Stop the presses!!!
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2020/03/09/injuryprev-2019-043534.abstract I need a sex-change.
Who can read this stuff, and who can do the research and pay for it? At any rate, I’ll admit I have hit more deer than my wife but on the other hand, I do 90% of the driving so the odds are against me.
Just editorial comment: Oh never mind.
Less aggressive? Yes
Better? More skilled? No
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Wacky article to choose. For the US,
“Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, vs. 1.7 deaths for women. Those rates skyrocket for teenage drivers to 9.2 deaths per 100 million miles for males 16 to 19 years old and 5.3 deaths for female of the same age.”
So women are safer drivers. No surprise there.
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So statistical analysis proves what everyone knew all along, women, on average take less risks that men. I postulated many years ago that no woman ever died immediately after saying “Watch This!”
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That study is for accidents involving deaths.
Are there any studies for non-death accidents or non-injury accidents?
It also says men were more likely to drive dangerous vehicles. So, what do you expect.
Between my wife and two daughters, they all use the car purely for transportation, they don’t enjoy driving AT ALL. They are just operating the machine per the rules.
Not the case with me. Started “driving” when I was 8 or 9, always were into cars. Even now drive a stick shift car and enjoy every second of it. You bet I make stupid decisions for fun. Less nowadays, but still.
Women are safer drivers than men!
Perhaps, but how many men have they bored to death with their driving techniques and how many men have died having strokes while yelling at them for what is wrong with their driving?
Reminds me of a short video…
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=honesty+on+the+golf+course+funny+video&docid=607988423277414858&mid=74DC40ED95A3D526346674DC40ED95A3D5263466&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
CSA
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Insurance companies will tell you that women’s rates are lower because of fewer and less expensive claims.
On a personal note, I have killed one deer and several porcupines with my car due to unavoidable collisions.
My wife has killed a bear in a national park on a remote road. The bear was young and did not survive the collision. She did report it to the Park Ranger sine this bear appeared to have been tagged in a research project.
Maybe yes, maybe no…
In my experience, if I am being tailgated at a ridiculously close distance, the majority of the time the driver is a woman, and most of them appear to be in the 20-40 age range.
Your experience might differ.
And you’re basing this assumption on what exactly??
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Inactivity or failure to make quick decisions to avoid a situation and/or get out of the way due to willingness to actually do it. Car is heading towards me. Do I do nothing or punch it and get clear of the pending accident? Wishful thinking does not get you anywhere. Actions do. Only knew 1 female that was willing to drive that way.
It is never a good idea to say one group or type is more prone to be good or bad at driving ability . But a person can develop a thought that seems to be a wide practice. In my case I just cringe when an SUV is coming at me from behind when setting at a traffic light and brakes at the last second and is almost on my rear bumper. Most of the time it is a woman in the 20 to 40 range that VDC sites.
So you’re going to generalize for the entire population based on your small sample size of a non-scientific survey…whatever works for you. There are plenty of women who will take action and plenty of men who don’t. I still call BS on your initial premise of:
(frankly I don’t necessarily agree on the Better portion of your question either, but being how broad and conflicting the strokes that are needed to describe exactly what “better” means I’ll leave it alone)
Shirley Muldowney used to say that all the time.
That is one of about 1,000 different scenarios in which you might find your self in danger. I think an approach that mitigates the risks by preventing those scenarios is far more valuable than being able to react after you find yourself in that scenario.
Maybe that’s what makes women safer drivers, and the reason they have lower insurance rates, that they’d rather avoid that scenario all together than try to manage it after they’re in danger.
The best way to improve your safety while driving is to be proactive, and not wait for unsafe situations to arise. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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Women tend to not drive as aggressively, men tend to depending if they are a car enthusiast or not, since a lot of car enthusiasts tend to drive more… aggressive than regular drivers. Generally, women are safer drivers… but that is just generally
I dunno, I still suspect the reason is that they are on the road less even though the figures are for accidents per million miles or whatever. The thing is if are driving a hundred miles a day, you have to keep on moving day after day. But if you are taking a leisurely trip to the mall on Sunday or to meet with the girls for lunch, time management is not such a big thing.
Now that girl that blew through the stop sign and gave me the universal salute was a woman but she maybe wasn’t part of the statistic “yet”. Of course all anecdotal but weekend drivers are different than daily drivers. Oh how sexist of me-or oh how sexist of the studies, or maybe oh how irrelevant?
Exactly!
Defensive Driving is the name of the game if one wants to be accident-free to the greatest extent possible.
When I was young and impatient, I had two accidents that were clearly my fault. The first one–when I was 17–was due to inattention, and it resulted in hitting the back of a semi while in stop & go traffic. Obviously, no damage to the semi, and my father made me pay out of my pocket for the damage to his '63 Plymouth. IIRC, it cost less than $400 to replace the hood and the grill.
During my first year as a teacher, I was rushing to work during a snowstorm, and failed to exercise adequate caution. As a result, I grazed the side of a bridge abutment, and my father made me pay out of my pocket for that damage to his '66 Galaxie 500. IIRC, that one cost me about $700, and it caused me to clean-up my act, and to drive defensively at all times.
As a result of practicing Defensive Driving ever since, I have not even had a scratched door in the past 5 decades.
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I’ve got to get some work done, but I’m all for defensive driving, have taken all the courses, etc. and avoided a lot. But if you are going to avoid animals such as deer in the fall on a 200 mile night time drive, you will be driving 45 mph with the high beams on. In a normal life situation, this is simply not practical. At 60 or so mph you have about 5 seconds to react when one of those dumb animals charges across the road. So depending on whether there are side rails on the road, you take your best shot and hit the dang things. That’s why they are called acts of God. Most of the time you don’t even spill your coffee if you hit them right. Maybe the girls would drive 45, I dunno, but usually she is sleeping while I’m risking an accident.
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