Article updated on 5-March-2023
To mark the international women’s day on March 8, we want shed some light on ‘Who are the better drivers, females or males?’. This question captures the attention around the globe and RoadSafetyUAE wants to share some UAE specific insights. The data were extracted from the ‘UAE Road Safety Monitor’, a long-term perception and attitude research project which has been running for the last 6 consecutive years, commissioned by RoadSafetyUAE’s and its CSR-Partners, conducted by YouGov (n=1,000+ representative UAE sample).
Female drivers often don’t receive the due appreciation of their driving behavior. Gender prejudice still seems to play a role; however, an overall more careful attitude can be observed while analyzing the behavior of UAE lady drivers in most of the critical dimension of safe driving
Here are the characteristics of the UAE Female drivers:
- Have less accidents than male drivers
- Understand, own and use child seats better
- Tailgate less
- Use mobile phones less
- Speed less
- Indicate more
- Enjoy driving less
- Fall less often but more severely into road rage
- Understand seat belts better, but use them less when they drive, more when passengers
- ‘Running late’ is causing much of female driver misbehavior
Keep up the good characteristics + let’s work on the improvement potentials!
Accidents:
Female drivers have been less involved in road accidents than males, when prompted “have you been involved in a road traffic accident in the last 6 months”. For example, the last survey from 2020 shows a 4%-points difference, females (f) 21% vs. males (m) 26%.
Over the last 6 years we have witnessed significantly lower levels for females, with a maximum of 8%-points difference between female(f) and male(m) UAE drivers.
Child seats (Ownership and usage):
More females own proper child restraint systems f:79% m:75%,
More females use these child restraint systems more often than males f:84% m:70%.
However, both these values of ownership and usage must be 100%, as it is the law and simply the best thing to keep our children safe!
Females are less confused about which child seat is the correct one for their children, f:12% m:34%.
Females think less that child seats are too expensive f:19% m:26%.
Females think less it’s safe to keep children on laps of adults f:17% m:26%.
Females are much more realistic than men when it comes to the statement ‘no child seats are needed, as I am a safe driver’ f:7% m:25%!
Indicator use:
More ladies than gentlemen ‘always’ use their indicator when changing lanes, taking an exit, merging onto a highway, turning at a junction, etc. f:71% m:65%.
Still, as it is the law, we always must use our indicators, as lane swerving remains the #1 cause of death on UAE’s roads and as this act of reckless driving goes hand in hand with the non-use of indicating.
Seat belt usage and attitude – Female drivers:
o) Females better understand the importance of using seat belts on the front seats f:94% m:91%, the back seats f:90% m:86% and children f:97% m:93%, which is great news!
o) However, lady drivers ‘always’ use their seat belts less than males f:70% m:72%, despite the fact that the law mandates the use of seat belts, and all these values should be at 100%!
Seat belt usage and attitude – Female passengers:
o) On a positive note, female front-seat passengers ‘always’ use their seat belts more often when they sit in the front as passengers f:81% m:69%.
o) Unfortunately, for back-seat passengers the ‘always’ usage of seat belts is way too low, both for females and males – f:27% m:27%. Again, it’s the law for all passengers to use seat belts in the UAE!
Road rage:
o) Females fall less into road rage than males, f:21% m:25%. o) However those lady drivers who do fall into road rage ‘often’/‘sometimes’ do so more than males f:81% m:70%!
Tailgating:
o) Female drivers ‘never’ tailgate more than males f:67% m:56%.
o) ‘Running late’ is the key reason for ladies to tailgate f:26% m:22% and it would be good for females to reflect on this and improve the time management, as at the same time they state to get nervous when they themselves get tailgated f:29% m:23%.
Mobile phone usage:
o) Female UAE drivers ‘never’ use their mobile phones more than males f:36% m:23%.
o) But when they use them, by far the main cause is for incoming calls f:78% m:73%. As police states, female drivers seem to be more prone to distracted driving and hence the use of the mobile phone must be stopped, also to comply with the law!
Speeding:
o) Less ladies received speeding fines than males in the last 6 months f:20% m:26%.
o) More ladies than gentlemen state to ‘never’ break the official speed limits f:55% m:47%.
o) ‘Running late’ is stated by female drivers when asked for the main reasons to speed, which is significantly higher than for males f:70% m:60%!
Driving Enjoyment:
Female drivers enjoy driving in the UAE less than males, (“strongly agree/agree”), for example in the last survey from 2020, f:49% m:68%, showing a 19%-points difference.
Over the last 6 years we have witnessed significantly lower levels for females, with a maximum of 19%-points difference.
Time management / running late:
‘Running late’ is a key issue of female drivers, and from various of our research projects, it becomes obvious, that this key issue must be addressed! We need to raise awareness for proper time management and for just leaving on-time or better a bit earlier for all our road trips!
Females asked for the main reason …
• …for impolite driving, state ‘running late’ is to blame f:55% m:47%
• …for their tailgating, state ‘running late’ is the cause f:26% m:22%
• …for speeding, ‘running late’ is labelled to be the main cause f:70% m:60%
Once again time management presents itself as an option for improvement!
We dedicated a press release with these findings on 8-March-2021 and all the leading newspapers covered it:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/women-are-better-drivers-than-men-uae-survey-says
