Women Drivers.....!

gtvlusso

That got your attention didn't it?!

Anyway, for the fourth time, over a 20 odd years of cycling, I have been hit by a lady driver.

Daft tart goes to overtake me, then decides to turn right; I am on her left by her drivers door - as she turns right she moves a little to the left squishing me between parked cars and her door - anyway, she now has a dented door and a missing wing mirror and I have a bruised hand and bruised bum. Some people "fakey" left lightly as they go right.....

Anyway, I have been knocked off 4 times in my cycling history; Once by a bloke in a van - deliberately (said punching incident) and three times by ladys quite simply being stupid (i.e. running into the back of me, cutting me off on a RaB etc etc)

Now, I could be very wrong and considered to be a complete chauvinist; but my personal stats don't look good for the ladys in cars is more to the point. I would also like to point out that in 7 years of marraige to my wife, she has had 5 accidents in the shared car to my big fat 0 accidents - 2 of her accidents were big money smashes.

Over the many years of motorcycling, driving and cycling I have had 2 accidents in cars - Where I was faound not at fault. And my wife has had near 15 accidents in cars only of varying degrees.....

Does anyone else have a stat like this that proves a stereotype?

*I am sure that my stats prove nothing and I have just met with a coincidentally bad set of drivers who happen to be female, but could have been male (hopefully this gets me off the hook with the PC crowd!).

Gazzaputt

Hate to say that most of the moronic driving I encounter is down to women.

They drive in their own little worlds it seems oblivious to what is going on around them.

Men I find to be more aggressive and purposeful in their actions.

davis

Dude, 3 out of 4 ain't enough to prove owt. 3 thousand out of 4 thousand might have some weight.

Edit: I do actually have a stat of my own: I've crashed too many cars (think it's 4, and I've owned 5). I reckon I'm probably not a careful enough driver.

UndercoverElephant

Hmmm, but if it had been a bloke today, that would have been two apiece. You need to be in more accidents to make this statistically valid. Also, your wife may just be a crap driver.

sfichele

You need to be in more accidents

I say, that's a bit harsh sounds like he's had enough

Headhuunter

Your wife has had 15 accidents in her car?! Jeeez. How long has she been driving? She must be almost uninsurable. Sounds like a liability!

asprilla

Women are more likely to have car accidents than men, but men are more likely to have very, very expensive ones. That's why men cost more to insure.

essex-commuter

No stats but my personal view is:

Bus drivers are fairly good drivers on the whole
Black cab drivers always drive far too close and think they own the road
Women pull out of side roads without looking and just don't pay enough attention in general
Mini-cab drivers are just sh1t
Lorry drivers are OK, except tippers who are the same as mini-cabs but bigger

Headhuunter

essex-commuter wrote:

No stats but my personal view is:

Bus drivers are fairly good drivers on the whole
Black cab drivers always drive far too close and think they own the road
Women pull out of side roads without looking and just don't pay enough attention in general
Mini-cab drivers are just sh1t
Lorry drivers are OK, except tippers who are the same as mini-cabs but bigger

I generally agree re bus drivers. Generally have no problem with them, they move so slowly that it's generally easy to get round them and move on. Black cab drivers do often drive like they own the road, will often make sudden U turns without indication or warning or will all of a sudden pull over to pick up a fare or drop someone off. Again with no indication. I have most of my problems with fast moving traffic that makes sudden moves, moped riders are often like this, suddenly switching lanes, or moving out from nowhere to get round traffic.

SimonAH

Most of the truly apalling driving that I see tends to have someone elderly behind the wheel - although having said that, a small car with a large exhaust pipe containing more than one late teen can normally be relied upon for entertaining driving.

gtvlusso

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Hmmm, but if it had been a bloke today, that would have been two apiece. You need to be in more accidents to make this statistically valid. Also, your wife may just be a crap driver.

It is, by definition, statistically valid, but the but the stat is of a very low relevence due to the very low numbers - there is not enough spread for legitimacy.

My sisters also have fairly poor driving records and for the record, my previous wife was oblivious to other road users. I could just be me and coincidence of course!

Mr Plum

Headhuunter wrote:

Your wife has had 15 accidents in her car?! Jeeez. How long has she been driving? She must be almost uninsurable. Sounds like a liability!

Yeah, 15 is not just 'bad luck'... that is the worst driving stat I've ever heard for a single individual, other than someone I know (lady driver :roll: ) who took 8 attempts to pass her test. Again, this isn't bad luck, some people just shouldn't drive...

hfidgen

gtvlusso wrote:

It is, by definition, statistically valid, but the but the stat is of a very low relevence due to the very low numbers - there is not enough spread for legitimacy.

I don't think I'd have passed my degree if I'd have gone into my viva with a 3 out of 4 stat as evidence To get something published in a scientific journal you need to be working with P >= 0.95 as the accepted value for unarguable validity ie 95 or more out of 100.

Anyway back on topic...

Bus drivers are fairly good drivers on the whole
Black cab drivers always drive far too close and think they own the road
Women pull out of side roads without looking and just don't pay enough attention in general
Mini-cab drivers are just sh1t
Lorry drivers are OK, except tippers who are the same as mini-cabs but bigger

Actually rather agree with this - though agressive or knob-head drivers can turn up anytime / anywhere and make life interesting.

shm_uk

As a very broad generalisation (dangerous I know), from what I have witnessed over the years I have formed the opinion that:

Women cause or are involved in incidents because of poor attention/appreciation to road conditions, and/or there's 3 raucous kids in the back of the car driving them up the wall...

Men cause or are involved in incidents because they're more arrogant, aggressive, impatient, showing off, being a smart-arse, thinking that watching motor racing on TV somehow makes them the next Lewis Hamilton, treat each car journey as a competitive event, and so on, and so on...


Every single near-miss I've had on the bike has been due to Male drivers.
I've only been hit once. A lady driver but it was at least 50% my own fault.

plumpy

The four persons in a Corsa who ran me off the road, shouting abuse out of the windows; the two persons who ran from the pavement into the road to try to knock me off, shouting abuse; the person in a white van passenger seat who shouted abuse and threw coffee over me; and the two persons who shot at me with an air rifle; all had testicles. And whilst the persons who pulled out of a garage forecourt, a side road and a roundabout (respectively) straight into me undeniably had ovaries... I know which behaviour I was more angry about.

soundninjauk

As some entirely unscientific, anecdotal evidence, I had a slight run-in with a woman driver last night. Cruising down Holland Park Avenue, come to a halt at some lights at the bottom. I filtered through the traffic and parked myself neatly in the ASL, in front of a big Audi 4x4. When the lights go green I'm outta there pretty sharpish, yet not fast enough for the woman in the Audi, who beeps at me, then overtakes me far too close while accelerating in a fairly aggressive manner.

Of course, all she managed to achieve was a longer wait at the next lights, at which she performed the same sharp aggressive acceleration.

This clearly proves that women drivers are more useless, and that the stereotype of Audi drivers being c0cks still holds.

rick_chasey

Sexism is as bad as racism.

gtvlusso

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sexism is as bad as racism.

I agree with you, but how does that fit in with anything anyone has said or are you like Roger Irrelevant from Viz? :-)

KeimanP

My partners mother is potentially the worst driver I know of (ok there is a good contender which is my partners brothers mother in law).

My partners mother, tends to have on average 3 accidents a year. Mostly minor ones, In the last year she has scraped the passanger side from front to back. Seperate accident was damage done to the front bumber, another was running over something causing severe damage to the sill of the rear drivers side passanger door.

The year before she reversed into her husbands brand new car damaging the lights on both cars, the front wing and bumper of the new car.

She has driven a merc through the gate as she 'thought' it was open. (It is a counter ballanced gate with a single pole that crosses the drive) bonet was scraped all the way up and the windscreen was smashed.

She reverses into people in the car parks of places and doesn't notice. If you are there and mention it she will be adamant that the damage was there before.

She should not be allowed on the road but will not surrender her licence. she can still get insurance as the damage is sorted out outside of the insurers or will be covered in a large claim. She doesn't acknowledge the majoirty of the accidents as happening as she is unaware and does not inform the insurer of any of them.

... the brothers mother in law. She lives in spain and hired a car, It was a brand new ford focus. She was driving it down the motorway and just started drifting over to the hard shoulder and then onto the armco barrier running the passanger side along the armco. She then sat there for about 50 yards still at speed scraping the car along the armco barrier before moving it off and back into the road.

On returning the brand new car to the hire company she faced the car with the good side showing to the office and walked in dropped off the keys and picked up her deposit without them inspecting the car. They signed to say that all was well.

both of these people are 'aged' so it may not be because they are female.

lost_in_thought

Ah, but I'm a woman, and a driver, and have only ever had one accident that resulted in a partial fault claim on my insurance - a '50/50' which I don't think was my fault at all, but couldn't be proven.

My mother, also a woman, also a driver, has never had an accident that resulted in a fault claim.

So, we can conclude that some women are bad drivers, but some women are good drivers.

My brother, on the other hand, has written off 2 cars and 1 van, and had accidents in several more, mostly collisions with inanimate objects like ditches and roundabouts. I wouldn't be able to conclusively tell you exactly how many.

Men, therefore, must be bad drivers.

gtvlusso

lost_in_thought wrote:

Ah, but I'm a woman, and a driver, and have only ever had one accident that resulted in a partial fault claim on my insurance - a '50/50' which I don't think was my fault at all, but couldn't be proven.

My mother, also a woman, also a driver, has never had an accident that resulted in a fault claim.

So, we can conclude that some women are bad drivers, but some women are good drivers.

My brother, on the other hand, has written off 2 cars and 1 van, and had accidents in several more, mostly collisions with inanimate objects like ditches and roundabouts. I wouldn't be able to conclusively tell you exactly how many.

Men, therefore, must be bad drivers.

I think that with your experiences and my experiences combined, we have reached a conclusion that there are some sh1te drivers out there, both male and female......

:-)

rick_chasey

gtvlusso wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sexism is as bad as racism.

I agree with you, but how does that fit in with anything anyone has said or are you like Roger Irrelevant from Viz? :-)

No i'm ravey davey gravy.

It's relevant and you know it. You want to make a comment that women are bad drivers but you know you shouldn't really, since it's sexist - so you hide behind "it's only annecdotal" stats.

kurako

An oldie but a goodie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w

The Rookie

My Wife has had no accidents in 13 years of driving at all, which is why she can afford to insure a Mazda RX-8.

I've had 3 in the last 5 years - but all non fault, one I could have avoided through better anticiaption of potential stupidity, the other 2 I had no hope ever of avoiding without staying at home!

Most women drivers 'seem' to have poor spacial awareness and also tend to 'dither' (merely my opinion) so they are more likley to have small accidents and create problems where their intent is not clear, my wife suffers from neither thank goodness.

Male drivers tend to be more aggresive and have bigger accidents (and definately more 'solo' ones).

2 OLD drivers in my village, both cars look like they go banger racing, everyone knows to go nowhere near either, one is a man, the other a woman, the women drove into my wife's previous car while it was parked next to 3 consecutive empty spaces, her husband settled in cash 'I always do' said he - .

Simon

PBo

shm_uk wrote:

As a very broad generalisation (dangerous I know), from what I have witnessed over the years I have formed the opinion that:

Women cause or are involved in incidents because of poor attention/appreciation to road conditions, and/or there's 3 raucous kids in the back of the car driving them up the wall...

Men cause or are involved in incidents because they're more arrogant, aggressive, impatient, showing off, being a smart-ars*, thinking that watching motor racing on TV somehow makes them the next Lewis Hamilton, treat each car journey as a competitive event, and so on, and so on...


Every single near-miss I've had on the bike has been due to Male drivers.
I've only been hit once. A lady driver but it was at least 50% my own fault.

this may be the most interesting generalisation - not saying who is better or worse, but hypothesising that there are different styles/reasons for accidents with different sexes.....this seems to agree best with my own experience.

Mr Plum

PBo wrote:

shm_uk wrote:

As a very broad generalisation (dangerous I know), from what I have witnessed over the years I have formed the opinion that:

Women cause or are involved in incidents because of poor attention/appreciation to road conditions, and/or there's 3 raucous kids in the back of the car driving them up the wall...

