Are women worse drivers than men?

From Middle East are years behind:

Let's see the results of a poll on TT regarding: Women are/aren't worse drivers than men. This means driving a motorized vehicle (i.e. car, truck, motorcycle etc.) and does not include accidents as a pedestrian or on bicycles or any other means of non-motorized transport.

@sarabyrd - there needs to be an option under each gender for "I am a male/female and I will vote below/above".

Can't vote sara cos you didn't give i am a man / i am a woman options

snap

yeah, I missed it again. I'm trying to fix it now

one to five! more than five! Are you basing this question on personal experience?

Depends how long you have been driving. Even fender bending is an accident. BTW, 21 years of driving, 0 accidents.

12 years, 6 accidents, none my fault, all were women drivers so I'm not sure what that says...do those bad women drivers then nullify my good driving record?

caused has a double meaning! I have been in alot of car accidents- but responsible for a few, on the other hand, I have 'caused' a few accidents- like it was my fault they were not watching the road!

25 + yrs driving, only been in one accident when a guy rearended me after sliding into me in snow in Munich

Ah, nice. Saved in the "great quotes I'll use again someday" part of my head.

Sorry, I can't change the poll. Feel free to vote and post as you wish: Interesting accidents in which I have been involved, no matter if caused be me or not.

I've been in 2 accidents - one I caused - rear-ended a Peugot 105 piece of shit in my brand new Z4 - wasn't even a month old.

I will say that, in general, women are worse drivers. Yep, no question.

never caused an accident.
not that i've been driving for a super long time though (8 yr going on 9). i've managed to drive through many many US states incl through ny city, philly, boston, chicago, la, miami, etc no probs. and drive around germany, istanbul, norway, finalnd, brazil, canada, belgium, and parts of france-- again no probs.

i think this helps support that female drivers are NOT bad!

Hey who is the other +5 male..me being one of them. Actually got into three with a close miss in one week(those were not mine though, I was a passenger in those) once.

if females are supposed such bad drivers then how come in most places throughout the US insurance on males (albeit teenage males) is higher for them than females?

Because we are in our naive stage and chase girls. I of course am still waiting to leave this stage

LOL ahh i see (nice response perdido)

No pix yet?

because men take more risks and drive more aggressively and therefore cause more damage which costs the insurance company more money.

@mere
You bring up a good point about insurance, women get cheaper insurance.

I don't know that how many accidents you have is a good reflection of how good a driver you are. Racing car drivers have lots of accidents, not because they are bad drivers but because they take risks.

I know we shouldn't generalise, but I think men are better drivers, however I also think they take many more risks than a woman when driving a car because of their over confidence.

I have been driving for 18 years and have been the receiving end of two accidents – both men. One guy was 16 years old and the other was 80 years old. As a passenger, I have probably been in 3-4 others. Of those, only one driver was female.

My dad was a cop for 28 years in suburban Chicago. Since there isn’t much crime in the area, he spent about 75% of his time dealing with traffic accidents. I once asked him this question and his reply was: “Stupidity knows no boundaries.� He also mentioned that women were usually responsible for the little accidents (fender-benders and the like), where men usually were involved in the bigger, more destructive ones (multi-car, DWI, etc).

Only caused one accident during 8 years of driving. Roundabout exit was closed off by police, I looked over my shoulder to change lane and when I looked back the car infront had stopped! Rear-ended him at about 5 mph, right in front of the police! Serves me right for following too closely.

Been in three other accidents, one was a male driving a truck that changed lanes into the side of me, the other was a male in a Smart who crashed into me on a roundabout, and the last was a guy who rear-ended me in a queue of traffic in the wet.

BTW in the UK I think the average driver has an accident every 7 years. Also women are less of a liability to insurance companies, so presumably they are safer? Maybe that is because of the 17-21 year old males though...

I can proudly say I have not had an accident since 1994. Coincidence wise I have also been without a car since 1995.

This isn't fair. I've raced. I've had 100's of accidents.

OK, OK... sometimes I even ran the odd adversary off the road - that's racing. If the Stewards don't catch you it's legal.

1) According to my wife I'm a worse driver than she is.
2) According to statistics I'm a worse driver than she is (a few accidents to nil).
Thus based on personal experience women are better drivers.

8 women with no accidents, 10 with more than 5 = 18

People responding on the male half of the sheet that they are female = 3

17 men with no accidents, 6 with 1-5, 4 with more than 5 = 27

People responding on the female half of the sheet that they are male = 12

I'd say the results are going to be skewed, no matter how you turn it.

Showem, how do you know how many men and women voted? Do you have inside information?

I assume she knows by the repsonses to the "I am a man" and "I am a woman" options on the poll.

FYI those options weren't added into the poll until later which is why the responses don't make sense.

this is true. Insurance figures show that women have, on average, more accidents but they are usually confined to dings and scrapes. Men make fewer claims but when they claim, they claim big-time for high-speed total right-off type crashes and such. Therefore premiums for women will be lower.

