I saw this small article in today’s Daily Mirror .
L OF A WIN FELLAS
By RICHARD WRIGHT
MALE drivers are claiming victory over women after a motoring survey.
It found females take longer to pass their tests, needing an average of 21 lessons compared with just 17 for the boys.
Men are also more likely to pass first time, with less than 54% needing another attempt, while 57% of women have to take a second test. Women are more likely to suffer from nerves, with 92% saying they were terrified before their test but only 78% of men.
Comparison website www.confused.com carried out the study and a spokesman said: “For years, people have argued over whether men or women are the best drivers. And men can now claim victory with these results.”
Let me just set the record straight – and I should add that my data are probably more accurate than those confused.com has come up with.
- 99% of women are shitting themselves before their tests
- 99% of men are shitting themselves before their tests
The article also strongly suggests the following:
- women are slightly more honest than men
Asking people how many attempts they had before passing is not the same thing as how many attempts they actually made.
Official statistics from the DSA show that the average number of hours a complete novice takes before taking their test is 45 with an instructor and 22 additional hours private practice. The quickest I have had anyone pass their test without any previous training and no private practice at all is around 23 hours. Most people take between 30-40 hours, and do lots of private practice, so Heaven knows what the confused.com data are showing. I suspect it is either a complete pack of lies from the survey correspondents, or people only including their last instructor hours (I lose count of how many come to me having done 30+ hours, and then do another 10-20 with me and pass – and even then, not necessarily first time).
But “17 hours and first time” sounds better than “well, 20 with my first instructor and failed my test, then I did another 10 with my second – but he retired, so I did another 15 with my last instructor and passed”. I think confused.com needs to wake up and smell the coffee – this business is far more complicated than that. In fact, what they are suggesting is highly irresponsible: it will make people think they can drive after 17 hours, but then they will wrap themselves round a tree because they simply haven’t got the skills and experience, even if they do scrape the test. But at least it will push insurance premiums up, so the winner would be… confused.com .
One final thing. A small bunch of liars telling you their personal fantasy does not prove that men are better drivers than women, although that’s what the report concludes.
Men are better drivers than women 😈 However, this survey doesn’t prove that in any way, shape, or form!