Highlighting yet again why women's car insurance is justifiably cheaper, a recent survey has found that female drivers are more likely than men to accept big brother style devices to stop them breaking speed limits.
The study by the Engineering Technology Board (ETB) discovered that 49% of women surveyed think that car speed-limiters are the best way of improving road safety, compared with just 39% of men.
The survey was undertaken in response to a Government funded trial in Leeds, which involved 20 Skoda Fabias being fitted with digital road mapping equipment linked to satellite positioning systems. The equipment detects where the car is travelling, how fast and what speed limits are enforced. If the car is travelling too quickly, a beeping noise is heard and the accelerator pedal vibrates. If the driver still doesn't respond the car will brake automatically.
The system will initially be offered as an optional extra, but Government ministers haven't ruled out making a similar method of speed control compulsory at some time in the future. Such a scheme is liable to have a huge impact on motor insurance premiums and make cheap car insurance easier to find.
Discussing the ETB's survey results, Steve Stradling from Napier University, Edinburgh, said, "A key factor is that women get less fun out of risk-taking.
"People speed because they are under pressure. Men are more likely to speed to make a business appointment."
Despite the apparent female willingness to implement speeding restraints, female driving habits have actually appeared to have changed for the worse in recent years. Home Office figures have shown a steady increase in the proportion of motoring offences that they commit, meaning that their discounted women's car insurance premiums are at risk of being taken away.