In the age-old battle of the sexes, there are few issues as contentious as which gender make the better drivers, but now there could be solid evidence to prove that women are better after all.
Admiral Insurance collated data from its customers who make use of black box telematics devices, which contains a GPS and motion sensor to record each drivers’ behaviour behind the wheel.
The telematics devices can track everything from how far a driver travels and at what time, to how hard they accelerate and how fast they enter and exit corners.
Real-world telematics data
According to Admiral’s telematics data, women are indeed the better drivers, with the black boxes providing possibly the most accurate real-world assessment of on-road gender differences.
A statement from the company said: “Men have an annual average mileage of 7,004, which is 564 miles more than the women's average of 6,440.
“On average, men spend more time driving than women and funnily enough they spend a higher percentage of that time speeding. And with men being in the car more often, they also face driving at riskier times and in bad weather.”
The study also found that drivers who have children are slightly safer behind the wheel than those who don’t, while people who drive petrol cars are marginally better than diesel or hybrid drivers.
Statistically, the safest drivers are most likely to drive a Chevrolet, Skoda or a Volvo, while the least safe are more likely to drive Audi, Smart or Daewoo cars according to the data.
Men riskier behind the wheel
Based on the telematics information, statistically the best driver would be a woman from East Anglia aged between 46 and 50, who works as a software engineer, has children and drives a red Honda.
On the other side of the coin, statistically the worst would be a Scottish man aged between 21 and 25, who works as a manager, has no children and drives a white Audi with a manual gearbox.
The data confirms an earlier survey by Privilege Insurance, which likewise found that female drivers are better than men, performing better when being observed anonymously on the roads.
