Women drivers

Orla K

This has been on my mind for ages, I've seen a number of threads where it comes down to guys saying women are worse drivers/can't park/etc and I've heard conversations, people actually saying it to my face. I normally look the other way and ignore the thread or when people say it to me I just say 'well I've only started driving this year' (normally gets the subject changed smoothly). I just wanted to know what others think of this, it agitates me and I really have nothing to say to those people who make blanket statements about women drivers, anyway, I don't think anything will change there mind.

There's a thread going in after hours and I really wouldn't want to post there, I don't think I made it to the end of the 2nd page, it's just making me very uncomfortable reading it.

Just really wondering what other women think, and guys feel free to contribute, it would be nice to hear from the LL guys on this.

amo_09

That is a load of crap about us women drivers. Theres good & bad on the road of both men & women. I think taxi's are the worse they think they own the road & older men but thats just me.

karlog

Driving to the work this morning and i looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Audi doing 100km/h with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.

I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don't scare easily, but she scared me so much; I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand. In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked the mobile away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, which splashed and stained my good pants!!!

Women eh?

we'llallhavetea_old

This is tricky. I'm a girl and i do think that in general, men are better drivers when it comes to parking n stuff. BUT! They tend to be the ones that right off cars because they generally think they are better than they are and then take stupid risks. So really, it depends on how you define 'good driver'. I think of my self as a good driver in a way. (i haven't killed or crashed yet!) But can't paralell park to save my life.

Snowie

You get good woman drivers and crap male drivers
You get crap women drivers and good male driver

I think some women find big cars a bit of a mission and jusging space's at times but I have that at times... . Seen a chick driving a Artic lorry she was pretty hot to. my mums a good driver tho cops have said it was difficult keeping up with her... I was proud to hear that :cool:

White_Feather

I think its 50 : 50 tbh. But did anyone hear the new add on the radio, by the RSA? Basically says that most car crashes are caused by male drivers..speeding and showing off etc. If you dont trust his driving, dont get in, thats their motto. 9/10 when he crashes, its the passenger that dies.

Orla K

White_Feather wrote: »

I think its 50 : 50 tbh. But did anyone hear the new add on the radio, by the RSA? Basically says that most car crashes are caused by male drivers..speeding and showing off etc. If you dont trust his driving, dont get in, thats their motto. 9/10 when he crashes, its the passenger that dies.

I haven't heard the ad yet, but it's not the figures or facts that bother me, it's the attitude. I know not all guys have this attitude to women drivers but I just see it around alot and it gets difficult to ignore.

The Sweeper

I don't think it's the "women are crap drivers" that bothers me here on boards.ie. It's the accompanying blanket hatred of all things perceived as female. "Women are crap drivers: yes, they are, the stupid bitches, with their fucking orange makeup, they do nothing but talk shit to their friends about inconsequential meaningless crap, they're universally stupid which is why they don't pay attention, and all they're worried about is shopping/how they look/how to put one over on their long-suffering boyfriend, now why don't you fix your lipstick love and suck me cock and leave the driving to the blokes".

Still, I have enough sense to know that anyone posting an opinion like that has a tiny, tiny brain.

Because I'm in Australia, I have the sort of car I wouldn't get in Ireland.

I drive a four litre Ford Falcon Futura canal barge of a thing that's got nearly a quarter of a million Ks on the clock and is almost five metres long. It handles like a wallowing hippopotamus (it has a turning circle of over 10 metres, so it's hardly a nippy runaround).

About six months ago, I was squeezing out of a parking space at the local medical centre, where the spaces are quite tight. I'll happily admit that my spatial awareness regarding the 'corners' of the car when I'm parking needs work - e.g. I'll have a good 10 inch gap but I'll feel like I'm 3 inches away from whatever it is so I'll make an adjustment. Pretty tedious for anyone waiting for me in a carpark, but fuck them, it's my insurance and that's someone else's car I'm avoiding scratching. I'm not getting much practice out here though, because the roads and parking spaces around here are mostly huge, and there is only one tight carpark in the entire town!

Anyway, two young lads - around 19-20 - came out of the medical centre and went to get into the tricked-up hunting rig pick-up that had been parked beside me. They made a point of walking all around my car, while I sat there like a moron (well I can't go anywhere with one in front of me and one behind me now, can I?) - think they were trying to illustrate how much room I had both in front and behind the car. One of them says "You're not the best driver in the world now, dahl, are ya?"

"No" I said out the window, "And you're a cunt, but at least I can take lessons".

holly1

Its a macho attitude,always was always will.

ztoical

Blanket statements like that are just silly. You can say things like womens insurance is cheaper therefore they must be better drivers but the fact is there are good drivers and bad drivers out there and them being XX or XY makes feck all difference. I drive up and down to Dublin from KK at least once a week and sometimes everyday for a week and have noticed I get more asshole drivers when I'm in my small micra, both male and female drivers tail gate to the point were they are almost in the car with me and try and overtake on bends/hills/busy sections of roads. There's been a couple of threads on the learning to drive forum about this. It seems to be anyone driving a small car and it's alot worse if you've got L plates up. My micra prob looks like an L driver car with the plates taken down, it's not I've had my license a good while but people seem to assume because when I drive my dads Land Rover it's a total different story, no tailgating, people move let me pull into lanes when I indicate and are general more behaved. If the thing didn't inhale fuel I'd drive it all the time.

watna

I agree with MAJD. The "women drivers are crap" is one thing, although maybe to be expected but it's the "ooh, theyre all too busy talking on their mobiles or putting on their lipstick" bull**** that drives me up the walls. As if ALL women are vapid idiots who only apply their make-up in the car.

Some women and some men are bad drivers. Its not related to what sex you are. I know the thread on AH has some point, that RSA ad sounds ridiculous (although I'm not in a position where I've heard it) but some of that macho, were all men together, aren't women idiots stuff is nauseating.

stovelid

From my experience, I certainly think that women seem more likely to be the ones driving too slowly or showing too much caution/hesitation, and that men seem more likely to drive faster or take aggressive/stupid risks. While the former is really annoying, the latter is definitely more dangerous.

That said: I've seen people of either gender doing the inverse too.

Anybody with a brain in their head knows that you judge people on their actual driving, not on their gender. Seems simple to me.

Wibbs

There are atrocious drivers in each gender. One of the very best drivers I've known was a woman. Both safe and very skilled in car control. There have been some bloody good women racing drivers too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich%C3%A8le_Mouton

One of the worst I can think of is a man. He shouldn't be on the road, as it's only a matter of time before the moron hits someone.

I think it's down to the definition of what does one mean by "good driver". Car control or safety? I would say in general women are safer drivers, but again in general would not have as much car control as men. Men tend to be more into cars from an earlier age than women, so their knowledge is higher even before they sit behind the wheel, which gives them an advantage(the guy I said was the worst driver, he didn't drive until he was 30 and never had an interest in cars at all, so it makes a diff IMHO). They tend to take more physical risks especially when young, so if they don't kill themselves they're more likely to learn on the limit car control than women. Men in general have better spatial awareness than women, so judging distances and the like come easier to them. So if a car hit an icy patch on the road and I was given the choice between an "average" 22 year old male and an average 22 year old female at the wheel, I would go for the man TBH.

All grand but those "advantages" also make them far less safe than women. They tend to be more aggressive drivers than women. Less cautious and much more cocky about their abilities. Women tend to drive more slowly in general too.

In the end women are safer. Any time there's a report on the telly about some fatal crash or other it's almost always a bloke at the wheel. I honestly can't remember when it was a woman. So even if many men would have superior car control and all that, you've a higher chance of getting to where you're going if there's a woman driving.

*EDIT* I do however completely agree with the OP in the thread on AH about the daft mind numbingly embarrassing sexist guff in that RSA ad.

Xiney

I think it comes down to confidence, a lot of the time.

Girls here are told "women are crap drivers" their whole lives, so at least some of them don't expect to be good drivers. So they don't become good drivers, because tihi, they're girls.


It's a sexist attitude on both sides.

eolair

Good and bad examples in both camps. Men who say women are worse drivers are confused. Mass generalisation: men and women are different drivers. Many men drive aggressively, many women drive hesitantly - both are equally dangerous in certain circumstances.

Recent examples I've seen include a male driver who got bored in a queue of traffic and reversed very quickly, into another lane. He didn't see the traffic cones, and didn't notice/care when he ran over them. Could easily have been a pedestrian / child / cyclist there. Female driver in lane 1, comes up behind a lorry, moves in to lane 2 to overtake - but doesn't accelerate to overtake/match speed of other users in the lane. Cue rapid application of brakes and much horn blowing by one car, with another having to make rapid change into lane 3.

