Photo: Express.co.uk
You could argue all day long on whether men or women are the better drivers, but figures speak louder than words. And they point out that men tend to be more dangerous than women when they’re behind the wheel.
Under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Feel Good Contacts, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in the UK released figures showing the exact extent of driving related offenses committed by male and female drivers.
These figures show that, without a shadow of doubt, men are more likely to do something illegal and dangerous at the wheel, be it drive dangerously, drive on a suspended license, and drive under the influence of drugs. The only offense where there seems to be more of an even playing field for men and women is drunk driving.
Data collected between January 2014 and July 2018 shows that 421,565 men were banned from driving, whereas only 66,272 women had their licenses suspended during this time. Men aged 26 seem to be the worst offenders: over 18,107 men of this age were banned from driving in the same timeframe.
The same startling gap is maintained for other offenses, too: men are 23 times more likely to have their license suspended for dangerous driving, 16 times more likely to drive while already on a suspended license, 15 times more likely to drive while on drugs and 10 times more likely to drive “without due care or consideration for other road users.”
What the report doesn’t mention is the fact that, while male drivers seem to be worse than their female counterparts, the gap can also be explained by the difference in the number of drivers. To put it simply: when you do the tally, there are more male drivers on the roads than there are female, be it in the UK or the rest of the world.
Still, “these findings strongly back up our research and that of the Government, which shows we need a targeted approach aimed at the biggest ‘at risk’ group in the UK when it comes to road crashes – that is young men in their early to mid-twenties,” Rodney Kumar, spokesman for UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, says.
“If we are to make any inroads into significantly reducing the numbers of people killed or injured on our roads, we need to directly influence this group through re-education on attitudes from an early age, backed up by zero tolerance in enforcement to stop them in their tracks and make them realize bad driving just isn’t worth it,” Kumar adds.
These figures show that, without a shadow of doubt, men are more likely to do something illegal and dangerous at the wheel, be it drive dangerously, drive on a suspended license, and drive under the influence of drugs. The only offense where there seems to be more of an even playing field for men and women is drunk driving.
Data collected between January 2014 and July 2018 shows that 421,565 men were banned from driving, whereas only 66,272 women had their licenses suspended during this time. Men aged 26 seem to be the worst offenders: over 18,107 men of this age were banned from driving in the same timeframe.
The same startling gap is maintained for other offenses, too: men are 23 times more likely to have their license suspended for dangerous driving, 16 times more likely to drive while already on a suspended license, 15 times more likely to drive while on drugs and 10 times more likely to drive “without due care or consideration for other road users.”
What the report doesn’t mention is the fact that, while male drivers seem to be worse than their female counterparts, the gap can also be explained by the difference in the number of drivers. To put it simply: when you do the tally, there are more male drivers on the roads than there are female, be it in the UK or the rest of the world.
Still, “these findings strongly back up our research and that of the Government, which shows we need a targeted approach aimed at the biggest ‘at risk’ group in the UK when it comes to road crashes – that is young men in their early to mid-twenties,” Rodney Kumar, spokesman for UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, says.
“If we are to make any inroads into significantly reducing the numbers of people killed or injured on our roads, we need to directly influence this group through re-education on attitudes from an early age, backed up by zero tolerance in enforcement to stop them in their tracks and make them realize bad driving just isn’t worth it,” Kumar adds.
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