Are you going to be the one to tell Danica Patrick to move over and let you drive?
Women drivers have long been a mainstay for comics and comic strips, and most men are likely to say they’re better drivers. But a new study suggests you guess again.
The data all point to women as the better drivers, with women getting fewer tickets for reckless driving, winding up with fewer address for driving under the influence and – perhaps most notably – winding up dying in accidents about 50% less often.
If there’s anything that men seem to have a lead in it’s understanding how all the high tech gear in the latest cars are operated, according to the MetLife Auto & Home American Safety Pulse Poll.
“Safety knows no gender,” contends Bill Moore, president of MetLife Auto & Home. “Whether a man or a woman is behind the wheel, an attentive driver remains the most effective deterrent to auto accidents.”
Then, perhaps the statistics show that women are more attentive. Men are involved in reckless driving incidents 3.4 times more often than women and cited for DUI 3.1 times more frequently.
Automotive fatalities are particularly telling. A total of 11,900 men died in U.S. traffic accidents in 2009, the most recent year for which full statistics are available, while for women the number was a far smaller 4,900. Men also tend to drive more, so if you adjust the figures accordingly you find 2.5 men will be killed for every 100 million miles driven compared to just 1.7 women.
And when you’re looking at teens, the numbers go off the charts, the adjust death rate for males 16 to 19 years old coming in at 9.2 per 100 million miles driven, while for women it’s a more modest 5.3 deaths.
That’s something the insurance industry hasn’t missed, the website Insweb showing that the typical woman pays 9% less for comparable coverage.
Despite all those bad jokes, it seems, most women recognize who’s doing a better job on the road. According to the new MetLife survey, a full 51% believe they’re better drivers, only 25% pointing to men – the rest being undecided. Among males included in the survey, the sad truth has apparently sunk in, just 39% claiming they ruled the roads, with 26% pointing to the distaff side.
Where men stand out – no surprise – is when it comes to technology. The Auto & Home American Safety Pulse Poll found 58% of men but just 26% of women familiar with electronic stability control, for example. But men and women seem to be equally upbeat about the benefits, 57% of the guys behind the wheel and 53% of the gals saying they would prefer to drive in a vehicle equipped with the latest and greatest high-tech safety equipment.