Studies Show Men Text And Drive More Than Women

Online, February 13, 2012 (Newswire.com) - With females comprising more than half of all registered drivers in Connecticut, you would be forgiven for thinking they receive the majority of traffic citations for texting while driving.

But you would be wrong.

recent study shows that while men comprise less than half of all registered drivers in the state, they also represent more than half of all traffic citations handed out for texting while driving. In fact, last year male drivers in Connecticut got nearly 16,000 tickets compared with women who received 13,690. The prior year, 2010, Connecticut men received 25,392 and female drivers in Connecticut only received 21,346.

The Connecticut law prohibiting distracted driving has been in effect since 2006 and men have consistently received more than their fair share of traffic citations as a result. And Connecticut is alone in this disparity between the sexes. In fact, a 2010 report by the Pew Research Center showed that 51 percent of men who use text messaging admitted sending or reading text messages while driving. This is markedly higher than the results for women in the same poll which showed only 42 percent of women admitted doing the same. When it came to regular cell phone use the numbers were also markedly different with 78 percent of men reportedly talking on the phone while driving, and only 72 percent of women doing the same.

Now, surely some readers will say that people don't always admit it when they do something they know is wrong (hence the poll results) and that police show favoritism to emotional women, but with every state reporting the same results and the same statistical difference between the sexes it seems safe to say men are inherently more likely to text or talk while driving than women.

This might have something to do with their nature, or maybe it has something to do with the type of work that they do, but whatever the reason, men need to aware they are no less at risk of having a crash due to distracted driving than women.