, an equal number of men and women have a driver’s license.

In 2007, 6.1 million accidents (40,000 fatal accidents) involved men. Women were only involved in 4.4 million (14,000 fatal accidents).

Men were more likely than women to get cited for reckless driving (more than three times more likely).

Men were convicted of drunk driving more often than women (more than three times more likely). In 2007, courts issued 626,371 DUIs to men in the United States. Women drivers got 162,493 convictions.

Men typically paid higher car insurance premiums than women because insurance companies thought they posed a higher risk.

The above numbers are often used in the debate to show that women drive, if not better, at least safer than men.

The Hours We Spend on the Road

While the above numbers may speak a clear language, they don’t consider that men spent more hours on the road. In 2007, men drove 60 percent of all annual miles, and women drove 40 percent. Considering miles driven, you should expect men to be involved in more accidents and violate the laws more often – everything else being equal.

If you compare the number of accidents in 2007 with the miles driven, the ratio will match.

How Can You Decide Who are Better Drivers?

Today, there has been a shift in women’s participation in the workforce, so their driving is now more equal to men’s. Even if the gap has narrowed, men still drive more miles, but women make more single trips.

Such facts indicate that the miles driven aren’t the only thing to consider. It is also where, when, and how often people drive.

Women make more of what is known as trip-chaining. Their trips occur during peak hours in environments poorly designed for heavy traffic flow. As we all know, more accidents happen in cities and urban areas simply because there is more traffic and intersections where accidents are more likely to happen.

Driving many miles in rural areas is often safer than driving a few miles in the city.

The gap between women’s and men’s driving habits is narrowing, which manifests in car insurance premiums. Consumer Federation of America (CFA), with more than 250 non-profit consumer groups, recently found that 40—and 60-year-old women with perfect driving records pay more for basic coverage nearly twice as often as men with equal histories. However, young men in their 20s are still the group that pays the highest premiums.

Fatalities in Traffic

In 2016, 71% of all motor vehicle crash deaths were men.

Men accounted for:

• 71% of passenger vehicle driver deaths
• 49% of passenger vehicle passenger deaths
• 99% of large truck driver deaths
• 65% of large truck passenger deaths
• 70% of pedestrian deaths
• 84% of bicyclist deaths
• 91% of motorcyclist deaths

The list shows that the effect of men’s driving behavior is more deadly than women’s driving.

Or as Tom Vanderbilt (author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do) put it: “Men may or may not be better drivers than women, but they seem to die more often trying to prove that they are.”

Who do Better on the Driving Test?

There is not much research on gender differences regarding the DMV knowledge tests or the road skills tests.

Data suggest that women do slightly better on the theory test and men better on the road skills test, but the differences are minor.

In most states, about half of the test takers pass their exam the first time, which is valid for both men and women.

Sources

• Trip Chaining
• Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group and Gender
• Fatality Facts by Gender
• Women Are Bad Drivers – Fact or Fiction?
• Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt

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