A new study has revealed that women are safer drivers than their male counterparts – but it takes them longer to get a pass in the driving test.

According to Confused.com research, it’s women who are in pole position when it comes to committing the least amount of motoring offences, being involved in the least number of accidents and having the least expensive fender benders.

The only downside? Women take longer to pass their driving tests; while more female learners took their test in 2017 than men, more of them failed too. That might offer some cold comfort for the male of the species – but not much.

The study was conducted by comparing official statistics for driving tests, crimes and insurance costs, and has revealed some startling findings.

Breaking the law While the number of male and female drivers on our roads is broadly even, men are nearly four times more likely to commit a motoring offence:

• In 2017, over 585,000 motorists in England and Wales found themselves in court because they broke the rules of the road; of this bunch, a whopping 79% were men.

• The majority of speeding offences were committed by male drivers

• Men were done for drink-driving five times more than women

• Men were twice as likely to be penalised for driving without tax or insurance

• Men have more bad driving habits than women; for instance, 23% of male drivers have admitted they don’t indicate when changing lanes compared to 17% of female motorists.

Women pay less The study also reveals that insurance companies are right to charge women less for their insurance, even though such discounts were officially banned by the EU in 2012 because of gender discrimination. Regardless, men still pay £92 more on average than female drivers for their insurance.

The report’s findings have predictably not gone down well with some male motorists who argue that men drive twice as many miles per year than women, which increases the likelihood of breaking the law.

But according to Brake, the road safety charity, even when such a disparity is taken into account, men are still shown to be the most law-breaking drivers by some margin.

As a female racing driver, I know women can hold their own when it comes to driving, and data suggests that they are in fact safer on the roads. And this is reflected in the fact that they are paying almost £100 less for their car insurance premiums.” – Amanda Stretton, motoring editor, Confused.com