Are women drivers better or worse than male drivers?
The battle of the sexes is an age old argument, but perhaps no issue gets either side more fired up than the question “Are women worse drivers than men?” Women have gotten an unfair rap of being poor drivers, but who is it that is perpetuating this myth? And is it true? A Los Angeles accident attorney could probably tell you.
Well one company, Quality Planning, decided to do some quantitative analysis and determine the answer (drum roll please). According to their rigorous analysis of the data, women are actually better drivers than men!
The company analyzed the data from traffic violations and then broke it down into male versus female. The results showed that men tend to drive more dangerously and violate more traffic laws than women do, including speeding. This type of reckless driving leads to more car accidents than women cause, including both bodily harm and damage to vehicles.
The data was broken into various types of traffic violations. If we look at the types of violations where men score at least 50% higher than women, we see that reckless driving tops the list at 3.41. While at first blush this may not sound so dangerous, in fact it is treated as one of the most serious violations by judges because it endangers other people and their property.
Types of traffic violations analyzed where men had at least 50 percent higher violations than women:
TRAFFICE VIOLATIONS (ration of male to female offense):
- Stop sign/signal violation (1.53 )
- Failure to yield (1.54)
- Speeding (1.75)
- Seatbelt violations (3.08)
- DUI (3.09)
- Reckless driving (3.41)
Death rates of men and women from car accidents
When it comes to mortality rates on the road, men also fare worse than women. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) puts out a report each year on driving safety and they also have concluded that more men versus women die in car accidents each year. These types of accidents usually involve serious crashes such as reckless driving, speeding or driving drunk.
What’s the final verdict?
Although it’s hard to define the term “better driver” if we look at statistics, we can conclude that women are safer drivers than men. Men have higher levels of testosterone and that can lead them to be more aggressive and take more chances, including on the road. Their willingness to break the law more than women also puts them at risk for injury. So in the final debate of men versus women, it looks like the ladies take the title as the better drivers. Either way, if you’ve been in an accident, you might want to consider contacting a Los Angeles accident attorney.


