Can women really be better at parking?

Women are better at parking than men, study suggests

It is a cliché almost as old as the motor car itself, and the subject of many a sexist joke.

But the idea that women cannot park is simply untrue, according to research indicating that female drivers are more adept than men at manoeuvring into a space.

Covert surveillance of car parks across Britain has shown that while women may take longer to park, they are more likely to leave their vehicles in the middle of a bay.

The study is one of the most comprehensive ever conducted on gender driving differences, and took into account seven key components of parking styles. 

Women were also found to be better at finding spaces, more accurate in lining themselves up before starting each manoeuvre, and more likely to adopt instructors’ preferred method of reversing into bays. 

Men were shown to be more skilled at driving forwards into spaces and more confident overall, with fewer opting to reposition their car once in a bay. 

But once all the elements were taken into account, women were ranked first with a total score of 13.4 out of 20, compared to 12.3 points achieved by men. 

Neil Beeson, a professional driving instructor who devised the experiment, described the results as “surprising”. 

Mr Beeson, who has recently appeared on the ITV show Last Chance Driving School, said: “In my experience men have always been the best learners and usually performed better in lessons. 

“However, it’s possible that women have retained the information better. The results also appear to dispel the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women. 

“It shows that us men need to give our partners more respect when it comes to parking. The facts don’t lie.” 

The study was produced by the car park firm NCP, which employed a team of researchers to observe 2,500 drivers across its 700 car parks in Britain over a one-month period. 

Each aspect of a person’s parking was marked and added to a final tally to produce a “parking coefficient” for the two sexes. 

The first category analysed people’s ability to find spaces. Researchers found that impatience caused many men to drive too quickly around car parks, meaning they missed free bays. Meanwhile, women’s slower approach meant they were better able to notice spaces, or spot when other drivers were about to leave. 

More than three quarters of women were found to excel in their so-called “pre-parking pose”, setting themselves up to pull into a space, compared to just over half of men observed. 

Thirty-nine per cent of female drivers cleanly executed reversing into spaces, compared to only 28 per cent of men. 

Men were much quicker at parking, taking 16 seconds on average against the 21 seconds women needed to complete the manoeuvre. 

However, the extra time paid off leaving 52 per cent of women parked in the middle of each bay, compared to 25 per cent of men. This category proved particularly punishing for the men’s rating as it was the most heavily weighted in the coefficient. 

But James May, the Top Gear presenter, challenged the criteria of the study, saying that parking in the centre of a bay was not always the best policy – especially if a neighbouring car was parked too close to the dividing lines. 

“You have to take into consideration the cars parked next to you – you ought to be judged on how central you are to them,” he told The Daily Telegraph. 

“I don’t care what gender the person is next to me, I just don’t want them to bang their door on my Porsche.” 

Vicki Butler-Henderson, the racing driver and television presenter, said: “Parking in a space is obviously different to reverse parallel parking, but I’m delighted that the fairer sex has come out on top – the findings ring true from my experience. 

“Women do take more time, but I know a lot of male racing drivers who win races and are incredible round a track but can’t park for toffee.” 

From the figures, the study concluded that, as the average motorist parks a car 1,004 times in their lifetime, women spend 12 days of their lives parking compared to nine days for men. 

The findings contradict not only popular belief but also previous research. Figures from the Driving Standards Agency disclosed that tens of thousands more women fail their driving test on parking errors than men. 

Researchers at the Ruhr University Bochum, in Germany also found that women take up to 20 seconds longer than men to park a car. 

Only one fifth (18 per cent) of women questioned for the NCP study thought they were better parkers than men, and less than a third (28 per cent) believed they were better parkers than their partners.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Vocabulary:

adept (adj) -

to manoeuvre -

a bay -

to take into account -

to reverse -

skilled (adj) -

overall (adj) -

to rank -

to achieve (a score) -

to devise (an experiment, a plan) -

awareness (n) -

to dispel (a myth) -

to mark (a performance) -

a final tally -

to spot -

to be about to... (leave) -

to set yourself up -

to pay off -

punishing (adj) -

ought to (aux) -

to bang (a door) -

the fairer sex -

to come out on top -

to ring true -

can't do stg for toffee -

the figures -

to disclose -


Here is an example of a woman parking:


Source: DailyFun (You Tube) key words: epic woman parking fail


Here are
five examples of men parking.


