- The slogan ‘drive with a woman’ used by a French road safety group
- Men in France are responsible for 84% of fatal accidents; 93% of cases of driving under the influence of alcohol
It is a perennial debate between the sexes: who are better drivers, women or men? Now it seems that the French have the answer.
A new road safety campaign launched across the English Channel is urging men to “drive like women” to reduce the number of road deaths.
The slogan “conduisez comme une femme” – meaning “drive like a woman” – appears as part of an initiative by Victims and Citizens, a safety awareness organization.
A new road safety campaign launched across the English Channel is urging men to “drive like women” to reduce the number of road deaths.
He has said that the stereotype of women being inferior drivers is outdated and incorrect.
Official French government statistics reveal a stark gender disparity in driving safety: Men are responsible for 84 percent of fatal road accidents and 93 percent of drink-driving incidents.
After peaking in 1972 with 18,000 deaths, improvements in education, technology and speed control had reduced the number of annual deaths to around 3,000, still almost double that of Britain.
But in recent years there has been an increase.
A survey conducted by Vinci Autoroutes in 11 European countries found that French drivers admitted to being the most aggressive: 67 percent confessed to having insulted other drivers and 91 percent regularly exceeded speed limits.
Florence Guillaume, director of the government’s road safety agency, noted that men assess risk differently than women. “Men often try to demonstrate their strength by driving,” she added.
A television advertisement shows a father telling his son, “You don’t have to do what people expect a man to do.”