General Chat

Hi Felicity,sorry it's taken a couple of days to get back to you.Yep .i did know that some of your comments were tounge in cheek ,and that's why i replied in like vein,after all if we are serious all the time there is no fun in it is there?.Being serious for a mo ,as suggested ,i think there are good and bad drivers of both sexes and i know of two bus drivers i worked with ,who were female who can handle a bus as well as me ,one of them better in fact,and i don't mind admitting it.However ,i stand by what i say in that there are so many more male to female drivers on the road that it's impossible to make a fair assesment as to accident figures,and the figures given out are biased.The latest figures ,worked out by ratio suggest very little difference on accident figures ,but what the hell,at the end of the day ,if everyone does as one person has suggested,[drive defensivly] there will be a lot more safety on the roads,and less accidents.Fred.ptfg.

Just to add to this thread ,my husband had had two accidents in less than three weeks both being hit from behind and they were men drivers but could you please explain how someone cannot see an ambulance but can still manage to hit it. Margaret

Felicity Is is a fair assessment you just put it better than me!

Fred, my comments WERE a little tongue-in-cheek, but I'm sure you knew that :-) Seriously, I agree that there are good and bad drivers, both men and women, and defensive driving is the key. It never ceases to amaze me how people spend vast sums of money on vehicles that appear to be faulty - ie the indicators don't work!! (Another slightly tongue-in-cheek remark, but I'm sure plenty of people will know what I mean!) Seems to me that men and women just like having a dig at one another, and driving habits are another forum for doing so. Men TEND to be overly aggressive and women TEND to be overly cautious and both tendencies can be dangerous. Is that a fair assessment?

There are two types of women drivers The first being the ones who are cautious and then there are those who drive like men (It's a confidence thing) If you are capable of driving a car - the DRIVE the darn thing at the end of the day it is you who is in control of the machine - but the main thing be you male or female is that you STAY SAFE.

Christine I have been driving many years now and hold an HGV1 ,but I have to agree with the men on most of women drivers they can be a nightmare when they have there mind on other things. but men are very aggressive on the road which make them more of a danger to me in my lorry.I know what a women is thinking and can react to that , but men leave me thinking they are , what is it they say in Doc Martin (Bodmin) lol

Thats it Brian ,defensive driving IS the key and it,s served me well too as a pro driver on wagons and buses,,ive had three accidents in my car [never an hgv] over the years and every time i have been shunted up the rear end because some numbnut didn,t stop at traffic lights when i did ,twice, and once at a rounderbout when i knew i couldn,t get out in the time i had but the person behind thought i had and came on regardless.Fred.ptfg.

I do about 20,000 miles a year, 3/4 of that on a motorbike. Well over 600,000 miles in total over 40 years. In my opinion there are bad drivers of both sexes but the types of suspect behaviour they indulge in differ. However: On a bike you MUST drive defensively or you don't survive so my tips would be: Don't tailgate, leave AT LEAST a two second gap. Anticipate what other drivers are going to do. Drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions - and that doesn't mean slowly all the time. On a motorway or multi-lane carriageway, use the left lane if it is clear, don't hog the middle or outside lane. Look, look and look again. Always let other people know what you are going to do, when turning indicate first, then brake. When overtaking indicate before accelerating. Show a little courtesy to other road users. Keep safe.

away ,be fair Felicity,if thats true then this bit about women drivers and mirrors must mean they were all taught by drag artists or gay,s, nooooo,i don,t think so.seeing as there are 20 male drivers on the road for each lady i don,t wonder that the figures don,t tallyAll the bad habit,s,. mine ,yours or anyone elses are self taught and has nowt to do with gender of the instructor.I was forces taught by a butch m/t yard female ,and every time i made a mistake i was rapped across the knuckles with a swagger stick ,and you didn,t learn bad habits.Fred Ptfg.

