Are woman really better drivers? Do they have less accidents per miles driven? Of the men and woman I know, the men drive more. Also I don’t notice any difference in their driving abilities. I am pretty sure men are involved in more accidents, but is this because they drive more? Do men drive more?
Where do you get that notion?I don’t have any notions either way.
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Is this anecdotal or do you have numbers?
-Signed TM, a curious male driver
According to the insurance companies, American women, on average, are better drivers, because they file fewer car insurance claims. Whether that makes them better drivers overall is highly debatable.
It depends on your definition of better. If you want someone to drive your porsche cross country for you, a woman will be more likely to get it there in one piece. But if you are being chased by Guido The Killer Pimp, you’ll probably want a man at the wheel.
Oh Hell no…the saying around my house is: " women drivers - no survivors". Almost every bone-head move I see on the road is because of some non-driving woman.
I think men are more aggressive drivers, for sure. But in some cases that makes them better drivers in and of itself.
The saying “He who hesitates is lost” must surely have been coined by someone driving behind a woman on a freeway entrance ramp, trying to merge with 70 mph traffic but only going 40 mph (and the sign says yield girls, not stop).
Since the invention of the cellphone,almost certainly ** not **
Oh God. I hate to answer a GQ with my guesstimate, but here is what I think is going on with insurance rates and the sex of the driver: Partly, this practice is probably left over from a time when women NEVER drove, and partly it’s due to the “teenaged boy tearing around” phenomenon. I think YOUNG men get to drive a log more than young women, and therefore, have a lot more accidents.
I suppose this also means that when they become more mature, they have more practice crashing into things and therefore, are better able to avoid it. I really hope there aren’t any Dopers around who are going to use this to conclude that women are somehow NATURALLY less capable of driving. It’s only that historically, they get less chance to do so and therefore have less practice. Then again, this means they have fewer accidents, thus the insurance quandry.
And while we’re on the subject, I (female) am the only person in my family who can paralell park in three moves. And I am SO good at it that it’s almost embarrassing. Independent women can and do drive well!!!
L
If someone whats to look this one up, I recall recently a study about the 65 mph speed limit. It seem that overall accident rates declined, male driver accidents declined esp. young men but female accidents increased.
In contrast to the IMO answers to a GQ post: according tothis report, women crash more, but men are much more likely to be killed.
I read a report some time ago - sorry no cite - that claimed that the difference between male and female drivers what not competance but confidence. They analyzed the types of accidents reported to insurance companies and concluded that men tended to have more accidents where over confidence was a factor, such as going too fast, jumping lights etc. Women tended to have more accidents where a degree of timidity was implicated, such as undue hesitency at junctions and getting flustered whilst parking. The upshot was that an accident involving a male driver was more likely to be at higher speed and therefore more serious/expensive.
Another trend they found was that the differences between the sexes is closing with more and more women being involved in the more dangerous accidents whislt the rates for men remained stable.
Better suited to IMHO.
I’ll move this for you.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
No, it’s just that men are worse passengers.
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[sup]If that isn’t a “Freudian Slip”, then there has never been one![/sup][/ul]
Which confirms what I’ve always thought. The simple fact is most people are terrible drivers, so trying to pick a gender that does it better is like trying to pick the most honest politician- some are just less terrible than others, which doesn’t actually make anyone good.
In my subjective experience men drive more aggressively and more then women so they end up in more serious accidents.
Women drive more (excuse the expression) ditzy get into more unreported ‘fender bender’ accidents.
On the road if I see someone speeding passing cars every three seconds it’s a man.
If I see someone cutting people off talking on the cell phone and weaving around in the lane it’s a woman.
One thing I’ve noticed is that when I was in my twenties, the male speed/confidence thing was definitely true amongst my friends. In my thirties, I find it is the women who drive too fast for the conditions, and most guys I know have become sedate drivers.
Based on Sydney private car drivers, I think the guys are slightly better. I ofetn get the impression when a woman is driving me that the car is not straight in the lane, and she is always having to make little corrections. Also, the car is usually too close to one side of the lane. Now the best drivers of all in Sydney are female BUS drivers. They drive these huge beasies around in busy traffic, and they do it very smoothly, confidently, and defensively, never getting flustered or angered.
I suspect the average man is a better driver, but that is because men drive more. It’s unfortunate that the professional driving industry is so male dominated, because those women who do drive for a living are of course driving many hours a day, and can be directly compared to their male counterparts. The women are better.
Basically, what I am looking for is a study that shows accidents per miles driven for males and females.
Did you check the link I gave previously? It references a study that you may be able to find, and gave the bottom line: