Car Insurance
The Local (3/1/07) reports that Carina Bladh (Linköping, Sweden) was outraged to discover that her car insurance premium jumped up when her official sex changed from female to male. After her complaint, the insurer decided to lower her premium back to its prior level. According to Esurance's website (2007), in the U.S., gender only figures into insurance rates for drivers under 25, where men pay more.
As discussed in "A Driven Man" (11/27/06), men have been involved in more accidents than women over the history of automobile driving. J.J. Arnett's 2002 review repeats the frequently-stated suggestion that because testosterone is linked to aggression, and aggressive driving is linked to accidents, testosterone must be a contributing factor to frequency of traffic accidents. However, I've been unable to find any studies that actually connect testosterone levels to differences in driving behavior.
I used to joke that I didn't transition until I was 25 because I didn't want my car insurance to go up. I've driven so much less since my transition that it's very hard for me to judge if my driving habits have changed. Just prior to transition, I had a job that required a 40 minute commute by car each way. Since transition, my only job has been easily accessible on public transportation, so I only drive about once a week, if that. I am not at all convinced that aggressive driving and other measures of aggression are similar enough to draw the kinds of conclusions that seem to be common in this research. It seems that aggressive driving is far more focused on the self vs. a system (e.g. "I need to get ahead of this traffic") whereas other types of aggression are more focused on the self vs. a specific other (e.g. "This guy spilled his drink on me").
As discussed in "A Driven Man" (11/27/06), men have been involved in more accidents than women over the history of automobile driving. J.J. Arnett's 2002 review repeats the frequently-stated suggestion that because testosterone is linked to aggression, and aggressive driving is linked to accidents, testosterone must be a contributing factor to frequency of traffic accidents. However, I've been unable to find any studies that actually connect testosterone levels to differences in driving behavior.
I used to joke that I didn't transition until I was 25 because I didn't want my car insurance to go up. I've driven so much less since my transition that it's very hard for me to judge if my driving habits have changed. Just prior to transition, I had a job that required a 40 minute commute by car each way. Since transition, my only job has been easily accessible on public transportation, so I only drive about once a week, if that. I am not at all convinced that aggressive driving and other measures of aggression are similar enough to draw the kinds of conclusions that seem to be common in this research. It seems that aggressive driving is far more focused on the self vs. a system (e.g. "I need to get ahead of this traffic") whereas other types of aggression are more focused on the self vs. a specific other (e.g. "This guy spilled his drink on me").