49% of male motorists believe themselves to be the better driver.
The great majority of women prefer to let their men do the driving when abroad on holidays, according to AA research. 70.3% of men drive ‘most or all of the time’ while on a foreign holiday, only 17.6% of women did so. 9% of respondents said that they shared the driving equally.
The research comes from the AA’s latest Motorists Panel research which surveyed the views of over 7,000 motorists on a range of issues.
Motorists were asked to compare their driving skills to their partners. 41% claimed to be at least somewhat better at driving than their partner. 30% rated their driving as equal, while only 9% felt their partner was better at driving than them. Almost twice as many males than females believed they were better drivers than their partners.
The research showed that only 13% of motorists never drive abroad. Earlier research this year highlighted the key destinations for self drive holidays abroad. When questioned on motorists last self drive holiday, 25% drove in Britain, 47% drove in Europe and 8.9% drove in North America. 38.7% travelled within Ireland.
Driving abroad can be stressful, especially when you have to contend with a left hand drive car and you have to concentrate hard on traffic movements on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. “It is very worthwhile to share the driving if you can, especially when you are covering long distances.”
Says Director of Policy Conor Faughnan. “Holiday driving can mean long hours of concentration. This is not just hard on the kids in the back, it’s a prolonged strain on the driver. Take regular breaks, and share the driving if you can.”
“There is no reason why males should be any better at driving than females.” Says Faughnan. “As a stereo-type we could say that males, especially young males, take to the challenge of driving with more relish and enthusiasm than their female partners. They may be less nervous, and may volunteer to do the driving, although that is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to safety.”