What makes men better drivers

People who have good spatial awareness tend to do well in various aspects of life, including art, sports, science, math and yes, driving. Again, research has shown that higher testosterone levels boost spatial awareness , which is vital for driving without bumping into other cars or road objects. Throughout the decades, personal anecdotes have always put men above women when it comes to driving skills.

But now, science points to our hormones as factors that determine who can handle machinery with more skill. Of course, you also have to consider the emotional effects of testosterone, and how they can impact driving. When someone mentions it, what comes to your mind? But much like testosterone, estrogen can have an impact on driving. The gentlemen who have read this post probably had a mini-celebration after reviewing the section above, but the ladies have reason to celebrate too.

Safe driving requires a laser-like attention span , something we have seem to forgotten in the 21st century. Think of all the close calls and accidents that happened when someone looked away from the road for just a second. Apparently, women have the upper-hand when it comes to attention, because estrogen seems to boost concentration more so than testosterone does for men. At least on a biological level, it would seem that women are more likely to focus on the road ahead, rather than allow themselves to get distracted by others or themselves.

Remembering detours, desired routes and destination times all fall under the function of memory. Well, studies have shown that women, especially those who are premenopausal, receive a memory boost as a result of estrogen. In fact, research is now showing that women tend to have better memories than men, and age-related memory loss begins later in females than it does in males.

That may explain why the husband may be the one who comes home without the laundry detergent as opposed to the wife. The researchers examined police reports of two-vehicle traffic accidents across the country from to and they zeroed in on the cases in which the drivers of both vehicles could "potentially" determine the gender of the other driver in the moments before the crash.

The accidents occurred during "personal travel" and since men drive about 60 percent of the time compared to 40 percent by women, the researchers assumed men would be involved in more accidents than women. The "expected" percentage of accidents in which both drivers were men should be around 36 percent, but the chances that a woman would run into another woman was expected to be less than 16 percent, because women drive less than men.

Those expectations turned out to be so far out of whack that the researchers themselves could hardly believe it. Crashes involving two female drivers were "overrepresented" in five out of six different crash scenarios: Variations on crossing another vehicle's path, side-swiping, turning in front of another vehicle, and head on.

But here's the baffling part - when both vehicles were driven by a female, the crashes exceeded the expected frequency by at least 50 percent in two scenarios, and more than 25 percent in three others. The percentage of accidents in which a woman sideswipes another female driver to her left came in at a whopping 52 percent compared to the expected frequency of In the same type of accident involving two male drivers, the percentage was 22 percent below the expected level of The study found that when it came to the sex of the driver, males had twice the rate of fatal accidents than women when driving cars and vans, which increased to four times as many when trucks were involved.

Women, however, were involved in more bus-related fatalities when acting as the driver. Evaluating the way you drive, researchers were able to determine whether the driver was male or female using variables related to speed, acceleration, lane departure, braking force and the steering angle.

What was revealed was that speed was the greatest predictor of driver gender, followed by acceleration and steering angle. Aggressive behaviour such as sharp acceleration and speed was also linked to male drivers. While the study was able to identify the gender of drivers through their driving behaviours, the reason for why there is such a contrast between driving styles of the genders was not clearly defined and needs to be investigated further.

While the studies reveal men are more likely to pass their driving test overall and have a higher first-time pass rate, once they are on the roads they are less likely than women to be safe drivers. Climate talks soften stance on fossil fuel phaseout. Home Business. Men or women - Who are better drivers? Image for representation. By Murad Ali Baig. Now we are on Telegram too.

Follow us for updates. India Matters. Chennai woman cop rescues man trapped under tree who was presumed dead, video goes viral. Independence or alms? Kangana remark sparks national outburst as parties ask President take back her Padma Shri. Suspended doctor Kafeel Khan sacked by UP hospital over deaths of 70 children. Covaxin