New study reveals women are better parkers than men

After years of heated debate, it's official; Women are better at parking cars than their male counterparts!

That's according to a new survey from car park operators NCP which ranked 2,500 random drivers on a range of aspects, including technique, accuracy, and time taken to park a car. These were used to tally a final “parking score” out of 20.

In technique, accuracy and time taken parking, women scored 13.4 out of 20, compared with 12.3 for men.

Although female drivers are slower, with an average of 21 seconds compared with 16 for men, they did better on finding a space, positioning the vehicle, reversing into the space, and ensuring central placing of the car.

Men, on the other hand, regularly 'missed' available spaces in car parks by driving through them too quickly.

The study found more than one-third of women reversed into spaces, which instructors prefer, but only just over one-quarter of men used this method, although men were happier with the position of their cars once parked in a space. Of these, only 29% opted to reposition their vehicle.

Surprisingly, while the women fared better than men in most areas of scoring, only 18 per cent of the women questioned thought they were better parkers than men, perhaps reflecting just how pervasive this gender stereotype has become when it comes to buying cars and driving them.