IMHO everybody needs better driving instruction - men need to be reminded that taking your foot off the accelerator doesn't make your Johnson any smaller, and women need to be shown that pushing it doesn't make them grow an extra head.

Silverfish

eolair wrote: »

Good and bad examples in both camps. Men who say women are worse drivers are confused. Mass generalisation: men and women are different drivers. Many men drive aggressively, many women drive hesitantly - both are equally dangerous in certain circumstances.

Recent examples I've seen include a male driver who got bored in a queue of traffic and reversed very quickly, into another lane. He didn't see the traffic cones, and didn't notice/care when he ran over them. Could easily have been a pedestrian / child / cyclist there. Female driver in lane 1, comes up behind a lorry, moves in to lane 2 to overtake - but doesn't accelerate to overtake/match speed of other users in the lane. Cue rapid application of brakes and much horn blowing by one car, with another having to make rapid change into lane 3.

IMHO everybody needs better driving instruction - men need to be reminded that taking your foot off the accelerator doesn't make your Johnson any smaller, and women need to be shown that pushing it doesn't make them grow an extra head.

This one time a guy stepped off the footpath in front of me, why do all men step off footpaths in front of people?

Sparky

Ah tbh both genders have their fair share of good and bad drivers.
I come across my fair share of female drivers where by I ask myself if they found thier licence in a luckybag, but it has to be said that I also ask the same of a fair few male drivers.
I had a female driver just drive straight onto a roundabout without looking and nearly crash into the side of me the other day as she was not looking, but then again a week previously I had a male slap on the brakes at 60kmph as they just missed their turning.

The worst offenders in both genders are taxis and OAP drivers. Not generalising, but I always come across the two to either be the ones to go halfway to cause an accident, or just not give a toss about other drivers on the road.

watna

Sparky wrote: »

Ah tbh both genders have their fair share of good and bad drivers.
I come across my fair share of female drivers where by I ask myself if they found thier licence in a luckybag, but it has to be said that I also ask the same of a fair few male drivers.
I had a female driver just drive straight onto a roundabout without looking and nearly crash into the side of me the other day as she was not looking, but then again a week previously I had a male slap on the brakes at 60kmph as they just missed their turning.

The worst offenders in both genders are taxis and OAP drivers. Not generalising, but I always come across the two to either be the ones to go halfway to cause an accident, or just not give a toss about other drivers on the road.

I agree with the taxi driver thing. Normally I hate generalisations but driving near taxis scares the crap out of me. You never know what they will do next. I've been in taxis as well where I've wanted to get out because I havent felt safe with the way they were being driven.

A few years ago my friend and I were driving on the M50 fairly late at night so there wasnt many cars on the road. A taxi was driving in front of us in the same lane, it drove past an exit and then started reversing back up the M50, the driver had obviously missed the exit - straight in to our path. We screamed and my friend swerved automatically in to outside lane. Luckily there were no oncoming cars in that lane or I would not be here typing this. Scariest experience of my life. That last post just reminded me of it!

Silverfish

Its not the drivers, its the attitude tbh.

One day I was on a trip with my boss, and a lady in front taking off at the lights stalled the car. He beeped furiously, made a big show of driving around her, and went on jeering female drivers for the next 10 miles.

Swear to god, you couldn't make this up, coming back the way, the same thing happened to a guy a few cars up from us. I looked expectantly at my boss, waiting to see what he'd say, and he said 'I'd hate to be him! That's desperate!'

He couldn't see the difference. Her car stalled because she was female and a bad driver, his stalled because it was just misfortune. Nice.

On holidays recently, I shared a hire car for a week with a guy I didn't know very well, but we were the only two nominated drivers. I mentioned I was a bit nervous driving on the other side of the road, it being my first time doing so. Having never been in a car with me, ever, he jeered me for the whole week about my driving, still having never been in the car with me. Who crashed it in the end? Not me.

My dad constantly jeers us ( 3 females in the house) about our driving, when he put up new piers he constantly said to people 'Ach, I have to watch this lot driving in and out, you know women drivers!' with much eyerolling.
He was the one who hit it so hard he drove it back 3 feet.

I used to have a Renault 19, with no power steering and touring car tyres. This thing was unsteerable in tight spaces, you had to negotiate.
We had a pretty tight car park in work, and one day the guy in the row behind me had parked too far forward for me to reverse out.

