Women can save petrol

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33447, 31 January 1974, Page 5

Women can save petrol

(By

ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE)

A message for men who really want to save petrol during the fuel crisis: Let your wife, mother or girlfriend do the driving.

Before you give up reading in disgust, try digesting this bit of information: tests in Great Britain have shown that women, with their lighter touch on the accelerator, can probably squeeze an extra 14 miles out of the family car’s tank of petrol. According to recent reports, the British tests were done with husband and wife combinations—and the girls proved the more economical drivers.

IN WRONG GEAR In an effort to back up the argument, I went along to see the senior traffic officer in Taupo, Mr A. H. Hyde. Did he think the better performance of women drivers could be attributed to their being less aggressive behind the wheel?

“There could be something in it. But what petrol a woman saves by her lighter touch on the accelerator she probably wastes by incorrect use of the gears,” he said. Are women really worse drivers than men, then? Mr Hyde was not prepared to commit himself, though he did think most prejudice about women drivers was “just an old music hall joke that men keep alive.”

SAME EXCUSES Fair enough, I thought to myself, and then he had to go and spoil it all by adding, "But I would much prefer to travel longer distances with a male driver. I would feel more safe, somehow.” What about the high percentage of men, compared with women, who receive tickets for driving offences? For example, over two days in Taupo and Turangi recently, 41 male drivers and one female driver received tickets, most for exceeding 50 m.p.h. Women collect far more parking tickets than men,

says Mr Hyde, and almost always trot out the same excuses-—they had to take junior to the toilet, or had just popped into a shop to buy the meat for tea, etc. ON ROAD LESS Men rarely make excuses. If it has been a “fair cop,” they accept it with a good grace. “Women are as capable physically of driving as men are, but they do not generally have the same appreciation of danger looming up,” said Mr Hyde. “Most women tend to brake into a situation, but men will bury the boot to get out of it. Men are usually more kindly disposed toward a car — probably because they either own it or are paying it off — but women often drive in the wrong gear.” Although more and more women are learning to drive and owning their own cars, collectively they are on the road far less than men, Mr Hyde said. Therefore, they have a considerably reduced exposure to hazard on the road.

Women are rarely found drunk-in-charge, prosecution records show. So either they are far less inclined to mix drinking and driving, or else they depend on husbands or escort to see them home safely.

Statistics also show that fewer women are involved in really serious accidents. Most of the bumps caused by women drivers are minor. What women appear to lack in their driving, then, is experience. The average man does much more driving than the average woman, and this tends to count against women when an accident becomes likely. It seems to me that, whereas men are technically more competent drivers, women tend to display the qualities of self-restraint, courtesy, patience and consideration for others more often.

MALE WILL DRIVE A high degree of technical skill often results in male drivers who are excessively self-assured and egotistical. How often have you seen a male driver get angry just because he has been overtaken by another car? Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems the male in most households is determined to do the driving when the family is out together. I

wonder how many wives are grateful for the fact? Or would they prefer to have him sitting in the passenger seat, lips pursed, frown on face, fists clenched, feet planted firmly on the floor