Are Men Or Women Better Drivers?

The battle of the sexes as to who makes a better driver has been in existence probably ever since women took to the wheel. Within the long-running dispute of men versus women and the bickering which follows, there is a certain amount of evidence to support both party's claims. This however, is far from conclusive and just highlights the fact that men may be better than women in some instances and women may be better than men in others; statistically, what is conclusive is that when an insurance claim is made and it was a women driver involved, generally speaking, claims tend to be for lower amounts than when a claim is filed by a male driver.

Looking at some statistics for drivers under the age of 25, the figures are shockingly high in the ratio of male drivers in accidents to female drivers in accidents. This is the case not just in the cost of the claim, but also in the consequences thereafter such as injury and convictions leading to points, disqualification or in the worst instances, imprisonment. Over the age of 25, these statistics change but either way, males still seem to remain at the forefront in the cost of claims and in certain convictions.

Perhaps, some of these statistics may relate to the number of lessons and training drivers require. Whilst the average number of driving lessons a male driver will take prior to passing his driving test is 36, for a woman it was 52. In 2011, 57% of women failed their driving test whilst 50% of men failed, failures included approximately 950,000 serious mistakes by women leading to a fail as opposed to some 715,000 serious mistakes committed by men leading to failing their test.

With regards to the famous quote of women not being able to park, there is some truth to support this claim as according to DSA figures, some 19,000 men failed their test on the reverse parking section while some 41,000 women failed in this part of the test. However not all statistics looked favourably upon the male species, as more men failed the test due to lack of looking in their mirrors and pulling out without checking if there was anyone coming first. This is perhaps a sign of the impetus which leads more male drivers to have accidents by lack of concentration or even consideration towards other road users.

On the theme of parking, whilst on the initial test they show that women do have more issues at parking than men, according to longer term statistics, women are more considerate than men when parking and they also park more neatly! Regardless of statistics, this argument will continue to rumble for as long as men shall live.