I ran across an interesting study the other day on parking. The study is about the difference between the parking habits of men vs. women and when any study becomes a battle of the sexes it always makes for a good discussion. The study does talk about the retention of drivers ed parking lessons, which is an interesting facet.
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The study, Woman Are Better At Parking Than Men, laid out the facts. Well, being a man, my first thought is “No Way…”. However, it was actually time to read the study and do my own little “study by observation”. Nothing scientific, mind you, but just my observations of various women and men parking their vehicles whenever it was convenient.
A few points from the study:
- Women are better at finding a good space. While men speeded by great parking spaces women take it a bit slower and hunt down the best space possible. Based on my limited observations, myself included, I would wholeheartedly agree with this point. However I would point out that my wife’s goal is to get the best parking space while my goal is to find one quickly.
- Men parked more quickly than women even though we don’t get that perfect space. The study points out that over an average lifetime, women spend an additional 3 days parking – time that could’ve been spent watching sports.
- The final parking position of the car went “hands-down” to women. Women were much more likely to shuttle until the car is in a good position while men pulled-in and called it “good enough”.
- Interestingly, the problem of getting the angle right the first time was equally challenging for both sexes.
- I’m going to throw another item into the mix that was not in the study, which is “completion wheel alignment”. My observation is that men typically leave the wheels straight after parking while more often women leave the wheels at an odd angle.
Well, unfortunately (from my point of view…) the men seem to have lost the “battle of the sexes” in parking. My opinion is that it boils down to the goals for parking. I know mine is to park as quickly as possible and get on with my business. My wife mentioned that hers was to park closely so she didn’t have far to carry her purchases – this might explain the difference! Also, please check out our infographics collection for more fun facts.
