Ladies have blown by males with a license

A recent study by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Bureau claims that there are more licensed girl motorists than men in the United States This reverses a gender gap that has existed when driving for some time, notes the AP. Experts suggest that the license shift will have significant impacts on safety technology and economics. [Moderator removed ad here]

A larger gender space than before

The information compiled in the driver's license - trends measured for information from 1995 through 2010 - study suggests that the gender gap will continue to widen. The percentage of licensed motorists among teens and young adults is down for both sexes, but it is down substantially among young men.

The changing gender demographics will have major implications on the extent and nature of vehicle demand, energy consumption, and road safety," noted study co-author Michael Sivak. ?Women are more likely than men to purchase smaller, safer and more fuel-efficient cars; to drive less, and to have a lower fatality rate per distance driven.

Over the course of the study sample, the number of licensed male motorists aged 25 to 29 dropped by 10.6 percent. The amount of licensed female drivers only experienced a 4.7 percent decline, a statistically significant difference, considering that male drivers have outnumbered female drivers since the beginning of the automotive industry. By 1995, however, males with a driver's license outnumbered female 89.2 million to 87.4 million. In 2010, licensed female motorists wound up on top, 105.7 million to 104.3 million licensed males. Women outnumbered male motorists in the key demographic groups aged 45 and over, also as in the 25 to 29 age group. The share of women who retained a license was also up.

I want to be in my own car for as long as possible. I want to be independent for as long as I can," said Diane Spitaliere, 58, a survey participant.

Data on older women

The only group where men had more licenses than females was the segment of males under the age of 44. This is likely due to the fact that there are more males than females in that group. Women live longer than males and outnumber them in the older age groups though.

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Young men, the Internet and lack of a license

Younger men have realized that they can get in touch with people at a moment?s notice with smartphones and the internet. Sivak explained that in a University of Michigan study, it found that those who spend more time on the internet with social media, online gaming and more are less likely to get their licenses as soon as possible.

There is some suggestive evidence that Internet contact is reducing the need for personal contact," he said.

In addition to extra time online, another trend in the decrease of license penetration among young men appears to be related to the ?erosion of the car-fetish society,? notes travel behavior analyst Nancy McGuckin.

Today's young adults grew up in the back seat of cars stalled in congestion, hearing their folks swear at the endless traffic. Nothing romantic about that!" she said. Plus, it's ?no longer cool to work on your own vehicle,? and young people have become increasingly disconnected from auto maintenance as a result.

Evidently it becomes less important to get a license when you do not care about automobiles.

Not easy to get employed

Financial reasons for the shift in gender space with the driver's license relate to employment rates, notes McGuckin. Those aged 16 to 24 are working less than ever, and the rate of young men aged 18 to 34 has gone up in terms of how most are still living at home. The rate of young women in that age group who are living at home is significantly less than that of men. Unemployment and underemployment, particularly among young men, has made auto insurance less affordable, which in turn has decreased the amount of those who are driving.

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Sources

AOL Autos
Auto Alliance
USA Today

I know that I have seen a significant number of women driving RV's while their male companions ride shotgun. 

What' ur point here?

Looks like an author with some extra time writing an article about another worthless study. In order to make the point, that more women than men have drivers licenses, we compare apples to oranges and mangoes to tomatos. For example:

"the number of licensed male motorists aged 25 to 29 dropped by 10.6 percent. The amount of licensed female drivers only experienced a 4.7 percent decline, a statistically significant difference," and then

"The only group where men had more licenses than females was the segment of males under the age of 44."

Slice the numbers thin, and use both sides of the slice to prove different things.

Totally ignored in the article is what looks to me to be an obvious comparison and worthy of note, what number of elderly women have licenses compared to men and, what are the percentages of older women, to men?

A thought provoking article, but it seems like there is much missing.

Ken

Here's a link to the UM summary. The graph shows something that might be of interest to folks my (our?) ages. Look at the increase in older drivers! Amazing.

http://www.umtri.umich.edu/content/rr42_4.pdf

Ken

Read that just the other day.. Men are more likely to go to war, and get killed there, however this may not be the big reason, they are also more likely to go to joe's bar, get drunk and get killed that way, In fact more Americans die from drunk driving than from war every year.

Plus now days far too many boys get into things that cause the DMV's to pull their ticket as it were (Ticket in this case means license).

Girls, not so much.

dan2 said:

What' ur point here?

Click to expand...

His point was to do an advertisement it appears. When I first read this early the AM it was posted, his company name and such were included. Note that this has since been removed by a forum moderator. So any article in anyway related to RVing was chosen to accompany his ad. Otherwise, I doubt he cares one way or the other about the article content. Note also, it is simply an article copied rather than the content personally mentioned w/the article linked.

It wasn't even copied very well, nor was appropriate attribution given. Research I did before moving ihis message out of sight showed that the "research" was not done by UMTRB, but by a prof who happens to work there and a buddy of his. The results weren't published by UMTRB, but in a magazine. I wasn't able to access the original article, but UMTRB had a 1-paragraph reference to it on their web site. I'd need to go back over my tracks to find the detail, but I won't waste my time.

Bob Buchanan said:

His point was to do an advertisement it appears.

Click to expand...

He's not the only one who advertises here.

Here's the only mention I found at the UMTR site: here.

Here's an article in the Washington post: here.

I think the demographics are interesting and bode great changes in the auto industry. Women will have an even greater influence over car (and RV) purchases and we can expect to see changes in dealerships, marketing, service and the actual product as a result. Already today, women buy nearly half of the new vehicles sold.

In another interesting demographic, 8% of car dealerships are now woman-owned, whereas there were virtually zero woman-owned dealerships 25 years ago. However, these dealerships tend to be more successful than male-owned dealerships and account for more than 8% of the vehicle sold.

Gary made a good point. Over 50% of car sold last year were bought by women and women had some input on 75% of the other car that were sold. It never did make any sense to me why many auto dealerships treated women as if the women were second class customers. If you are not nice to 50% of your customers you are not very wise.