Male and Female Driving Differences

[ShannonCT]

For all of those licensed drivers out there, do you notice a significant difference in the way women and men drive?

From my observations, men are more dangerous and reckless drivers. They tend to drive faster and make riskier maneuvers at high speeds. They are more likely to weave through traffic on the highway, and treat driving a car like a video game. And they are more likely to get aggressive on the road and take personal offense to the actions of other drivers. Because of this, they are more likely to get in costly accidents. This is born out in the higher cost of auto insurance for males (especially young males).

On the other hand, women drivers are overly cautious and indecisive. Women are more likely to disrupt the smooth flow of traffic by failing to make quick decisions on the road, or by making bad spatial judgements about the position of their vehicle with respect to other vehicles (like pulling halfway out of a driveway and waiting to make a turn while blocking a lane). Women's driving mistakes and deficiencies are not punished because they are less likely to be life-threatening.

Women drivers nickel and dime us, making us spend those extra few minutes in our cars every day because of the temporary traffic disruptions they create. Men create fewer disruptions, but the ones they do create are often big and time-consuming.

Does your experience agree with these generalizations? Do you feel more annoyed at and inconvenienced by male or female drivers?

 

[thetrooper]

Does your experience agree with these generalizations?

I agree 100%.

 

[Turner]

Usually it's the men drivers that I yell at the most, but what really gets me is the small percentage of women drivers (I do realize it's not most of them) that decide to get right on my butt and stay there, no matter what speed I go. It's not like there's not a passing lane they can use to get around me. Irks me to no end.

That being said, I have seen quite a few women drivers who were better than most men. Take a look at my mom. She's had no accidents, and my dad several. Certainly he's not an aggressive driver. And my wife will attest that she has hit less poles than I have. But the whole riding my butt thing really gets my B/P up.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

I have noticed no correlation between gender and driving skills. I know females who drive like the stereotypical male. However, most of the females I know who have little sheep personalities don't drive at all.

From what I have noticed, women are just as likely as men to commit traffic violations but women are able to get male cops to let things slide (often by crying).



Note: My experiences are mostly with highschool and college aged drivers, so my observations are age biased.

 

[Fifty]

My dad's girlfriend is such a horrible driver. I swear to god she is literally afraid of taking left turns at non-stoplight intersections. She'll go way way way out of her way to avoid left turns. oh and despite the fact that I live in washington, where we get MAYBE 3 days of snow a year, she uses studded tires from October to April.

 

[Volum]

Im a male, im a horrible driver, no problem admitting it. I know a girl, worse driver then me, she basiaclly jumps the speed bumps. My neighbour that ive known forever, a girl, much better driver then me. After school when i was supposed to giver her a lift home i usually just let her drive.

 

[Masquerouge]

I have to say I have not noticed a gender pattern.

 

[Bill3000]

From what I recall, men have higher auto-insurance rates - and since insurance rates are based on statistics, and men don't necessarily drive more than women, the idea that men are "worse drivers" is more likely.

 

[Phlegmak]

For all of those licensed drivers out there, do you notice a significant difference in the way women and men drive?

From my observations, men are more dangerous and reckless drivers. They tend to drive faster and make riskier maneuvers at high speeds. They are more likely to weave through traffic on the highway, and treat driving a car like a video game. And they are more likely to get aggressive on the road and take personal offense to the actions of other drivers. Because of this, they are more likely to get in costly accidents. This is born out in the higher cost of auto insurance for males (especially young males).

On the other hand, women drivers are overly cautious and indecisive. Women are more likely to disrupt the smooth flow of traffic by failing to make quick decisions on the road, or by making bad spatial judgements about the position of their vehicle with respect to other vehicles (like pulling halfway out of a driveway and waiting to make a turn while blocking a lane). Women's driving mistakes and deficiencies are not punished because they are less likely to be life-threatening.

Women drivers nickel and dime us, making us spend those extra few minutes in our cars every day because of the temporary traffic disruptions they create. Men create fewer disruptions, but the ones they do create are often big and time-consuming.

Does your experience agree with these generalizations? Do you feel more annoyed at and inconvenienced by male or female drivers?

Sounds about right.

 

[Masquerouge]

Actually lemme change my opinion. I am more inconvencied by male drivers because they're usually the ones flipping you off, yelling, and getting violent. Women usually do not.

