Women Drivers Are Better At Parking Than Men

Female drivers are better at parking their vehicles than their male counterparts, a study has suggested.

The car park company NCP came to the conclusion after analysing 2,500 motorists parking their vehicles across various car parks in the country. Seven important factors were taken into account to produce the NCP report, including the manoeuvres used, the type of spaces available and whether cars were lined up in the centre of the parking bay.

Overall men were more confident when parking their car, whilst women were more prepared to correct their original position before leaving the car in the bay. Taking all of the conditions and elements into account from the 700 car parks studied, it was shown that ladies achieved a score of 13.4 from 20, compared to the male score of 12.3 from 20.

A professional driving instructor who thought up the experiment admitted his surprise when seeing the results.

Neil Beeson, who found fame helping learner drivers on an ITV driving school programme 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 [and] it shows that us men need to give our partners more respect when it comes to parking. The facts don’t lie.'

Although men were able to park their car in an average time of 18 seconds compared to 22 seconds for women, the study showed that 52% of women were in the middle of their bay compared to 25% of men.

The survey was however challenged by Top Gear's James May, who stated that parking in the centre of the space was not always the safest option, particularly if the driver in the next bay had parked closer to one set of lines making it difficult to open doors on one side.

Mr May said: 'You have to take into consideration the cars parked next to you – you ought to be judged on how central you are to them.

'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,' he added.