Women Drivers – the Safest Motorists on UK Roads

Published 6 March 2017

For a long time, there’s been much stereotyping about women drivers and suggestions that they are the worse drivers, but in actual fact this is far from the truth. Figures show that in 2014, 113,066 male drivers were involved in accidents, compared to 69,245 women drivers.

Women on the Road

There are now more women drivers on the road than ever before. Around 67% of women now have a UK driving license, with this number expected to rapidly increase over the coming years.  This is also connected with the rise in female employment. Studies have looked into the link between employment and driving. The research found that employment rates and income among women is increasing and so is car ownership. We have certainly seen a huge rise in the amount of women drivers coming to us for a bad credit car lease, meaning not only are there are more women drivers, but they are switched on when it comes to finding a car to drive, find out more about leasing here.  However, for men, employment rates and income has dropped, along with them having regular access to a car.

Women Drivers, driving habits

On average women travel more often than men, but men make much longer journeys. In the UK, men travel an average of 7,200 miles per year compared to 5,800 miles driven by women. The most noticeable difference is regarding to travelling for work, where men on average travel twice as far for work than women.

Some behavioural studies show this could be due to men having a tendency to be bigger risk takers and a tendency to display more aggressive and dangerous driving behaviours. Women in comparison tended to be have more patient, but anxious driving styles.

Road accidents and offences

Figures on road casualties show a large difference between men and women. Men are significantly more likely to be seriously injured or killed on the road than women. This isn’t only in the UK either, but across the world too where men make up 73% of all deaths on the road, nearly triple the number of women killed. This could be attributed to men generally travelling larger distances. However, studies have shown that even with this taken into account, there is still a significant difference in the number of men and women involved in collisions.

In Britain, 95% of people convicted for death caused by dangerous driving are generally men. Furthermore, the number of male drivers having driven under the influence of drugs, was around four times higher than female drivers. However, one study revealed a 16% increase in the number of women convicted of drink-driving between 2006 and 2012, compared to the number of men convicted, which has begun to fall.

So, who exactly is the best driver?

Well, research by Admiral insurance says that the best driver on UK’s roads are women drivers, a mother of several children, aged between 46-50 years old and living in East Anglia. They work as a software engineer and drive a red Honda.