 

[ShannonCT]

From what I recall, men have higher auto-insurance rates - and since insurance rates are based on statistics, and men don't necessarily drive more than women, the idea that men are "worse drivers" is more likely.

The insurance companies are charging people based on the expected damage they are likely to cause to their own and other people's cars and bodies. Undoubtedly, men are likely to do more damage. That doesn't mean they are worse drivers. Insurance companies don't charge people for blocking traffic and impeding the drivers around them, which women do more of according to my personal experience. There is a time cost to society for overly-cautious, indecisive drivers. But its hard to charge people for being overly-cautious.

So I'm wondering if people feel like male or female drivers are causing them to spend more time driving.

 

[Mise]

I agree with the OP. I also think that slower drivers are more dangerous than fast, confident drivers. You can never predict what the slow guy in front of you will do next, whereas you have a fair idea that the fast driver behind you will probably try and overtake you at the next opportunity.

From what I recall, men have higher auto-insurance rates - and since insurance rates are based on statistics, and men don't necessarily drive more than women, the idea that men are "worse drivers" is more likely.

They're some combination of: (a) more expensive drivers (i.e. a man is more likely to make claims above their excess*, which does not necessarily mean that they have more accidents), and (b) more likely to be willing to pay higher premiums.

*- two parts to this:
(i) - men are more likely to make claims -- not necessarily more likely to be in an accident.
(ii) - the claims that men make are more likely to be above their excess -- a woman could be in several small accidents that do not cost more than their excess, in which case a claim is not filed (no point as the insurance only pays the cost of the claim less the excess), whereas a man could be in one accident that costs a bit more than the excess, in which case a claim is filed and the insurance has to pay out.

 

[Bill3000]

The insurance companies are charging people based on the expected damage they are likely to cause to their own and other people's cars and bodies. Undoubtedly, men are likely to do more damage. That doesn't mean they are worse drivers. Insurance companies don't charge people for blocking traffic and impeding the drivers around them, which women do more of according to my personal experience. There is a time cost to society for overly-cautious, indecisive drivers. But its hard to charge people for being overly-cautious.

So I'm wondering if people feel like male or female drivers are causing them to spend more time driving.

Not necessarily. Damage is only one part of the function. The probability of a collision happening is critical too.

Why are teens given such extraordinarily high rates? Not necessarily just because of the damage - but because because since they are inexperienced and immature drivers, the odds that they will get into a collision is higher.


Though I concede - it's not enough. I don't remember the actual rates of collisions offhand, though I would have sworn that there were more men than women.

 

[Mise]

Women aren't better drivers than men. (statistics)

 

[Bill3000]

That works. My driving school sucks for giving false statistics.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Women aren't better drivers than men. (statistics)

But that means the Sheilas' Wheels adverts are lying to me

 

[warpus]

I have noticed that the worst drivers on the planet are eldery chinese women.

Call me racist, sexist, and elderist.. but that's just the truth

 

[Mise]

But that means the Sheilas' Wheels adverts are lying to me

It's a blatant case of sexism

EDIT: Damn you for getting that stupid advert song in my head!!

 

[ShannonCT]

Not necessarily. Damage is only one part of the function. The probability of a collision happening is critical too.

Why are teens given such extraordinarily high rates? Not necessarily just because of the damage - but because because since they are inexperienced and immature drivers, the odds that they will get into a collision is higher.

Expected damage includes the probability of collision. I have no doubt that accidents caused by men end up costing insurance companies more than accidents caused by women. That's why insurance rates are higher for men.

Let's assume for argument's sake that 6% of men and 5% of women will be responsible for claimable auto damage this year. Furthermore, let's assume that the average damage caused by a male is 50% higher than that caused by a female. Then, we'd would expect men to be charged 80% more than women for auto insurance. 94% of men and 95% of women cause no significant auto accidents this year. If those safe men are even a little faster than those safe women, the women may end up slowing me down more than the men. It depends on how often I am unlucky enough to get stuck on the highway because of a major accident. But I know that the slow indecisive drivers are going to take little chunks of my time every day.

I define a person's skill as a driver in terms of how much of other people's time he or she is likely to waste.

 

[Guangxi]

I know females who drive like the stereotypical male.

i know a woman who drives like a boy racer, its quite terrifying being a passenger.