Why Are Men More Dangerous Drivers Than Women?

Historically, there has been a flawed stereotype that men are better drivers than women. It’s impossible to say that all people of a specific gender drive in a certain way.

However, what you can do is look at data that takes an average of all men and compares it to all women. From this, you can compare the two genders based on average statistical data.

With this in mind, the statistical data does not support the notion that men are better drivers. On the contrary, it suggests that women are safer.

In 2018, the large city of Houston saw 189 fatal crashes resulting in 197 deaths. You can safely estimate that upwards of 135 men or more died compared to just 62 women.

To give you perspective as to why women are generally safer drivers, we’ll explain why male drivers tend to be so dangerous below.

Increased Law-Breaking

To begin with, men have an increased tendency to break the law.

This can apply to anything from speeding to running a red light or failing to yield. Regardless of the traffic law, men are significantly more likely to violate it.

The problem with this is that law-breaking is unpredictable. Other drivers do not expect you to do something like run a red light, so they won’t be accounting for this. When you surprise other drivers, it leads to an accident.

The other side of this is that breaking the law is generally dangerous. For something like speeding, increasing how fast you’re going amplifies the force your car has and makes a resulting accident more severe.

Most traffic laws exist because driving otherwise is unsafe. As a whole, males tend to care far less about this as the thrill of driving fast or successfully navigating a dangerous situation can be much more exciting for them.

More Risk-Taking

Men are also more likely to participate in risky driving behaviors.

Violating traffic laws is a good example of this, but there are plenty more. Driving requires calculated risks, but some are downright unnecessary.

A great example of calculated risk is turning right into an intersection on a red light. You can proceed when it’s safe, but it’s up to your judgment to determine when that time is. Turn too late and you run the risk of an accident.

Men are prone to taking unnecessary risks. This applies to behaviors like drinking and driving, rapidly switching lanes, tailgating, and being generally reckless.

The reason for this is likely due to how males perceive their behavior. They may not think of their actions as necessarily risky, while a woman may prefer caution in the same situation.

Greater Aggressiveness

Another contributing factor is that men are much more aggressive behind the wheel.

Male aggression exists because of biology and evolution. Historically, men needed to be aggressive for several different reasons. They needed aggression to hunt for food, establish their worth in a community, and fight off attackers.

In modern society, aggression is almost unnecessary. Despite that, it is still present and shows up in subtle ways like aggressive driving.

This results in behavior like tailgating, excessive honking, rude gestures, brake-checking, trying to run another car off the road, intentionally hitting another car, or throwing objects at another car.

Any of these actions will likely terrify another driver and leave them wondering what to do. This is a scary situation because an aggressive driver makes an accident almost inevitable due to their inability to think rationally.

Women can also be aggressive, but men just tend to be more aggressive.

Deadlier Accidents

The final piece of the equation is that car accidents involving men are more likely to be fatal.

All of the factors mentioned above contribute to this. When a driver frequently breaks the law, freely takes unnecessary risks, and drives aggressively, they are several times more likely to get into an accident.

Making matters worse, the severity of these accidents is amplified due to how many males drive.

Actions like speeding and running red lights are two good instances of how a more serious crash can result from poor driving behavior. Both situations involve high speeds, which translates to more force transferred in a crash. The greater the force, the higher the damage.

One last component of this is that men also tend to drive more dangerous vehicles. Namely, cars that have way too much power and lack safety features. Males are far more enamored with the power of vehicles and are swayed by this to buy cars that they just can’t handle.

Keep in mind that this does not speak for all men and women. Both men and women can be excellent or terrible drivers.

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to driving a vehicle, men tend to be more dangerous. Men and women think differently and this is perfectly displayed in how they approach driving. Unfortunately, males get in drastically more accidents with the approach they often take.

In particular, the dangerous driving behaviors many men make include increased law-breaking, more risk-taking, and greater aggressiveness. This translates to a much higher rate of fatal accidents compared to women.

Statistically, there is no argument that men are safer drivers than women. If you are male, consider your proclivity to drive dangerously, appreciate the consequences of doing so, and opt to prioritize your safety instead.