[RahulNagaraj]

According to reports, a French road safety association is urging people to "drive like a woman" to reduce the number of traffic deaths.

A new campaign is said to have been started by Victimes & Citoyens - a group supporting victims of road accidents, in a bid to debunk the "misogynistic" stereotype that men are better drivers than women.

The group's website stated, "Statistically, driving like a woman means only one thing — staying alive."



The campaign cites data which shows that 93% of drunk drivers involved in accidents are men. The data also shows that women are eight times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident on the road.

The campaign also drew data from The France National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory 2022-2023, which shows that 84% of fatal accidents are caused by men.

The campaign further mentioned, "When we look at the figures, they are clear: to stay alive behind the wheel, the best thing for men to do is adopt the same behaviour as women."

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the USA also corroborated the data, stating that between 1975 and 2021, almost every year, the number of male crash deaths was twice that of women crash deaths.

The Institute also stated that men are more likely to engage in risky driving practices than women. This includes speeding, not wearing helmets and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Source: BusinessInsider

Link to Team-BHP news

[deovrat]

Eye catching campaign, I want to see it succeed.

[Rodie09]

Nice one but I think in India it can just have an opposite effect. Brilliant brains here will start to relate safe driving as an insult to their machoism there by causing a bigger damage. They wouldn't like the idea or the tag of driving like a woman.

Also, in the age of gender neutrality there should be better ways of passing the message.

[DogNDamsel12]

I read this about women drivers in India too.

Link to Indian Statistics

Also this

video from 9 years ago

- this video was taken out by Subaru, brings out the differences between the behaviours of men and women drivers.

Since very few women drivers are on the road in India, the visual of a woman driver is especially uncommon in suburbs and rural areas. The moment a woman has a crash, the gender gets noticed.

[Zinger_Winger]

Are they trying to categorize women in a particular way, stereotyping them to be weak and/or delicate/effeminate?

[Jeroen]

Many (western?) insurance companies give discounts to women drivers because they have less expensive accidents.

My wife has a much lower insurance rate than I do. She has had quite a few dings and scratches over the years. Not me, I completely (economically) titled my Mini and the other guy’s car. (See my thread on filleting with cars).

I don’t see the relevance what that has to do with gender equality. Other than if men drove like women they should get the same discount obviously!

Although it would be interesting to track the same on any other genders/sexual orientation.

Apparently, the same trend (and insurance discounts) are found in insurances for aircraft (i.e. pilot), mountainering, and just about any high risk sports and or hobbies you can think off.

Insurance companies, lease companies have a huge dataset on which they make these decisions. These days, at least in the west, when you take out a new insurance there are more option than just male/female. So I dare say over time other pattern for other genders is likely to appear.

Regardless, I predict men to remain the worst drivers no matter how many different genders we are looking at.

Because the problem with hardcore men is what it is. We are not going to change, despite the world around us changing rapidly.

We could discuss why men tend to take bigger risk than women. Is it something inherent to the gender. Or does it primarily come through what society expects from men/women. How we bring up little boys and girls and so on.

In countries/societies where considerably fewer women drive than men, the results are going to be even more skewered. That is just how it works, statically, in most cases.

Jeroen

[charanreddy]

I don’t think the campaign is communicating what it is intending to do - i.e. women are safe drivers. Instead it reads women are boring drivers.

The first time I read this I thought: in these times, can someone, let alone a government, say something like this? Also I think the perceived male superiority in driving is deeply entrenched. My German driving instructor, who was in the passenger seat tells me to change lane and points to a car in our lane saying “woman driver”.

I expect this campaign to make a few moderate people think, may be I need to tone down the aggression on road, but these are folks who were already considerate. The typical man will scoff at it and say “what nonsense“.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by charanreddy

The typical man will scoff at it and say “what nonsense “

Yes, typical man ego. No way a woman can be better. Don’t bother about the facts either.

Jeroen

[am1m]

Without getting into the whole gender equality or even gender aspects of it, from personal experience, both my mom (when she used to drive) and my wife have had far, far less road rage issues, car scrapes and dents than I have had. And it's not because they have driven less, in fact my wife still uses the car a lot more than I do and my mom drove for well over 50 years on almost a daily basis.

I've just seen that my wife doesn't let her ego get the better of her. Either with other drivers on the road and perceived 'insults' or when it comes down to asking for directions, stopping when required to take a break, average speeds on twisting roads, things like that. Not to say she doesn't get frustrated, she does, as much as I do and swears and curses as much as I do in traffic. It's just that it doesn't seem to affect her aggression levels or driving, like similar provocations do to mine.

[saket77]

I agree to a post above that there should be a better way to pass on the message.