Another thought - where do most women get their 'bad' driving habits from? When cars were first invented, men did most of the driving and women rarely got a look in, when cell phones were first invented, men mostly had them and decided that they could multi-task with them. My guess is that women have learned their driving skills by example, so the 'bad' habits they are getting blamed for are the things they learned from men in the first place! :-)

wow, thats two smiles I've raised today, my powers must be returning lol

Ha ha Paul, very funny! :-) I don't think that allows for the HUGE discrepancy in the figures. There aren't that many gullible men around! Or are there?

no Felicity, they flash a bit of leg too ;)

Perhaps a more accurate way of assessing this topic would be to add in to the equation the gender difference when it comes to speeding and reckless/negligent driving prosecutions. Safety isn't just an absence of accidents. I saw the statistics on this some time ago and it was horrifying, and please don't tell me that women just bat their eyelids and get let off! :-)

I think the problem with men is that they can be so aggressive on the road, but on saying that, I've found young women to be just as aggressive. Perhaps I should call them 'Ladettes' . Jo.

Some of the things that I was going to mention have alread been said: 1) stopping at a roundabout when there's nothing coming; 2) turning of the head to speak to passengers. To this I would add: 3) Driving slowly, but when someone wants to overtake, speeding up. I have as much right to drive at 60 (where it is safe and legal to do so) as you do to drive at 40. 4) Driving as if you you don't know what you're going to do next - if you don't know what you're going to do then I certainly don't and am not able to decide what I am going to do. 5) Signalling to turn AFTER braking If the sole objective of driving is to reach the destination without running into anything that happens to be in front, then (most) women are brilliant drivers.

the latest figures by the insurance companies suggests that the research done two years ago was flawed ,and in fact women are causing as many accidents as males.myself ,i see women ,and men passing me in a thirty zone doing forty plus ,i see ladies on the phone [not hands free] whilst on the move ,men ditto,women are apt to use car mirrors for everything but the correct one.99 percent of out and out speeding is done by males.But most accidents caused by innatention to the road [i.e turning of heads to look at passengers] is done by the ladies. The only reason women get cheaper insurance is because women make more noise [womans lib] and the insurance firms would rather have the extra buisiness than upset you ladies.Fred[,prepared to take the flack] ptfg.

i think men and women both have bad drivers, where they take risks or don't concentrate. I've been in 3 accidents one as a passenger and the taxi had a blowout. One a drunk male driver overshot his junction, and the 3rd on a motorway slip road at traffic lights where 3 cars were shunted into me from behind by a male driver who forgot to slow down. These were all male accidents but that doesn't make all men bad drivers. in 23 years of driving i have never caused an accident, but that doesn't make me a good driver, just one that concentrates. sandra

Now it could be my turn to be a Public Enemy (don't know which number we're up to though!). I think that on the whole, women are safer drivers than men HOWEVER, I think the women who are bad drivers are REALLY bad, which gives all women drivers a very bad name! Paul, something similar happened to my hubby. He was driving up to a junction and hit a car (driven by a woman!) which had cut right across him. OK, it was his fault for hitting her, but she had driven down a No Entry road!! When asked why she had gone down there, she claimed she hadn't seen the red No Entry signs. Presumably putting her lipstick on .... And before anyone picks on me, yes I am a woman driver, I did pass my test first time, I've been driving 22 years and - touch wood - have never caused an accident. Haven't had one either, but don't want to sound smug cos I'm not :)

it's long been statistically proven that women are more cautious drivers than men, men drive with more purpose. however, women make more accident claims. Usually because they've stopped unnecessarily and a man's driven into them :) I may be partly joking but I have actually experienced that, I was going across a roundabout and as I approached there was a car turning left... as I was about to pass her and go across the roundabout she suddenly stopped and I clipped her rear wing. There was nothing at all on the roundabout. Officially it was my fault, but WHY did she stop ? Tellingly she said "I've only just got the car back after the last time I got hit".