"I hate women drivers"

"jsmizira" (jmizira) 05/29/2014 at 10:26 • Filed to: None

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This phrase has been uttered by my wife on many occasions sometimes with me driving and other times with her driving. Often times it is followed by a comment about how a vehicle is being driven poorly and without care for others.

pictured: stock photo stolen from wisegeek.com representing my wife seeing an stupid driver, a common occurrence in Californias

The thing is, I don't agree with her. For one thing she is proof POSITIVE that females are capable and adept at piloting a motorized vehicle as well and/or better than their male counterparts. She has taken driving clinics and done HPDE on more than one occasion and has had 300% less vehicle infractions than I have ever had. She is for all intents and purposes a, GOOD if not, EXCELLENT driver.

Every time SHE makes some derogatory comment about female drivers I feel compelled to remind her its not cool cool to generalize based on a few bad drivers (ha! California's population actually seems to be comprised mostly of bad drivers). But this got me thinking, is this view common among the fairer gender? Do most female drivers dislike other female drivers? And if so why? How is it some feel it's ok to make sweeping generalisations about their own sex when the amount of crappy men drivers is greater and their infractions worse?

I've already asked her and i want to see what You lot say about it. and if you are of the Female gender please comment, as I am very interested in what you have to say.

Brian Silvestro > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:27

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I thought all women hated other women.

GhostZ > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:28

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At least 3 of her fingers are in the wrong position.

jsmizira > Brian Silvestro 05/29/2014 at 10:29

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Apparently with my wife she only hates their driving. Maybe its because of all the on track driving she has done.

Diesel > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:30

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I would say I hate shitty drivers. I'm tempted to pit a MF when I see them texting and driving.

RazoE > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:30

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It seems to be like women are more easily distracted. Women can (and do) multitask waaay better than men, so it's only natural most do it behind the wheel as well. That said there are always exceptions to the rule. I see guys driving like morons, and women owning the throttle like a boss(ette).

Brian Silvestro > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:31

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More track driving equals a better driver pretty much every time.

$kaycog > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:32

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I don't dislike other female drivers. I've noticed that there are bad male drivers as well as female drivers. I just call bad drivers idiots no matter what sex they are.

CalzoneGolem > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:32

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If I see someone acting the jackass on the road I automatically assume it is a man.

jsmizira > Diesel 05/29/2014 at 10:35

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Preach!

Burrito de EJ25 > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:36

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I always find it's men who are the ones pulling stupid shit. Like turning left from the middle lane that isn't designated as a turning lane, or merging into the lane where I'm currently present, or using the service/emergency lanes to speed past traffic. Just generally asshole-ish behavior that might either cause an accident or immediately impedes traffic.

jsmizira > CalzoneGolem 05/29/2014 at 10:37

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My wife claims "when there's a bad driver ahead. I guess if it's a woman or not. I can tell the difference usually between a bad male driver and a bad woman driver". Her accuracy is usually spot on.

GhostZ > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:38

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There's a lot of possible reasons, but I don't think the stereotype is unfounded. My best guess has to do with the way driving is taught in our culture: Men are supposed to like driving, it's freedom and empowerment. You get a car at 16 because you know that if you have the cooler car, your chances of being laid are much higher.

Females, on the other hand, get no social status boost from being able to drive well. It seems that in our society, a girl who is driven around by a successful man is thought in higher esteem than a girl who drives herself everywhere. It becomes bad to like driving. A girl who likes driving is a curiosity, and unless they're incredibly beautiful and successful on their own right, it doesn't seem to make sense.

Men can be poor, ugly, and with horrible personalities and still get "points" for being able to drive a cool car. A woman with a cool car but a terrible personality / appearance is more or less a freakshow. "Who is she trying to fool with a car like that?". The only cars that grant women status are ones that are as hands-off as possible. Price matters more than performance, and something like an E or S class gives women more status as an accessory than driving does as a skill . Especially when it isn't believed that a woman has to have skills in business to have a nice car: she can always marry into it. Men can't. If a man has a nice car, no one thinks "His wife must be wealthy.", even if it is true.

Since many people buy cars as status symbols, it means that women, if they are optimizing their social status through how they drive and purchase a car, have much lower marginal gain from learning to drive well, or safely. Every minute spent concentrating on driving well is worthless, because the price, status, and appearance of the car is more important. I would argue that on some psychological level, it might be advantageous for women to drive poorly, because it presumes that those women have far better things to do than worry about blinkers, road laws, or other trivial things. It means they don't care about weird car-stuff, but that they care for things that really gain them social status, like money and appearance.

That's why it seems that in the business world, at the manager level, driving skills are no longer valued for men. They have more to gain by refusing to improve or acknowledge their lack of skill than to actually have skill because of the social status bump of "I don't have to conform to people around me or follow the rules."

No social status incentive to drive well? Then they aren't going to learn. People seek social acceptance via the path of least resistance, and if the payoff isn't large (like it is for teenage men) then they won't try something that takes time and effort.

pauljones > GhostZ 05/29/2014 at 10:38

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And why do you think that?

