Women and Men; who’s Better behind the Wheel?

A couple of years ago, the bus industry in the Philippines became the butt of pointing fingers when it came to the increasing number of road accidents. To counter this, one suggestion was to prefer, if not totally replace, all male bus drivers with females because it has been found that female bus drivers are less likely to get into accident than their counterparts.

Does driving really have a sexual preference? And if so, who’s the better among the genders? The answers could mean new industries like top women school for driving but let’s step on the brakes on the idea for a while and see what science has to say.

Men are better Navigators

Image source: www.untvweb.com

And science says it’s true. Either on foot or on motor vehicles, men can more easily find their way than most women and this, according to science, might be because of ancestry—men have better 3D spacial perception and retention than women.

This, in theory, could be the product of the ancestral method of surviving as men, back in the days, were tasked with hunting for food and hunting means having to go out and follow prey for hours on end and make it back home. Back then, there were no malls or other establishments to point man back to home so they relied on the motion of the sun and their perception of north and south. This could mean that, today, the ability is passed on through testosterone.

Women are better at Details

Image source: www.myvirtualabode.com

And that’s probably because of the same hunter-gatherer ancestral heredity that we received—men are more adept at scrutinizing the environment in its vastness while women are more akin to looking at details probably, back then, for determining fruits and berries.

 For driving, this means that no one is the better driving. Statistically, women drive more safely than men but are spatially challenged while men can navigate roads better but see small details less like a jagged piece of rock on the road.