10, 2, 14, 6, driving and gender issues

The numbers are this morning’s traffic statistics.

Data

While driving at the speed limit on my way to work this morning, I overtook 10 male drivers and 2 female drivers. Meanwhile the 20 cars that zipped past me at illegal speeds were driven by 14 men and 6 women.

A similar statistic is:

0, 0, 0, 1

Which means that zero drivers of either gender were driving irrationally slowly in front of me, and I was tailgated by zero men and 1 woman.

Notes

• My journey to work is 30 miles, of which about 12 is motorway and a further 2 dual carriageway – these are where all of the manoeuvres took place today, but I do overtake/get overtaken on other roads on other days so I will include these in the stats.
• HGV's not included.

Conclusions

• The main conclusion is that women drive more illegally than men. 58% of men were overtaking me, i.e. speeding, while 75% of women were speeding.
• In my mind, speeding and tailgating are measures of aggression.
• Of course, since insurance companies say women have better accident statistics, one could conclude that if women drive faster but have fewer accidents than men then they are better drivers! 
• 100% of the tailgaters were women – but a sample size of 1 does not really count, and she only tailgated me around the roundabout and in the small local village 30mph zone.
• The overall sample size is too small. So I will carry on for at least a week, gathering the same data.
• I don't promise to gather tailgating data very day - it's hard enough remembering the overtaking stats.
• These stats do not include the woman I followed for 10 miles last week whose hands I could see in her rear view mirror - not her eyes!!  Very worrying