It’s a cliche to say that they are, but I’m curious if a dispassionate, unbiased analysis holds up this theory or not. Age should be accounted for as well, as I seem to vaguely recall hearing that insurance data showed young men getting into more accidents than young women but that the trend didn’t continue into adulthood. I could be totally wrong about that, though.
Also, do countries that don’t let women drive have fewer accidents? I’m not sure how many (if any) countries meet that criterion, but I’m thinking Saudi Arabia at the very least.
I know what you’re getting at, but (opinion here), I don’t think women drivers (or old people) cause accidents; they provoke them. And there’s no data on that.
I’m sure men do more driving than woman since there are more men in the workforce and men are more likely to take jobs that require driving, so even if men are involved in accidents more than women are, women may still get in more accidents when time on the road is accounted for.
I read that statistically, the most common thing women are cited for is right-of-way violations. And the most common thing men are cited for? Lol. Guess.
What I found interesting, and my female relatives did not, is that what men are cited for is a deliberate violation, while … in my observation … many women treat right-of-way as a social function, not a fixed law. (E.g., waving, allowing another vehicle to allow it to have the right-of-way at an intersection. Since the right-of-way cannot be “given away” like that, it is, in fact, a violation.)
Answering the topic, then, the question might be answered, in part, by answering whether women’s violations are more likely to cause accidents then men’s are.
I cannot provide citation, but I have been reading since
day one that women are much better drivers than men.
Women may have proportionally more inconsequential
small property damage accidents, but men proportionally
cause many more of the really bad accidents where injury
and death are involved.
Women don’t in general have as good reflexes as men. That’s why you don’t see female race drivers in nearly as great numbers as men.
However, we are more likely to drive within our limits and not take stupid risks. That’s why women can get lower insurance rates than men.
So - how do you define “worse driver”?
The studies I can remember having seen reported, (for example http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=788126), say that men have more accidents even when calculated per mile driven, and those accidents are on average more serious than accidents women are in. Men are much more likely to drive aggressively or drunk. Of course, the difference in accident rates may well be due to differences in judgement rather than skill or raw ability (if that matters…)
One statistic that popped out at me: in general, there is about one fatality per 100 million miles driven. Multiply that by 45 000 for young males driving a motorcycle at night.
I think a darn good proxy for driving ability is insurance raes. Assuming there are no gender equality protection laws to the contrary, do insurance companies charge men & women of equal age and circumstance the same rates?
I don’t know the answer to my question, but I think it if we can find it then we can answer the OP.
Heavens, no. My son, with a perfectly clean driving record, pays about 3 times the rate that my daughter does, who has a couple of accidents on her record. They have the exact same coverage for very similar cars.
I believe it’s well established that insurance for young men is much more expensive until they turn 25 years old.
I just googled this question and seem to have uncovered a whole heap of contradictory research, some suggesting women or worse, some suggesting men are. The definition seems to rely on what manner of tests have been carried out – the University of London concluded that women (and gay men) were worse, because they had poorer spatial awareness and navigational abilities, whereas the Social Issies Resources Center concluded in 2002:
And for the record, I’m a woman and I am *brilliant *at parking.
The good old gender distribution rears it’s head yet again.
With this, as with most physical activities, it is likely the both the very worst and very best will be mostly male, hence the willingness of insurance companies to be be scared to death of young male drivers and the scarcity of female divers in such as F1 and WRC. etc.
