Hoovey689

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Women outnumber men for first time on US roads

According to a study by the University of Michigan, women now outnumber men on US roads for the first time in the country's history. Analysts at the school's Transportation Research Institute used data from driver's license statistics for their findings, and the trend may have a widespread impact on the automotive industry as a whole. The researchers predict that if the trend continues, it could affect everything from vehicle design to traffic fatalities and fuel consumption. The study concludes that women are more likely than men to purchase vehicles that are smaller, safer and more fuel efficient, and that they drive less over all than their male counterparts.

The study looked at trends in driver's licenses over the 15 year period between 1995 and 2010. Over that time, the number of men between the ages of 25 and 29 years old with licenses dropped by 10 percent, while the number of women in the same age bracket fell by only 4.7 percent. In 2010, 105.7 million women could legally drive, while only 104.3 million men could say the same. Contrast that with the 1950s, when around half of adult women could operate a motor vehicle.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/21/w...e-on-us-roads/

mmarshall

That's because, 50-60 years ago, many women did not work in the active labor-force. Mom stayed at home, doing traditional housewife work and raising young kids, while the older kids went to school on the bus and Dad took the family's (only) car to to work. When women did drive back then, it was usually to the department stores or groceries for shopping, often in a big station wagon. That changed, of course, when we saw the rise of more single women, single mothers, working women, and inflation/higher living-costs forcing more households into two-paycheck families.