I know it is very sensitive these days to get in any sort of gender debate and all that 'political correctness' et al but would still want to speak my mind that this is like taking the gender flag too far. Also, I see double standards here- if men are being stereotyped as bad/ rash drivers, then women are also being stereotyped as good/ better drivers.

[warrioraks]

A friend jokingly told me once - All the minor accidents usually have a women behind the wheel and all major life endangering ones have men.

Sounds like an acceptable comment over drinks between friends but being part of an official campaign? It's like asking women to 'lead like a man'. Completely illogical and out of date.

Would have been better for the agency to come up with a campaign that diffuses gender stereotypes rather than re-enforces them.

[Turbohead]

The French may have a point provided the training and licensing are rigorous.

My experience with women is that they put an effort to learn well, if they want to, but are usually very hesitant to try something new or risky. But men tend to push it/experiment and find new boundaries. It may not be a desirable trait while driving in public roads but it is still very much necessary for entrepreneurship, technological advancements etc.

So, if the French tests are rigorous, yes, that campaign may make sense but it definitely does not apply to India since we're a bunch of people who've never been given standardised training which makes women drivers here no better or worse than men.

[NomadSK]

Imagine that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. One day long ago the Martians, looking through their telescopes, discovered the Venusians. Just glimpsing the Venusians awakened feelings they had never known. They fell in love and quickly invented space travel and flew to Venus.

The Venusians welcomed the Martians with open arms. They had intuitively known that this day would come. Their hearts opened wide to a love they had never felt before. The love between the Venusians and Martians was magical. They delighted in being together, doing things together, and sharing together. Though from different worlds, they reveled in their differences. They spent months learning about each other, exploring and appreciating their different needs, preferences, and behavior patterns. For years they lived together in love and harmony.

Then they decided to fly to Earth. In the beginning everything was wonderful and beautiful. But the effects of Earth’s atmosphere took hold, and one morning everyone woke up with a peculiar kind of amnesia—selective amnesia!

Both the Martians and Venusians forgot that they were from different planets and were supposed to be different. In one morning everything they had learned about their differences was erased from their memory. And since that day men and women have been in conflict.

Men mistakenly expect women to think, communicate, and react the way men do; women mistakenly expect men to feel, communicate, and respond the way women do. We have forgotten that men and women are supposed to be different. As a result our relationships are filled with unnecessary friction and conflict.

Martians value power, competency, efficiency, and achievement. They are always doing things to prove themselves and develop their power and skills. Their sense of self is defined through their ability to achieve results. They experience fulfillment primarily through success and accomplishment.

Achieving goals is very important to a Martian because it is a way for him to prove his competence and thus feel good about himself. And for him to feel good about himself he must achieve these goals by himself. Someone else can’t achieve them for him. Martians pride themselves in doing things all by themselves. Autonomy is a symbol of efficiency, power, and competence.

Venusians have different values. They value love, communication, beauty, and relationships. They spend a lot of time supporting, helping, and nurturing one another. Their sense of self is defined through their feelings and the quality of their relationships. They experience fulfillment through sharing and relating.

Everything on Venus reflects these values. Rather than building highways and tall buildings, the Venusians are more concerned with living together in harmony, community, and loving cooperation. Relationships are more important than work and technology. In most ways their world is the opposite of Mars.


If you loved reading this snippet, then grab a copy of "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus"

Bottom line, such statistics will not give any fruitful results, we are programmed differently, unless we start looking at the things from the other gender's prespective. Till then we can fill pages here

[lazy]

Well, glad that someone (authority) has to state the obvious - women are safer drivers.

Read about accidents, there's hardly any women driver amongst those. In fact, every underage premium car crash that kills a few innocent victims is a rich dad's boy. Yes, there are spoilt girls too, but they aren't mowing down others on public roads nearly as much as the bonny boys (raja betas).

Women have simply too much emotional strength compared to men and this makes them so much safer drivers.
More women drivers = safer roads !!

Totally sick of men's egos on our roads, making driving such a stressful affair.

Am not sure if women vehicle owners are quoted lesser insurance premiums in India yet - but it is high time they do.

cheers
lazy

[deepam.patel]

India's roads are full of life and, by large, chaotic. Surprisingly, statistics state women drive more safely on them compared to men. Studies show women are less prone to accidents. This can be justified by their manner of driving. Women prefer to drive securely than to drive at high speed, overspeeding 12% less. Additionally, women drive much smoother, with hard braking 11% less than men.

This control-driven driving translates to fewer emergency maneuvering situations. Moreover, statistics show women follow traffic rules more stringently, with lower violations such as drunk driving and overtaking, common causes of accidents. While more women are starting to drive in India, statistically, they are safer on the roads.