Slashdot Mirror


Bad Driving May Have Genetic Basis

Serenissima writes "Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it — and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. 'These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away,' said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex."

7 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. Re:New Jersey Drivers by jdgeorge · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hmm? According to 2005 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), New Jersey is actually one of the safest states to drive in. New Jersey is number 10 on this list, behind Utah, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky,Idaho, Nebraska,West Virginia, Indiana, and Maine.

    Also interesting, but not directly related to New Jersey drivers, is an Allstate study of driver safety by city.

  2. Re:First... define worse... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some of the best drivers I know are the ones who can't obey speed limits, make illegal turns, and ultimately are deemed as "bad" drivers.

    That's funny. They sound just like the drivers I know who always get into accidents.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  3. Re:New Jersey Drivers by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Informative

    What's amazing is that two of those states are Kentucky and Indiana, where on some of the backroads, it is not uncommon to see people driving down the middle of the road until they see another car coming towards them.

    I went on holiday to Sicily last year and they drive like that. One minor difference - when another car is coming, they just stay there.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Re:New Jersey Drivers by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Please, that's the least of your problems. Last time I visited everyone was on the wrong fucking side of the road!

  5. Re:First... define worse... by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's naive. If an insurance company overprices risk, they'll lose the business. If they underprice the risk, they'll go broke. You're assuming that the folks building the risk models are stupid. That's not a high percentage assumption.

    If what you assert is true, auto insurance companies should be making huge amounts of money. Here is the financials from Progressive insurance, a prominent player. They netted about 7%.

    Hate them if you want. It's a competitive industry, and the numbers show that they're pricing the insurance at pretty close what it costs them to provide it.

    --
    I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
  6. Re:Chromosomes? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Informative

    So what? How many men do you see driving minivans or SUVs and constantly turned around screaming at kids in the back instead of paying attention to the road ahead? This isn't sexism, it's a simple fact. I'm sure if you did a survey you'd also find that women talk on the phone in their car a lot more than men too. And how many men apply make-up in their cars while driving? Zero?

    There's nothing sexist about noting that people of different sexes act differently. How many women drive crotch rockets at insane speeds? Just like the make-up thing is mostly confined to women (and maybe a few gay men), the crotch rocket thing is mostly confined to young men (they don't live to become old). And not many women are interested in writing open-source software in their spare time for free.

  7. Re:My daughter is a lousy driver by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You've never sat in on a Women's Studies course have you . . .