I went in to ask him could he reverse his car back a foot into the space so I could reverse mine out. Nope, not good enough. He brought the 3 other lads in his office out to 'See the woman trying to get out of the space'. He refused to move the car, saying there was loads of room, I explained there was no power steering etc etc... no, no dice. They stood jeering me for 10 mins before he came up and said 'c'mon love, I'll reverse it out for you.'

He hit his own car 3 times before he eventually gave up and reversed his car.

The point of all this, is I could use these examples to go around saying 'Tsk, male drivers!' and rolling my eyes, but I've more cop on to know that my experiences in no way represent the majority.


EDIT: Damn this thread, now I miss my Renault 19 again. Never again will a car have seats as comfortable, or a head gasket as dodgy.

Abi

The ad they are talking about in AH is obviously targeting young men as well as young women. The RSA have obviously decided that a massive generalisation is the way to go about making young men and women listen to them. Its a piss take on the driving skills of young men who basically believe they are all that in a car, and its advising young women not trust these guys.

I have a friend with a 17 year old sister who is basically scaring the sh1t out of her mother at the moment. You can hear her boyfriend coming a mile off in his car, he jams on literally feet from the pillars, she teeters off out to the car and then they speed off.

Do all young male drivers and their air head girlfriends have the same attitude? Of course not. But what will it take for the ones with these attitudes to listen? My own brother was in a serious accident a few years back. I love him, but be was being a dickhead.

If a sensible young male driver is offended by the ad, remain sensible by realising the ad is not targeted directly at you.

eolair

Silverfish wrote: »

This one time a guy stepped off the footpath in front of me, why do all men step off footpaths in front of people?

If you're trying to be funny, it failed. I made a point of saying there are good and bad in both sexes, and I held my hands up to a mass generalisation before I made it. The point I was trying to make was there are traits, not hard and fast rules of behaviour.

As for men stepping out in front of you, well maybe you give off an aura great observational and driving skills so they're sure it'll be no bother for you to avoid them

jesus_thats_gre

From my experience, men are generally technically superior drivers but tend to be more wreckless and ultimately end up involved in more major accidents as a result.

Ladies tend to be considerably more cautious and wary but would be involved in more minor accidents such as bumping cars or scraping side panels when parking.

I'lllearnye

eolair wrote: »

Female driver in lane 1, comes up behind a lorry, moves in to lane 2 to overtake - but doesn't accelerate to overtake/match speed of other users in the lane. Cue rapid application of brakes and much horn blowing by one car, with another having to make rapid change into lane 3.

My pet hate is overtaking on the motorway (at the correct speed) and some loser behind me thinks it's ok to drive right up behind me just so I'll go faster. It's arrogance like that that causes most of the accidents on our roads.

I'lllearnye

Silverfish wrote: »

Its not the drivers, its the attitude tbh.

One day I was on a trip with my boss, and a lady in front taking off at the lights stalled the car. He beeped furiously, made a big show of driving around her, and went on jeering female drivers for the next 10 miles.

Swear to god, you couldn't make this up, coming back the way, the same thing happened to a guy a few cars up from us. I looked expectantly at my boss, waiting to see what he'd say, and he said 'I'd hate to be him! That's desperate!'

He couldn't see the difference. Her car stalled because she was female and a bad driver, his stalled because it was just misfortune. Nice.

On holidays recently, I shared a hire car for a week with a guy I didn't know very well, but we were the only two nominated drivers. I mentioned I was a bit nervous driving on the other side of the road, it being my first time doing so. Having never been in a car with me, ever, he jeered me for the whole week about my driving, still having never been in the car with me. Who crashed it in the end? Not me.

My dad constantly jeers us ( 3 females in the house) about our driving, when he put up new piers he constantly said to people 'Ach, I have to watch this lot driving in and out, you know women drivers!' with much eyerolling.
He was the one who hit it so hard he drove it back 3 feet.

I used to have a Renault 19, with no power steering and touring car tyres. This thing was unsteerable in tight spaces, you had to negotiate.
We had a pretty tight car park in work, and one day the guy in the row behind me had parked too far forward for me to reverse out.