Men cause or are involved in incidents because they're more arrogant, aggressive, impatient, showing off, being a smart-ars*, thinking that watching motor racing on TV somehow makes them the next Lewis Hamilton, treat each car journey as a competitive event, and so on, and so on...


Every single near-miss I've had on the bike has been due to Male drivers.
I've only been hit once. A lady driver but it was at least 50% my own fault.

this may be the most interesting generalisation - not saying who is better or worse, but hypothesising that there are different styles/reasons for accidents with different sexes.....this seems to agree best with my own experience.

A fair analysis I'd say, and generally true to my own experiences...

gtvlusso

Rick Chasey wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sexism is as bad as racism.

I agree with you, but how does that fit in with anything anyone has said or are you like Roger Irrelevant from Viz? :-)

No i'm ravey davey gravy.

It's relevant and you know it. You want to make a comment that women are bad drivers but you know you shouldn't really, since it's sexist - so you hide behind "it's only annecdotal" stats.

My wife, female, is a bad driver, statistically, versus me. I have been knocked off my bike by more women than men - Man in deliberate act to which he gained a broken jaw and women due to whatever reason....

Therefore, statistically, in my specific case, the stereotype is true. However, the sample group is flawed by lack of numbers!

As you will see from the opening statement, the quetion I have asked is;

Is the stereotype true?

I did not say I agreed with the stereotype or that women are bad drivers - at all. In fact you will see my statement to LiT stating that; male or female - there are simply some bad drivers out there.

So, can you please read some of the replies rather than adding completely irrelevant statements based on nothing mentioned, but made because you feel compelled to be the PC, tree hugging moral victor....

In other news, I actually don't give a frig about what you think morally, as I only asked a question.....and who is to say that you are a moral person anyway, you could be a predatory deviant for all I know...peace out!

:-)

gaz545

Sorry to hear you got hit, i hope you and your bike arn't damaged.

My personal stats are 2 hits. 2x foreign drivers. both male

CiB

What I want to know is where do those of us - I mean friends of ours obviously - fit in, those who at the weekends call ourselves Mandy and wear suspenders and a bra? Hypothetically that is.

Anecdotally my boss claims his wife to be pretty bad, having a small number of minor bumps & scrapes most years.

TheStone

essex-commuter wrote:

No stats but my personal view is:

Bus drivers are fairly good drivers on the whole
Black cab drivers always drive far too close and think they own the road
Women pull out of side roads without looking and just don't pay enough attention in general
Mini-cab drivers are just sh1t
Lorry drivers are OK, except tippers who are the same as mini-cabs but bigger

Agree with that. Bus drivers seem to do well with what they're given. Licensed taxis are the worst, usually accompanied with chav abuse.

I'm not sure women drivers are any worse than men. 4x4 drivers seem bad, because the feel safe and don't seem to realise how big their car is ... and these are mostly driven by women with loads of kids in the back.

gtvlusso

TheStone wrote:

essex-commuter wrote:

No stats but my personal view is:

Bus drivers are fairly good drivers on the whole
Black cab drivers always drive far too close and think they own the road
Women pull out of side roads without looking and just don't pay enough attention in general
Mini-cab drivers are just sh1t
Lorry drivers are OK, except tippers who are the same as mini-cabs but bigger

Agree with that. Bus drivers seem to do well with what they're given. Licensed taxis are the worst, usually accompanied with chav abuse.

I'm not sure women drivers are any worse than men. 4x4 drivers seem bad, because the feel safe and don't seem to realise how big their car is ... and these are mostly driven by women with loads of kids in the back.

+1 I am a 4 x 4 driver (The worst one too - The Mercedes ML) - I am a very slow driver, irritatingly slow, but I do leave allot of room for cyclists, a vain effort to try and change the stereotype - however, my wife has hit numerous objects in said 4 x 4....and when the kids go nuts in the back....lordy, it is one big distraction....

As someone (I think PBO) said previously, perhaps it is within the genetic make up of being male or female that defines our spatial perception and anticipation....I dunno, I work in computing....:-)