Women drivers/ riders: Rate them one a scale of 1 to 10

[muni]

Am sure most of us come across women drivers/riders during your daily/weekly commute/travel to work place/any place. Though the percentage is less compared to the male riders/ drivers, am interested in knowing your personal rating of women drivers/ riders in general.

If possible tell me what their strengths and drawbacks as compared to the male drivers/riders. Both men and women have strengths/drawbacks in general i presume .

I would give the women a rating of 4/10 and men 5/10 in general in India( the rating will surely dip if you consider the auto rikshaw and truck/ cab drivers)Maybe, you can omit them while rating the men in ur posts . I find a lot of people not using common sense while riding/ driving on the roads.

Since you have seen your wives, sisters, aunts, girl friends drive/ride, Give your opinion and rating.

[johy]

I would rate women drivers 7/10 and men 3/10.

Women drivers - I have seen only educated women drive and they drive with much more common sense.

Men drivers - The score would have been much higher than my 3/10, had not it been for those truck, autorickshaw, and new-kid-on-the block drivers.

[esteem_lover]

women 4/10
men 4.0001/10

the difference between the 2

men - put on the right turn signal & go straight
women - put on the left turn signal & turn right.(boom! car door smashed)

men - are rash drivers in general
women - are polite, too polite that they forget the accelerator pedal

otherwise there is nothing much to choose between the 2.
if anyone can post dissimilarities like the 2 i have done, please do so.

[Shan2nu]

Have had a number of close calls with women riding 2 wheelers.

Not that all men are good drivers but, majority of women do tend to be dangerous drivers/riders.

This is just a general perception. Ofcourse, there are exceptions like Sabine Schmitz, Vicky Henderson and the likes, who'd shame any man making the mistake of racing them.

Shan2nu

[Captain Pings]

am sure all the female members are following this thread very, very closely!

i used to feel that women were not very good drivers ( the aim and press the accelerator theory )

then i felt that they are certainly safer and more cautious drivers.


till i started observing that a lot of young female drivers are extremely agressive and at times dangerous. I am extremely wary of female drivers driving high powered vehicles (most modern indian cars are capable of rapid acceleration / decceleration ) - and this segment applies to all women accross all ages.

but then again - if i were to think about it - most of the above would apply to men too!

[iraghava]

Now in my opinion I have watched various female drivers including my mother and till date I have only been impressed by the driving skills of two ladies. One is a very close friend of mine & is a very accomplished and quick driver and the other was a karting champ in Delhi. But have to say that the overall numbers of good female drivers are very miniscule and the general standard is very low.

My overall rating would be:

Females: 4.0/10
Males: 5.0/10
Myself: 10.0/10

Please note that I am being modest here other wise I would have given myself 11.0/10 And for verification of my other wordly skills you can ask other members like aZa, Fuelled, Hellspawn etc.

[2L8uLoose]

Voted BAD and here's just ONE reason why.
Was on the expressway once and just before you come to the Toll Booth( first one on the expressway after leaving Bombay) I see this MM540 in the outermost(fast/overtaking) lane.
Approaching the jeep, flashing my lights, doing well in excess of 150kmph the jeep starts to move into the centre lane...GREAT I think to myself, finally someone that watches the mirrors like I do. blah blah blah... catch upto the jeep rather fast.. going through a corner.. and what happens.. THE JEEP STARTS TO MOVE BACK INTO THE OVERTAKING LANE FOR NO BLOODY REASON...
Now what I HATE doing is even going into the same airspace as my Brake pedal when I'm into a corner.. but I had no choice..so get through the corner and start accellerating to overtake the jeep on the straight.. get alongside and put down my passenger's side window to do the standard thing.. i e YELL at the driver of the jeep.. and lo and behold what do I see.. an ELDERLY WOMAN driving it.. shake my head in utter disgust and drive off...
Like I said.. just ONE example that comes to mind....

[condor]

For all those who say that women are more cautious drivers, you remind me of a 55-60 yr old man who tells me that he never takes risks, always goes at 40, no matter what. And he tells me that taking risks and going fast increases BP, etc etc. Just that he'd be one of those who just wont move no matter how much you honk asking him to give you some space. Well, he's taking care of himself. Per him, he's keeping his BP in control. Problem is he is not realizing that his driving at 40 and not letting other people pass just passes that BP to the others.

That was a little digression. Women may be cautious, but I have rarely found one who is confident, and is optimal in her driving. One who can strike that balance between not being reckless, not being a obstruction to smooth flow to traffic.
There always are exceptions, and one I remember was in our neighborhood, riding an RD350. They also had a Norton, though not used much.

Driving has to be second nature. Not something that you think about and do. And driving shouldnt be something that is incidental. One needs to be involved in it, be present to it. Both men and women are prone to not being there when driving, and hence are distracted. And a distracted driver is always dangerous.

