Intranetics Motoring News Service

Gender split caught on camera

23rd November 2006 | BACK     PRINT

Speed cameras provoke markedly different reactions in men and women, new research has found.

Men are less likely to believe that roadside safety cameras make a positive difference to accident reduction and more likely to try and cheat the system by breaking suddenly before speed camera sites.

Researchers at Brunel University analysed the opinions of 1,100 drivers selected randomly at petrol stations and confirmed that men are far more likely to drive recklessly on the roads, with the genders betraying a stark split when it comes to attitudes towards road safety.

The report found that men are responsible for 82 per cent of speed limit offences and a shocking 97 per cent of dangerous driving offences.

This supports figures released by the Home Office in 2004, with men accounting for nearly nine in ten motoring convictions. Moreover, men accounted for 97 per cent of convictions for dangerous driving and 94 per cent of convictions for causing death or bodily harm by driving.

Report author Claire Corbett, of Brunel's criminal justice research group, remarked: "Our findings and those of other research together show that women tend to drive more safely and think more about driving and road-safety matters than men.

"Women are more compliant in their behaviour and it seems that men are more keen, perhaps biologically and culturally, to engage in risky behaviour."

Although neither sex could be described as ecstatic about speed cameras, men were noticeably more hostile. Nearly four in ten try to "cheat" cameras by breaking at the last minute and then speeding up again, compared to a quarter of women.

More than half of the men surveyed believed that speed cameras are installed to raise money from drivers, compared to 36 per cent of women. However, both groups conceded that cameras do have a road safety benefit, with 75 per cent of men and 84 per cent of women agreeing that they help to reduce the number of accidents.

However, less than a quarter of women would welcome more cameras locally, while just 13 per cent of men would support the introduction of cameras on local roads.

Prompted by the report, road safety campaigners have argued that policy needs to acknowledge male attitudes towards speeding as a factor in accident rates.

Ms Corbett said: "It is therefore important that the views of both sexes inform any decision by policymakers to change speed limits or to adjust speed enforcement policy."

She claimed that the police are overly influenced by the male, anti speed camera view, with organisations like the Association of British Drivers (ADI) enjoying a considerable voice in motoring debates.

All five directors of the ADI are male, as are the majority of its 2,500 members. Explaining this, the ADI told the Times: "Most women see a car as something to get you from A to B and, unlike men, they don't form an emotional attachment to it."

BACK | PREVIOUS ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE

Copyright © 2007 Intranetics News Limited. All Rights Reserved | Intranetics Homepage
Assetz House, Newby Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire, SK7 5DA
CALL: 0161 456 3000