Being a good driver is more than just how many crashes you had or haven't had, though. Navigation, awareness, driving your car efficiently and safely and many other things all play a part.

ah i'd missed that. I didn't see the option when i voted. The poll is lame anyway. Everyone knows women are better drivers.

Rear ended twice, whilst stationary, both by women.
First one, woman comes towards me with an insurance certificate, says "Dont worry, I am a doctor and I am insured as I did this a month ago. Sorry but I was away with the birds" I offered to take her to her patient, she claimed I was being "too reasonable which leads me to believe that you may not be insured or have been drinking??!!" Asked her if she wanted to call the police or if she would like me to.
Second one, woman reversed into me whilst I was parked and said "It wasnt my fault, I was talking to my friend so was looking the other way, my husband will kill me as the car is only a week old and I crashed his last one when it was only 2 days old"
I told both of them that it was fortunate that they only hit my car and not a small child.
Female neighbour had 2 wing mirrors, new front and rear bumpers, new drivers door, new passenger door and was stopped by police for erratic driving (clear breath test). She also "lost control" on our straight road on a dry, sunny day and ploughed into my front garden, running my tree over!

Stepmother worked in insurance for over 20 years. Women have more accidents but only minor ones.
Men have more accidents but tend to destroy everything in sight, kill and maim.

I've been in only one accident in 15 years of driving. Yes it was a lady that caused it.
It's a tough argument as I don't think that accident numbers and insurance premiums are indications of driver skill. I think generally blokes are better behind a wheel but drive more aggressively and push their cars further and harder resulting in the higher liklehood of an accident. Birds tend to be far more cautious and nervous drivers and drive slower resulting in less accidents. Taking this to a race track where it is only about driving skill, I'd bet my underpants that the guys would be generally faster.

That thumb print on your forehead quite noticeable some days OG

Thanks to Gen for fixing the poll. I had 3 close misses on one day (Mothers' Day 1999 in fact):
1) a guy came speeding out of a side road on the wrong side while I was turning in to it (around Dietramszell), swerved to avoid him. - Guy's fault
2) a woman drifted towards my lane on the Mittlerer Ring close to the Olympiastadion, honked the fÃœck out of her and braked. - Woman's fault
3) a little girl (about 8) ran out right in front of my car in a 30-zone (I was doing 23km/h), braked and shook my finger at her. - Parents' fault for having her in the first place.
result: tie

I know this answer. I was talking with a friend of mine, he's a cop...yeah and he told me that the forty-odd years that he was working the streets, ya know, that he found that it is...what was the question again?

the favourite male driving comment - "you could get a 'king bus through there" is usually used when sitting behind a female driver when you could get a 'king... etc.

however, whoever pointed out that women have more minor accidents and men have more major accidents is probably just about spot on. it's invariably a man in a big car impatiently sitting 5 metres behind me doing a ton or more when i flick the rear fog lights on or touch the brakes.

after a very-serious-accident strewn early driving career (none of which were my fault) i learnt that the phrase 'patience is a virtue' is never truer than when driving. i do still get very bloody frustrated though with general bad driving, ie lack of attention/awareness to what is going on around you and the potential consequences of your actions, very often for the sake of a few seconds.

you're driving a ton and a half of metal around, very often well above the speed required to kill someone.

All accidents that I have caused, on the roads , have been cos I was driving so slow and not paying attention. Driving slow just puts me to sleep. I think its defo more dangerous for me than speeding.

edit: oh and the women vs men thing.. I personally dont think there is a difference. There are some bad women drivers out there, yes. And there are some god awful appalling women drivers out there that should not have passed their tests yet. And the same goes for men.

Ain't that the truth. A bit of speed concentrates the mind. The worst is a fast comfy car doing all the work after you've driven in a balls-out 125cc Kart. The concentration lapses.

I've never caused an accident, but I did broadside a guy when he ran a red light in front of me. I know he was the idiot who was at fault, but I still felt so bad for him. I hit him right in the driver's side door. He was driving a friend's car, too.

That's an outrageous lie

I was thinking of you when I accidentally squished a squirrel last summer.

A- you weren't in a car
B- that was no accident mate, you told me that you killed it in a blind rage after reading one of IPJ's posts.

NOT TRUE. It looked at me funny. A bit like IPJ did. So I ran over it.

Actually, when I had my animal-squishing experience, it wasn't in a car either. I flattened a little mousie with my bike. It was devastating.

AWWWW... I can just see a homeless family of mice livin' in poverty now.

Haven't had an accident myself although did let a girl from work drive my nice peugeot 206, after starting the engine, i tested if she could get the biting point with the handbrake on, which she could do fine, then when she released the handbrake she decided to slam her foot down on the accelerator and we ended up in the side of another car, still haven't got it fixed .