Why Men Still Pay More for Car Insurance

Men still speed more often and drive more aggressively and hence, pay more for insurance, according to a new Insurance.com study.

A 25-year-old man in Oakland, Calif., can pay as much as $358 more for car insurance compared with a woman who has the same profile, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

While some research shows that women have more car accidents than men do, men tend to have more severe collisions due to speeding, aggressive driving and operating a car under the influence. Because of the extra cost, men can pay thousands more in auto insurance over a lifetime.

Another factor is straight-up mileage: Men log more driving miles than women, upping their chances of being in collisions. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, men made up 71 percent of the drivers killed in car accidents in the U.S. in 2012, the most recent available data.

Men as drivers are more likely to end up in collisions with expensive medical bills and attorneys.

"That's why the auto insurer is looking at gender," said Michael Barry of the Insurance Information Institute, as quoted by Businessweek.

While men are more likely to speed, women tend to get hit when they are making turns at an intersection. A University of Michigan study from 1993 indicated that women have higher rates of non-injury car accidents than men for every age group older than 25.

One area could even the playing field for car insurance rates: technology. A study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed that teenage girls were twice as likely as teen boys to text or talk on the phone while driving, posing a serious risk at the wheel.