A look at drivers in Canada*

We've all heard or seen the jokes about women drivers who can't park, drive away with the gas nozzle still attached to the car, or get themselves into crazy fender-benders. All you have to do is search the term "women drivers" to see snapshots-real or not-of women drivers in bad situations. On the flipside, search "men drivers" and it seems the worse you'll find are cartoons about men refusing to get directions.

What's the real deal?

Recently, in a good-natured effort to answer the question, Kanetix.ca looked at the group of drivers who obtained auto insurance quotes in 2011 to see who was the better driver: men or women?

The top five most common tickets or traffic convictions

Whether male or female, the top five traffic tickets entered while getting an online auto insurance quote were:

  1. Speeding - less than 45 km/h over posted limit
  2. "Other" minor conviction
  3. Failure to obey traffic sign/signal
  4. Failure to carry/produce proof of insurance
  5. Failure to wear a seatbelt
So we've all got a bit of a lead foot. What's more, for those who selected "Other minor conviction", you have to wonder how many of those were for speeding too.

But how do these infractions breakdown by gender?

For each ticket, we looked at what percentage of women drivers had the ticket and what percentage of the men. The lower the number the better, and in every instance the women have the men beat adding fuel to the "better driver" fire.

Ticket or Conviction Women Men
Speeding (less than 45 km/h over the limit) 18.1% 28.5%
Other minor conviction 2.6% 4.9%
Failure to obey traffic sign/signal 2.6% 4.5%
Failure to carry/produce proof of insurance 0.8% 1.6%
Failure to wear a seatbelt 0.5% 1.5%


So what, you say? Fewer tickets doesn't necessarily mean women are better drivers! Agreed, but what if we looked at the most common type of accident for both genders too-the dreaded at-fault where the driver struck an object or vehicle.

In 2011, the gender breakdown of the drivers involved in this type of accident mirrored exactly the gender breakdown of drivers getting quotes. What's it mean? Men and women were equally likely to have been in an accident where they stuck an object or some other vehicle.

Ladies and gentlemen. You're in the driver's seat

Regardless of which side you cheer for, when it comes to auto insurance premiums you are in the driver's seat. Whether you have a spotless driving record, a ticket or two, or even an accident, you shouldn't be paying unnecessarily high auto insurance premiums (and many people do.)

How can you avoid paying more than you have to for your insurance coverage? That's an easy one (especially compared to the question of who is a better driver.) All you have to do is compare quotes to ensure you are getting the best rates going.

Why not see for yourself now? Compare auto insurance quotes from competing insurers online at www.kanetix.ca to see if you could be saving money today on your auto insurance rates.

Looking for more interesting information about drivers in Canada?



* Kanetix.ca thought it would be interesting to look at some of the driving habits found across the country based on the information entered when getting quotes. Kanetix® offers online Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Ontario car insurance quotes. As a result, it is only drivers from these provinces whose aggregated data was used. The data comes to us from the collective group of drivers who, in 2011, completed online auto insurance quotes through Kanetix.ca.


Back to top