Women are shown to be worse drivers than men in certain studies carried out, and better in others. To decide who the better driver is, first you have to define, "better". For example as a Contract Hire Company we consider women to be better drivers because they cause us less problems; in our experience they write off fewer cars and we have less administration because they incur fewer speeding fines.
In a study that was carried out at Queen Mary University in London, psychologists said that women and interestingly gay men were very poor, when it came to a sense of direction in an environment that was unfamiliar to them. They said that men had much better navigational skills. This may account for what men refer to as "dithering" by women drivers. Being lost and confused may not be the ideal ingredients for safe driving.
In research carried out by Frank Mc Kenna of Reading University, he stated that the only area men proved to better than women was in terms of manoeuvring and parking a vehicle, as he quite rightly pointed out "few people die parking". There seems to be little doubt that women have significantly more minor accidents than men. There is no way of being sure how many, because these minor accidents tend not to result in insurance claims; an insurance policy's excess, normally make it more practical to have the vehicle repaired at the drivers on expense.
Women generally are unimpressed by men's driving and fail to see why men get involved in races and other dangerous situations. It does appear that men are easily drawn into situations when they feel they are being challenged by another motorist, sometimes with disastrous results. Women's view of driving, as is the case with so many things, is very different from men; they like to leave plenty of time for their journey, arriving on time and safely. Many men just get in their car and aim to get where they are going as quickly as possible and take a dim view of anyone who impedes their progress.
Misjudging their speed when entering a bend is an accident that kills many young men, said Frank Mc Kenna. There also seems to be another factor involved and that is that younger male drivers appear to be more easily drawn into racing another motorist. Sometimes they loose control of their vehicle simply because they want to show the motorist driving behind them, that they can enter the bend at a greater speed and leave them behind. Whilst this behaviour is easy to understand, the results are often tragic. It is also suspected that they are often being goaded by their male companions and as a result push further to the limit.
There are a number of insurers who aim their marketing at women drivers, claiming that they represent a lower risk. Their argument is that the majority of fatal accidents involve male drivers. Additionally they say men are much more likely to drink and drive and exceed the speed limit. Overall they are saying that women drivers are more responsible that men, a point that many men would find difficult to argue against. A typical male response would be "yes but we are still better drivers".
Figures, when looked at in isolation can be misleading and the case put forward by insurance companies, that women are a better risk, is no exception. They may well be a better risk for insurance companies but figures produced by the Department of Transport provide an insight into why that might be the case; women only drive on average1/4 of the number of miles per annum however 1/3 of accidents where there is serous injury or death involve women drivers. Certainly it is evident that women do not drive as many miles as men; when driving on a motorway, one only has to look around to see how few drivers are women. To complicate matters women could then argue, that the reason is that they drive less on motorways and more on A and B roads, which are not as safe as motorways. In any event it does seem to make women more risky per mile driven but then as a Contract Hire company we have always tended to look at it as perhaps the insurance companies do; that women drivers write off less of our cars.
Many male drivers believe that women do not have the same type of driving skills and ability as men. After all they would say there are no women Formula One drivers and from a man's point of view they do seem to spend a lot of time "dithering" on the road. This is perhaps confirmed by the Department of Transport's figures that show that women are more likely to have someone drive into the back of their vehicle. Whilst there are no figures on this; it is possible that those who drive in the back of women's vehicles are men who have become frustrated by their driving. Apparently women are also more likely to have an accident during the day and significantly more likely to be involved in an accident between the hours of 8 and 10am.
According to women, men don't make good passengers, according to men; they don't feel safe when sitting next to a women driver, particularly at junctions. This fear whilst perhaps exaggerated is not entirely without foundation, because figures produced by the government show that women have a far greater chance of having an accident at a junction. It is possible that contract hire and insurance companies have in the past only looked at women drivers from their own rather narrow viewpoint, rather than looking at the broader picture. The conclusion may be that men do have far better driving skills than women but tend to be far more impatient and take greater risks when driving, which cancels out some but perhaps not all of the benefit.
Should you have any queries or questions with regard to Fleet Management, Licence checking, Contract Hire, Personal Contract Hire, Lease Purchase or vehicle Hire Purchase, please do not hesitate to contact us. Bowater Price plc 01494 536 536. www.bowaterprice.com.