I recently read a study that noted, for the first time ever, there are more women driving on U.S. highways than men. More than a statistical curiosity, though, it may portend changes in the kinds of vehicles we drive and the number and kind of accidents fleets and the driving population have in the future.
The study came out of the University of Michigan last November 2012. It compared the gender of licensed American drivers in 1995 and 2010, by age category. Overall, it noted that in 1995, male licensed drivers outnumbered women, by 1.8 million, but by 2010, there were 1.4 million more women with driver’s licenses than men.
Under the age of 44, however, the men outnumber women, largely because there are five percent more boys born every year than girls. But the study suggests the driving gap there may also reverse in the future: in the 15-year study period, the share of men aged 25 to 29 with driver’s licenses fell more than twice as much (10.6 percent) as that for women (4.7 percent).
One implication of this demographic change is that car makers may shift production even more rapidly toward the vehicles women prefer: smaller, safer and more fuel-efficient. It may also mean that fewer people will die in auto accidents. Government statistics show that women drivers have considerably fewer accidents than men and, since women drive slower and less aggressively, their accidents tend to be less severe, with fewer fatalities and are less costly to repair.
There’s a lot of speculation about all of this. Some people suggest the numbers are skewed by the fact that women live longer than men, which is why there are more women drivers than men in the older age brackets. Others suggest that the recession hit men between the ages of 18 and 34 harder than women, so more males are living with their parents than before, suggesting they own fewer cars and drive less.
Finally, the report suggested that men have embraced mobile communication technology faster than women, causing them to be less dependent on driving to conduct business. To me, the bigger implication is that men are more likely than women to use mobile devices while driving, resulting in higher risk for accidents caused by distracted driving.