I went in to ask him could he reverse his car back a foot into the space so I could reverse mine out. Nope, not good enough. He brought the 3 other lads in his office out to 'See the woman trying to get out of the space'. He refused to move the car, saying there was loads of room, I explained there was no power steering etc etc... no, no dice. They stood jeering me for 10 mins before he came up and said 'c'mon love, I'll reverse it out for you.'

He hit his own car 3 times before he eventually gave up and reversed his car.

The point of all this, is I could use these examples to go around saying 'Tsk, male drivers!' and rolling my eyes, but I've more cop on to know that my experiences in no way represent the majority.


EDIT: Damn this thread, now I miss my Renault 19 again. Never again will a car have seats as comfortable, or a head gasket as dodgy.

Of course, after these men showed themselves up, they then had the grace to admit that they had made hugely incorrect assumptions about female drivers :pac:

In other news, it looks like the economy is on the up!

Mr. Presentable

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

From my experience, men are generally technically superior drivers but tend to be more wreckless and ultimately end up involved in more major accidents as a result.

Ladies tend to be considerably more cautious and wary but would be involved in more minor accidents such as bumping cars or scraping side panels when parking.

That pretty much sums it up. Men are involved in fewer accidents than women, but the consequence of a man's accident is usually more severe.

Dimitri

I'm a male driver and i drive pretty fast it has to be said but out of all my frieds there is only one girl i wouldn't get into a car with but there are several fellas i would not dream of taking a lift off. They are mostly slower drivers than me but my god they are completely oblivious to other road users, i remember being on one journey with one of the lads and he pottering down the road at about 45-50 mph comes upon a tractor and goes to overtake had it not been for me shouting at him the poor ****er on the motorbilke overtaking him was a goner. now ideally speaking the bike should have held off passing as there was a high chance the car was going to try pass the tractor but if your overtaking the bare minimum is to look in your mirrors and blindspot first.

cuckoo

Abigayle wrote: »

The ad they are talking about in AH is obviously targeting young men as well as young women. The RSA have obviously decided that a massive generalisation is the way to go about making young men and women listen to them. Its a piss take on the driving skills of young men who basically believe they are all that in a car, and its advising young women not trust these guys.

True, but this ad is also trying to put the onus on women to regulate men's driving. I completely agree with the message of 'don't get into a car with a bad driver' - but this ad says to me that young men are going to be bad drivers no matter what. No point in trying to get the men to change their behaviour - instead lets focus on getting women to put pressure on them.

It's like the 'think contraception' ads with the 'you have *big scary number* chances of becoming pregnant' - the ad is targeting women to think about contraception, and to be responsible for it. Again, a good message, but I've never seen an equivalent ad that targets men - 'you have *big scary number* chances of becoming a father'.

Pythia

I think there are probably more women out on the roads. In most families, it's the woman who drives to the shops, runs errands, picks up kids etc. Certainly in my family it was. So there are more bad women drivers because there are more women drivers. Again, where I tend to encounter bad driving is places like shops where more women than men will be.

I will freely admit that I'm not the best driver in the world and that my boyfriend is better than me. So what?!

Vanbis

we'llallhavetea wrote: »

think of my self as a good driver in a way. (i haven't killed or crashed yet!) But can't paralell park to save my life.

Says it all really. :eek:

karlog wrote: »

Driving to the work this morning and i looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Audi doing 100km/h with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.

I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don't scare easily, but she scared me so much; I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand. In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked the mobile away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, which splashed and stained my good pants!!!

Women eh?

lol very good and probably true as well :rolleyes:

amo_09 wrote: »

That is a load of crap about us women drivers. Theres good & bad on the road of both men & women. I think taxi's are the worse they think they own the road & older men but thats just me.

I agree Taxi drivers are fooping idiots and 99.9% are Male drivers so you have me here:)

Dudess

That RSA ad is grotesque - it screams "People have been sexist towards female drivers for aeons... let's strike the balance by being sexist towards male drivers."

Frankiestylee

As has been said repeatedly, there are good and bad drivers in both sexes.
Close to home, I'd easily say my Mam is generally a better driver than my Dad.
When it comes to being afraid in cars... with guys it's because they're driving too fast and often wrecklessly, with women it's been a lack of confidence.

For some reason I find women in big 4x4s to be the most terrifying thing on the road. It's a generalisation I know, but I've had more than enough encounters to believe in it. Possibly it's the type of person that would buy a massive 4x4 to drive around a city, I dunno, but oh, I have the fear.