Kevin Miller on 99.7 WTN this morning was discussing some study that says women are safer drivers than men. He didn’t agree with it at all.
Personally I think most drivers are bad or unsafe drivers regardless of gender. But I do think men have a personality trait that could make them more unsafe than women. Men, especially here in the South, seem to have this macho attitude that makes them feel as if driving is a competition. They have to be the fastest one out there and be ahead of everyone else.
You also see men who seem to think being passed is an affront to their manhood, as if someone passing them makes them less of a man. Just some good old cro-magnon type thinking.
So I was sort of prepared to call in and put my two cents in about this issue when I was thisclose to being hit by, you guessed it, a woman. Here’s the situation.
We’re driving down 8th Avenue just after having turned from Wedgewood. No one is in the right lane at this point, and I can see that the 3 cars dozens of feet in front of me in the left lane are going slower than I would like, so I signal and get into the right lane.
By the time I am about to pass those folks, the lead car in the slowpoke caravan decides to signal a left turn. The lady genius immediately behind this guy knows that he will have to wait to turn, so she will have to wait as well. Well, by God, this is unacceptable! She shouldn’t have to wait for anyone else! Don’t we know this is her world and we’re just living in it?!
So without looking to see if it’s clear, she whips over and I have to slam on my brakes and my horn at the same time. It was a close one….she whipped back into her lane and I was pretty shaken up. Of course, she just looked at me with a mixture of, “What are you doing over there where I want to be?!” and, “How dare you honk at me as if I did something wrong?”
No concern, no apologetic wave or look. Just basically, “oh well”.
Some people…..almost cause a wreck because you can’t even bear waiting behind someone long enough to just look and see if it’s clear before you get over!
3 comments
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January 30, 2007 at 6:41 am
wirich
I’ve seen stupidity on both sides but in my own personal observation the majority of it was displayed by women
January 31, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Dave
The statistics include men/boys aged 16-24, which is the most accident prone group due to competitiveness and aggression. Exclude that group, and the women “rule”, if I recall.
October 14, 2008 at 5:50 am
verismo
This myth about women being better drivers has arisen because of the way the statistics are calculated. They just collect the NUMBER of accidents women suffer and the NUMBER men suffer – this despite the FACT that the average man drives three times as many miles per year as the average woman.
In the UK where comparisons have been made between on the basis of “every 1,000 miles driven” by both men and women – the only fair way to do it – then women have 18% more accidents than men.
There is only one group where men have more accidents than women and that is in the 18 – 25 group, and this is because boys want to learn to drive as soon as they are old enough whereas girls only learn to drive when they need a car e.g. when they start work etc.
In the over 65 group, women have three times as many accidents as men.
Another reason for this myth is concerned with insurance charges. If you ran an insurance company and had the chance of insuring Lewis Hamilton, the champion driver, who drives many thousands of miles a year, or a little old lady who only uses her car to visit the village shop once a week, who would you choose to ensure? Obviously the little old lady. But if you were bleeding to death in the back of a car and you had to choose which driver would take you to hospital, who would you choose? Who is the better driver?