LANSING, MI -- Move over, men.

Female drivers are now in the fast lane, hitting the roads in greater numbers then their male counterparts for the first time in the nation's history.

As of 2010, more than 105.7 million women were licensed to drive in the United States, compared to only 104.3 million men, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.

While male drivers historically outnumbered females, a review of Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Census data revealed that the long-standing gender gap closed over the course of the last two decades.

"Our data indicate that the shift toward having more female than male drivers has been a gradual one that has continued throughout the 15 years examined," co-author Michale Sivak said in a statement released by the university.

"While in 1995 male drivers outnumbered female drivers, the opposite was the case in 2010. Furthermore, we expect that this trend is likely to continue in the future, further increasing the relative proportion of female drivers."

The study, published in the journal of Traffic Injury Prevention, indicates that both male and female young people are less likely to have a driver's license than they did 20 years ago, which may owe to changes in technology.

"One possible interpretation of the finding that the decrease in licensure rate has been greater for males than for females is that males are relying more on electronic communication than females," Sivak said. "Because virtual contact through electronic means is reducing the need for actual contact, driving demand has been reduced more for males than for females."

Sivak and his colleagues, in a separate study published last year, found that female drivers tend to drive shorter distances but were more likely to be involved in certain types of car accidents.

This new study, he said, could have major implications on vehicle demand, energy consumption and road safety.

"Females are more likely than males to purchase smaller, safer and more fuel-efficient vehicles," he said. "They drive less and tend to have a lower fatality rate per distance driven."

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