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:40

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So I have noticed something, and it has led to me developing the theory that women have a particular way of driving that has ingrained certain driving habits into their DNA.

Nearly every woman I have ever driven with, at some point, will turn her car by placing one hand at the top of the wheel with her hand facing in (back of the hand towards the gauge cluster) and then turn with that one hand. Now turning one handed is nothing, I do it all the time, but this specific way of doing it seems very odd to me. If that airbag goes off, they are going to end up high-fiving themselves. lol I started to think there has to be some sort of chemical influence going on when my 7 year old cousin was sitting on my lap, steering my grandparents' pontoon boat, and she turned in this manner.

Next time you're riding with a female driver, watch for this. I am certain that there is a very good chance you will see them turn like this.

Imirrelephant > CalzoneGolem 05/29/2014 at 10:41

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I agree, but I will preface that I define a jackass driver as someone who does a stupid, aggressive move in traffic (I have been guilty of this as well). One good thing about Oppo is that it has gotten me to look at my own driving habits from the view of others. I still catch myself doing stupid things, often out of unnecessary frustration, but now I recognize them and feel like an idiot after.

jsmizira > Burrito de EJ25 05/29/2014 at 10:41

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my experience is kinda 50/50. but most of the time you can see the stupid coming off the car. and avoid and criticize from a safe-ish distance

macanamera > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:44

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Meh. In my opinion, which I will surely get attacked for, women and men have different styles of bad driving. I think that maybe women like to multitask more whilst driving, whereas men like to drive Mustangs with traction control off in the rain and pass people across double yellows screaming "woooooo" before spinning into a tree. We all have our vices.

BigBlock440 > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:45

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Stereotypes exist for a reason. I don't like riding with my sisters or mom, but brothers/dad, yeah sure. Seeing them attempt to navigate a vehicle offroad, also a mix of comical and frustrating. Yes there are crappy drives of both sexes, but where I grew up, women typically hated driving or were completely oblivious to their surroundings (or both). In my experience, the people who say they hate or don't like driving, usually aren't very good at it, which here is overwhelmingly women. Why put effort into something you don't like doing? Also, if you're not good at something, you're probably not going to get enjoyment out of it. Which is the cause and which is the effect, I don't know.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > Brian Silvestro 05/29/2014 at 10:48

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LOL

That killed me.

Mattbob > CalzoneGolem 05/29/2014 at 10:49

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what about when they act oblivious?

crowmolly > macanamera 05/29/2014 at 10:52

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Social science and neurological research has shown that people who multitask are deficient in cognitive functioning during their activities due to chronic distraction.

thebigbossyboss > Burrito de EJ25 05/29/2014 at 10:52

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What? You are allowed to turn left from the middle lane even if not designated as a turning lane. You turn left from the inner lanes not the outer ones!!

spanfucker retire bitch > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 10:56

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Whenever I generalize about shitty drivers, it's always old people, regardless of gender. Speaking anecdotally, most of the crappy drivers I see are about 60/40 in favor of female (so nearly totally equal) but with about 80% of them being senior citizens.

God damn, do I hate driving behind, in front of, or even just around old people.

jsmizira > GhostZ 05/29/2014 at 10:57

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according to the wife "It's true. That would be one of the biggest reasons I don't like women drivers. I don't think women shouldn't drive. I think they need to try a little harder. Ineptitude is not acceptable just because of social pressures n culture." especially when driving 2-3 tons of steel and fire.

duurtlang > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 11:00

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When I see shitty drivers I tend to assume they're part of one of two groups: very young (usually male) drivers or people over 60-ish years old of both sexes. I'm rarely wrong.

We do have the occasional asshole (m/f, usually m) as well, typically driving a German stationwagon (yes I'm in Europe). They usually don't fall into one of the categories I just mentioned but I don't consider them as poor drivers, they just act like assholes.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 05/29/2014 at 11:08

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There are, due to musculature and other reasons, slight differences between chicks and dudes on average in how their arms and collarbones hang (hence - "throws like a girl"/strong girl presence in softball but not baseball, etc.). This can produce slightly different neutral positions in arm twist, and that's probably as good a reason as any.

EL_ULY > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 11:09

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put your seat belt on fu!

Burrito de EJ25 > thebigbossyboss 05/29/2014 at 11:10

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...Exactly. Three lanes. Outer left turns left, middle goes straight, right goes right or straight ahead.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/29/2014 at 11:11

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Makes sense. I just find it fascinating that nearly every girl I've seen drive (I can't say all because I honestly can't remember) has turned like this.

BigBlock440 > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 05/29/2014 at 11:21

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I don't recall seeing every girl drive like that, but for sure a very large number.

jariten1781 > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 11:22

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Women and men are in general terrible drivers. I've noticed women are worse at: randomly hitting brakes, target fixation, getting up to speed and merging, panic reactions. Men are more aggressive in general and worse at: tailgating, blinker activation, erratic lane choice, etc.

