Who are better drivers, men or women?
The argument over whether women or men are better drivers is as old as driving itself. If you base your opinion on who is more likely to get from A to B safely (it only counts if you arrive in one piece, right?), then women race ahead.
When it comes to driving and gender however, there are several untrue stereotypes.
With men, it is the car-obsessed racer who polishes his rims daily and thumbs through car magazines when watching TV.
On the other hand, for women, it is an image of pink dice hanging from the mirror, and sing-alongs which only stop when fixing lipstick in the rear-view.
Facts and Research
A UK survey showed men are twice as likely to use their phone as women, with 10% of men and 4.5% of women admitting phone usage when driving. With 45.5 million active drivers in the UK; 3 million are out there driving while on the phone.
In the US there are 1.6 million crashes each year due to phone usage, with nearly 330,000 injuries caused by texting alone.
Shockingly, it’s women who are worse in the US according to the National Highway Traffics Safety Administration. With 2.9% of female drivers caught manipulating devices while driving, compared to just 1.8% of men.
Laws are in place to punish distracted drivers, and rightly so. In the UK, as of 1st March, the penalties for even touching your phone while driving have increased.
If your license is two years or younger you will receive an instant ban if caught. For you veterans out there, long gone are the driver awareness classes, instead a £200 fine and 6 points is the minimum punishment. Serves you right!
No matter who is driving, being distracted is a danger to us all, if you absolutely must take a phone call when driving, it is always recommended to find somewhere safe and pull over first.
Cleanliest Drivers
Car cleanliness isn’t exactly safety related, but it does factor in to how conscious a car owner someone is.
It turns out that we’re all a bit lazy when it comes to cleaning, but the girls (perhaps not surprisingly) are the better of the two genders at keeping their cars clean.
A car leasing company researched how regularly we clean our cars inside and out, and the survey results reveal that 26.08% of people don’t clean their cars at all. Gross! Of that shameful 26%, 57% of those are men and 43% women.
I can only imagine what these people do with litter at a McDonald’s drive-through.
For the 74% of us who actually care about car hygiene, only 12% clean their cars weekly and 23% monthly, for the others, at least you tried!
We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but driving a dirty car introduces a new danger; dirty windows are going to limit your vision, particularly at night or in bad weather.
The Verdict
Woman are slightly safer and cleaner drivers, with phone safety varying depending on location. In general though we can all improve by putting the phone down, keeping those windows clean and keeping your eyes firmly on the road.
