We’ve all heard or seen the jokes about women drivers who can’t park, drive away with the gas nozzle still attached to the car, or get themselves into crazy fender-benders. All you have to do is search the term “women drivers” to see snapshots—real or not—of women drivers in bad situations. On the flipside, search “men drivers” and it seems the worse you’ll find are cartoons about men refusing to get directions.

What’s the real deal?

Recently, Kanetix.ca asked “Who is the better driver?”, and in a good-natured effort to answer the question looked at the auto insurance shoppers from 2006, as a whole. The trends found might surprise you and offer some insight, but is it enough to squash the stereotype?

The top 5 most common tickets or traffic convictions

Whether male or female, the top 5 traffic tickets entered while getting an online auto insurance quote were the same for both genders:

1. Speeding – less than 45 km/h over posted limit
2. “Other” minor conviction
3. Failure to obey traffic sign/signal
4. Failure to wear a seatbelt
5. Speeding – 45 km/h to 50 km/h over posted limit

So we’ve all got a bit of a lead foot. After all, two out of the five have to do with speeding. What’s more, for those who selected “Other minor conviction”, you have to wonder how many of those were for speeding too.

But how does it breakdown by gender? Well, this is where it gets interesting, and where the ladies have the men beat adding much fuel to the “better driver” fire.

Ticket or Conviction	Women	Men	What’s it mean?
Speeding (less than 45 km/h over the limit)	23,795	73,452	Men received 3 times more tickets.
“Other” minor ticket	4,323	14,711	Men got 3.4 times more of these tickets.
Failure to obey traffic sign or signal	3,127	8,890	Men were 2.8 times more likely to get a ticket for disobeying a traffic sign or signal.
Failure to wear a seatbelt	839	4,827	Men were 5.7 times more likely to get a ticket for not wearing their seatbelt.
Speeding (45 to 50 km/h over the limit)	761	3,020	Men were 3.9 times more likely to get this particular class of speeding ticket.

So what, you say? Fewer tickets doesn’t necessarily mean that women are better drivers! Agreed, but what if we looked at the most common type of accident for both genders too—the dreaded at-fault where the driver struck an object or vehicle? In 2006, Canadian drivers getting quotes entered that they struck an object or vehicle 34,022 times. Of these accidents, women drivers accounted for only 34 per cent of the total! It’s not looking good for the gentlemen.

Think you see a trend?

Although, our review is all in good fun, an analysis of who actually is the safer driver—men or women—requires much more than just looking at the number of tickets and accidents one group gets over the other. You also need to ask questions like:

• Who drives more often?
• Who drives the most in distance?
• What time of day is each group likely to drive?
• Does the type of vehicle matter?
• Does age matter?

That’s not to deny however, that it would seem men are more likely to be involved in an accident or get a ticket.

Ladies and gentlemen. You’re in the driver’s seat

Regardless of which side you cheer for, when it comes to auto insurance premiums you are in the driver’s seat. No joke! Whether you have a spotless driving record, a ticket or two, or even an accident, you shouldn't be paying unnecessarily high auto insurance premiums (and many people do.)

How can you avoid paying more than you have to for your insurance coverage? That’s an easy one (especially compared to the question of who is a better driver.) All you have to do is compare quotes to ensure you are getting the best rates going. After all, insurers nowadays are competing more and more to earn your insurance business. This means, rates are regularly being updated to stay competitive. Add this to the fact that each insurance company calculates their rates differently and you get a significant range in auto insurance prices—so there’s a good chance there is an insurer out there that can offer you a better rate than what you’re getting now.

Why not see for yourself now? Compare online auto insurance quotes from competing insurers online at www.kanetix.ca to see if you could be saving money today on your auto insurance rates.

Looking for more interesting information about drivers in Canada?

• Read: A “crash” course for drivers in Canada
• Read: So you think you can drive?
• Read: Are teens becoming better drivers?