The place where I'd say, in general, one gender has it up on the other is in their understanding of their vehicle and maintenance. My experience is that about half of men have some idea of maintenance schedules, common problems and how to fix them, what warning lights mean, etc. Women it's more like 15%. Both are way too low.

thebigbossyboss > Burrito de EJ25 05/29/2014 at 11:24

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Oh. Now I feel like a dumbass. Was thinking of middle lane in reference to 4 lanes roads.

You would loved the shit I saw yesterday....semi with 53' trailer turns left (signs banning left for his direction) from right hand lane of 3 lane road on red light (I was trying to complete legal left coming the other way) onto streets that doesn't allow trucks. Genius.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 11:27

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I'm not sexist, I hate everybody equally.

tromoly > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 11:36

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Bad driving is not gender-specific, for every woman who is texting while merging into you there's a man who is on his hands-free merging into you on the other side, and vice-versa. So no, it's shared by both sexes.

yamahog > Brian Silvestro 05/29/2014 at 11:36

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False. Girls hate girls. Women are grown ups toward others.

Paullubbock > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 12:11

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From my experience, men drive aggressively, risk taking translates to crappy driver, women drive distracted which translates to crappy driver. Of the two aggressive drivers are at least paying attention to their intended destination, distracted drivers aren't. That is why men are most often considered better drivers, because even an aggressive driver is paying attention and more likely to maneuver out of a bad situation than a distracted driver. There are exceptions of course but that is generally what I have seen.

Fleetwood T. Brougham > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 12:15

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If that photo is even close to representing your wife, high five. *sexistpigmodeoff*

jsmizira > Fleetwood T. Brougham 05/29/2014 at 12:21

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Thanks, but get your own hot wife. This one is mine. lol

Brian Silvestro > yamahog 05/29/2014 at 12:37

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I need to meet more older women then.

Svend > jsmizira 05/29/2014 at 12:54

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I work with several women who say women drivers are bad, but if a man says it they get all defensive while also a few say they themselves are bad drivers, and I've been in the car with them driving and found them to be really great drivers.

In my experience, when a person has said 'bloody women drivers', they are generally just pointing out the one in front of them that has irked them and not collectively grouped all women drivers together.

yamahog > Brian Silvestro 05/29/2014 at 13:55

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Yea, most people grow out of it. This is a classic "Mean Girls"-esque thing, putting down other women to look cool/fit in with the boys' club, as if somehow you're the special one that's better than all those other girls. Something I'll admit I was guilty of until I realized that often it's not even worth breaking into the boys' club to begin with, and no matter how cool and special you are for being so boyish, the average dude will still lump you in with the other girls just for being one.

Exhibit A: the old dude who came up to CrzRsn and me at a Cars & Coffee to tell him (talking as if I wasn't even there) how smart he was for "getting her interested early on" because his wife didn't care about cars. WHILE I'M WEARING A BLIPSHIFT SHIRT AND LOOKING AT DIECASTS AT 8AM ON A SATURDAY, no less. I set him straight politely (he's old, probably doesn't know any better) and fumed silently the rest of the morning. Would calling women like his wife lame for not caring about cars have helped? No, because to him and others like him, I'm still just like every other woman and not into cars (or comics, or insert other typically-male hobby) by default until I prove myself.

Brian Silvestro > yamahog 05/29/2014 at 14:03

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People are pretty closed-minded when it comes to stuff like that is what I've come to realize.

thebigbossyboss > thebigbossyboss 05/29/2014 at 14:48

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I really wish I dashcamed it.

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > Brian Silvestro 05/29/2014 at 15:15

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But that doesnt work with Fuckin Pastor Maldonado.

Brian Silvestro > OkCars- 22k Crossroads 05/29/2014 at 15:18

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hehehehe

He crashes often.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > jsmizira 06/01/2014 at 22:38

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I am male.

Where I am, I've noticed that women are much more aggressive drivers than men. Every time I've almost been in an accident, it was caused by a woman in fitting the stereotype that I've given them

1. Crazy soccer mom with a Town & Country or Grand Caravan or any unnecessarily large vehicle(BMW X1-X6, Lincoln Navigator) they don't need usually texting away or on the phone. I've almost been rear-ended or have almost T-boned them because they weren't paying attention pulling out of a spot or backing out of a parking lot..

2. The oblivious high school girl driving a nice car bought by their parents(i.e V6 Mustang, Camaro, Ford Fusion, Jeep Cherokee ect.) Usually texting away or focused on something else and usually cut me off in some fashion when there really is no need to do so; I then proceed to downshift and pass them with ease as they either stare, look down at their phone and on one occasion, flip me off and pull into Burger King...

Now don't get me wrong, I do know some very good female drivers, some friends from high school and college that are excellent drivers, but every other female on the road that feats either option 1 or 2, I'm very careful when I see them.

I don't mean to sound like an ass, but that's just the way I feel about this very touchy and subjective topic.