Feb 25, 2008 11:04 pm US/Central
Good Question: Who Drives Better? Men Or Women?
(WCCO)
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It's an old stereotype that still has legs; women can't drive. However, crash statistics paint a very different picture of male drivers in more crashes with more deadly results.
In 2006, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 6,349 women drivers died in vehicle crashes. For male drivers, 15,138 died in crashes.
So are women better drivers?
"It's a complicated question," said Michael Manser, director of the University of Minnesota's Human FIRST program. Manser directs research into human behaviors behind the wheels of vehicles.
"The statistics only show, and they only answer, one part of the question. Too many other variables that come into play that may influence crash rates. To simply say it's a male-female issue is underestimating the complexity," he added.
Still, the statistics are staggering. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, in 2006, female drivers were involved in 55,418 crashes. Male drivers were involved in 34 percent more crashes, a total of 74,084.
"There are literally 50 or 60 different performance variables that go into driving, and typically there aren't a lot of differences between males and females when it comes to those different behavioral metrics," said Manser.
For example, "males respond just as quickly as females do," he said.
While the mechanics of driving may not have gender differences, there are differences on the road.
"On a basic level women have the same skills and the same limitations. How they're implemented in the real world probably differs between men and women," according to Manser.
Researchers have found men more likely to speed and more likely to drink before they drive.
"Risk-taking behaviors or propensity for those behaviors in males is greater than for females why that is, on a basic level, on a psychology level, I don't know," said Manser.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the greatest gender difference to be in adults age 20 to 24. Men in that group had a death rate of 31.6 per 100,000 people. The female death rate was 12.0 per 100,000 people.
"If you have a young male driver with a female passenger, they'll attenuate they're behavior so it's not as risky," said Manser.
Why?
"They're making an impression on that young female," he added.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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