So what do you think? Can women really beat men at parking?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi!

It's true that this woman doesn't know parking, but the problem isn't that she's a woman, is because she's not a good driver.

I think that generally we are more patient and we park better because we do it more slowly...

I give you a link of a video that makes me laugh a lot! http://www.wat.tv/video/femme-qui-rentre-chez-elle-43rjv_2hts3_.html

Bye!
Majda
Graham said…
Thanks for the video, Majda - it's funny.

I suspect that the video that I posted is A FAKE. I can't believe that there was someone filming it as it happened and how someone, even a women, could park that way.

Your image was captured on CCTV and I doubt they could have faked it.

That REMINDS ME OF our lesson when I confused CTV in hotel bedrooms with CCTV. :D


It's true that this woman doesn't KNOW HOW TO PARK, but the problem isn't that she's a woman, IT is because she's not a good driver.

I think that GENERALLY SPEAKING, we are more patient and we park better because we do it more slowly...

HERE'S a LINK TO a video that makes me laugh a lot!
Anonymous said…
Good evening Graham:

I don´t understand the reason about you dare to compare the women to the men. ¿Do you know that a women are always better than a men? ¿Are you okay? I have to talk about football because my wife doesn´t understand it and so I have a reason. Also, the football is a matter belong men so it´s vulgar.

It tells of Winston Churchill that he was in a celebration and he was sitting at the table near a woman and when he pours wine in her glass, a woman said: “If I were his wife I would pour the poison” and Churchill answered to her: “If you were my wife I would drink a poison”.

A workmate said me that she thought that everybody needs time to improve and the women are driving for few years, when they drive a lot of years they will drive better than men. It´s possible because we are crazier.

See you soon. José.
Graham said…
Good evening José!

I hope your week is off to a good start.

Have you seen how much work Lucía did this weekend? Impressive, isn't it?

I wonder who you think is better at languages - the fairer sex, perhaps?


How dare you compare women to men. Don't you know that women are always better than men?

I talk about football because my wife doesn´t understand it which gives me another reason to talk about it Also, football is a subject belonging to men which is why it´s vulgar.

There's a story about Winston Churchill who was at a celebration and he was sitting at a table near a woman and when he pours wine in her glass, a woman said: “If I were his wife, I would poison his drink” and Churchill answered: “If you were my wife, I would drink it”.

A workmate told me that she thought that everybody needs time to improve and women have only been driving for a few years, when they have been driving a lot of years, they will drive better than men. It´s possible because we are crazier.


I agree with you on your first point. I can never take any of these women sports presenters seriously when they talk so enthusiastically about football.


See you in a few hours.
Anonymous said…
Hi Graham:

I thought was seeing visions because in every post of you blog there is a comment of Lucía. It´s unbelievable.

I am sure that the fairer sex is by far better at languages, but I don´t agree the women was fairer sex, by opposite, they are strong sex. You have to see that there are always widows but not widowers in every family and in every country. I think the woman is very practical and the man has a lot of imagination. I don´t follow because I want be polite, do you understand?

See you tomorrow. José.
Graham said…
Hi José!

I hope you have enjoyed your day off as much as I have.

I think that every weekend should be three days long. Productivity would increase because employees would be happier. What's your opinion?


I thought I was seeing things because in every post of your blog, ...

I am sure that the fairer sex is much better at languages, but I don´t agree that women are the fairer sex, just the opposite, they are .... I think women are very practical and men have a lot of imagination.

I won't say anymore because I want be polite, do you understand?

I understand you perfectly, José.

I've just looked up the origins of the expression "the fairer sex" - it doesn't mean "fair" as in "just" but in the sense of "gentler" or "less rough" than men.

Nowadays many would find the term condescending, or even offensive.