Male parking confidence down, female driving ability up in NZ survey

Thursday, 23 November 2017

Watch our five tips to make you a top parallel parker... and how some tricky tech can do it for you.

Men have lost a little confidence in their parking and driving ability, while woman have gained confidence on the road.

The 2017 AA Insurance Drivers Survey, which asked 1014 Kiwis to rate their own parking and driving ability, has found that 89 per cent of men still rate themselves as 'confident' parkers. That's a slight drop from last year's 93 per cent. Women remained the same at 78 per cent.

Men also lost a little confidence in their driving ability this year – dropping from 96 to 94 per cent, but women gained a lot more, rising from 78 to 92 per cent.

Male parking confidence is slightly down on last year, according to AA Insurance survey.

'There may be several reasons behind a decrease in confidence by male drivers such as age, the number of cars now on the road, or less time spent driving,' says Amelia Macandrew, customer relations manager, AA Insurance.

'This year's survey showed a drop in the number of Kiwis who drive every day (from 75 per cent in 2016 to 68 per cent in 2017), with more now driving only a few times a week (from 19 per cent to 24 per cent). This could be the result of a change of lifestyle, work habits or an uptake in public transport.'

Thirty-nine per cent of men rate their parking ability as excellent, compared with 24 per cent of women.

* Challenge parking tickets, says Consumer NZ

'Overall, the majority of drivers surveyed (83 per cent) thought they were capable parkers, regardless of gender,' says Amelia Macandrew.

'Although interestingly, the percentage of drivers who thought they could do with some improvement increased to 15 per cent from last year's 10 per cent.'

Yet, when asked how they would rate their partner's overall ability behind the wheel, only 15 per cent of men rated their partners as excellent, compared to more than double those who rated themselves as excellent (36 per cent). Conversely, women rated their partner's ability 10 per cent higher than their own at 38 and 28 per cent respectively.

Regardless of confidence, male drivers were the most likely to have had an accident; 71 per cent of men surveyed said they had had an accident while driving a car, compared to 64 per cent of women.

THE STATS

83 per cent of Kiwis rated themselves as confident in their parking ability (89 per cent men vs 78 per cent women).

39 per cent of men considered their parking ability to be excellent, compared to 24 per cent of women.

15 per cent of Kiwis thought they could do with some improvement in their parking skills.

2 per cent of Kiwis avoided some types of car parks altogether such as parallel parks.

93 per cent of Kiwis rated themselves as confident in their driving ability (94 per cent men vs 92 per cent women).

36 per cent of men considered their driving ability to be excellent, compared to 28 per cent of women.

68 per cent of Kiwis drive every day (75 per cent in 2016).

24 per cent of Kiwis drive a few times a week (19 per cent in 2016).

31 per cent of Kiwis drive once a week (2 per cent in 2016).

82 per cent of Kiwis rated their partner's driving ability to be excellent or pretty good.

15 per cent of men rated their partner's ability as excellent vs 38 per cent women.

18 per cent said their partner's ability could do with improvement.

692 Kiwis in the survey were in relationships.

67 per cent of Kiwis have had an accident while driving (71 per cent men vs 64 per cent women).