“Women are as good drivers as men,” a recent headline in Women’s Magazine, based on research from the University of California. A study by physiology professor Nancy Wayne and her team had to uncover who is most apt to do well on the job. “The researchers worked with a hundred young students with up to five hours of driving experience.” The results are published in the journal PLOS ONE and ‘clearly show no difference between the performance of men and women who drive for the first time’.
Who Are Better Drivers – Men Or Women?
So don’t say ‘It’s another woman’ too soon?
Driving School New York says women do just as good as men when it comes to driving. Even more – ‘Women drive better than men,’ says Stef Willems of the Vias traffic center. Earlier this month, on International Women’s Day, Vias published an analysis based on statistics on ‘all police-registered injury accidents’ from 2014-2016. “Women behind the wheel are less dangerous than men in all areas – alcohol, speed, seat belt, mobile phone,” says Willems. “Even if you take into account that they drive fewer miles, they cause far fewer accidents than men.”
The big difference is not in technical skills, but in risk appetite
Less serious, moreover, we read at Vias. “Accidents involving a female driver are twice as likely to be fatal as those involving a male driver. We count 10 fatalities per 1000 accidents involving a motorist, compared to 19 fatalities involving accidents involving a motorist. ” Alcohol? “Men blow positive four times more often.” Fines? “Nearly two-thirds of drivers who have to pay an immediate recovery after a traffic violation is male.”
International research has also shown that women drive safer, says road safety specialist Lars Akkermans of Transport & Mobility Leuven.
But what about the cliché about parking? Do women also maneuver better?
Since 1 December 2006, aspiring motorists no longer have to complete the maneuvers separately, but immediately take to the road during their practical exams, where they show those technical skills in the real context. ‘I cannot give you individual pass marks for maneuvers,’ says Marie De Backer of GOCA, who has figures from all 32 Belgian driving test centers. “Women score better on the theory exam, men better on the practical test.” In 2017, 54 percent of men passed the practical exam, compared to 49 percent of women. “Women are more careful. In that snapshot, they often show themselves less smoothly and confidently than men, ‘says De Backer.
According to a British study, women have had an average of eighteen hours of driving lessons for their driving license more than men, says Willem Vlakveld of the Dutch traffic institute SWOV. “The big difference is not in technical skills, but in risk appetite.”
This is also evident from other research. In a driving simulator, men complete the course faster than women, but in terms of driving and steering skills, they perform equally well, emphasizes sports scientists and emeritus Jan Pauwels (KU Leuven). “The ultimate touchstone for a good driver is not whether you are an F1 driver, but whether you are committing offenses and having accidents.”