PS: I am not comparing men and women as drivers. I find men often not being systematic drivers by virtue of their aggressiveness / unpredicatability. I find women not being systematic drivers by being over-cautious, and not being confident.
The devil's alternative ?

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by condor

That was a little digression. Women may be cautious, but I have rarely found one who is confident, and is optimal in her driving. One who can strike that balance between not being reckless, not being a obstruction to smooth flow to traffic.
There always are exceptions, and one I remember was in our neighborhood, riding an RD350. They also had a Norton, though not used much.

Driving has to be second nature. Not something that you think about and do. And driving shouldnt be something that is incidental. One needs to be involved in it, be present to it. Both men and women are prone to not being there when driving, and hence are distracted. And a distracted driver is always dangerous.

PS: I am not comparing men and women as drivers. I find men often not being systematic drivers by virtue of their aggressiveness / unpredicatability. I find women not being systematic drivers by being over-cautious, and not being confident.
The devil's alternative ?

Completely agree with you Condor main problem while driving for women & aged people is a lack of confidence. They make it a task to drive and that is where the shortcoming is. It almost seems (when you watch them drive) that they expect the car to suddenly leap out of its lane or accelarate at top speed like it's an untrained dog!! I have tried to make such people relax at the wheel by explaining them the same and telling them that it's a machine and all controls are with you and so it can't do anything unexpectedly and found that it helps to some degree but still if somebody finds driving a chore then there is not much that you can do about making them more relaxed.

You are absolutely right in saying that driving has to be second nature not something that you have to use your full concentration power to do.

[rks]

Biologically, it is true that women have greater difficulty with spatial relationships, like judging distances, gaps and so on. So men will probably have a better judgement in these matters, which includes parking, overtaking, cornering, etc. Not to say that women cannot overcome this by proper training. Regarding the driving habits of women, most of them are indeed very cautious and may seem over-cautious to many males. When I see a female driver ahead of me, I am very alert to the possibility that she may see something far ahead and apply sudden brakes. And I try to get ahead of her as soon as possible. But the same also applies to many male drivers as well, the difference is just a matter of scale.

Edit: I gave the rating "pretty OK" because women are pretty and they are OK too. Need to see more "pretty OK" drivers on the road.

[prabuddhadg]

You can push some women drivers around a bit. For instance, if there is not enough space on the road ahead and you need to cut lanes, the woman driving the car next to you will more willingly slow down to let you take the advantage of being ahead, than a male driver. But then a woman tends to need more margin for error than most men. But then again you have Nawaz Bathena. But exceptions prove the rule.

[muni]

cautious yes they are and someone mentioned that biologocally they have poor spatial relationships. I think it maybe true because most of the women drivers i have seen are perched at the tip of their seats with their heads raised and trying to see the invisible headlamps of their cars. Its like your/the pet/stray dog trying to bite its own tail ..sorry guys bad analogy


Similarly the ladies on the two wheelers are also perched way too front and thats enough to give you an indication about their comfort/ confidence level.

The ones who have given a rating of 1 shud have exerienced something heavenly ( they must have atleast seen or thought about it i reckon )

Are there any active women TBhpians on this forum who wish to share their thoughts productively.

[prabuddhadg]

Just remembered this. I read somewhere about a guy driving down a road, not too wide, but not crowded at all. So he came upto a car driving sedately down the middle of the road. He waited for it to move aside for him to pass. He waited patiently for quite a while, but the car stayed in the middle of the road. Then they were approaching a crossing and the driver in front hand signalled a right turn. So he relaxed anticipating a free ride ahead. But the car did not turn. Slightly annoyed, he continued following the car slowly. When exactly the same thing happened at the very next turn, he got extremely irritated and honking, he overtook the car, a little too close for comfort. But what he saw as he passed, made his blood boil. At the same time, he could not stifle the chuckle. A lady was driving. She was carefully applying nail polish. As she finished a nail, she held a hand out of the window, for it to dry.

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by prabuddhadg

But what he saw as he passed, made his blood boil. At the same time, he could not stifle the chuckle. A lady was driving. She was carefully applying nail polish. As she finished a nail, she held a hand out of the window, for it to dry.

That was Joke of the day!

[sidharth_j]

hmm...I vote for "Just OK".

Point 1 - I have only seen 'educated' women drive, and should imagine as a benefit of that education, they behave a bit better on the road

Point 2 - People say that women are more cautious drivers. That so?.. the majority of women drivers don't drive frequently, they drive only beacuse they have to, and they see it as a chore. So; where is the confidence going to be when they hit the road?. hence, simply because they aren't confident about their driving makes them cautious.

Point 3 - On a more personal scale...I would say that it depends on the car they have too. My mum used to drive an M800 earlier, and Jeez!..she was FAST, and very very aggressive!.. that proves the 'women in small alto' theory posted elsewhere in this forum. Now that she drives a getz...a bigger car, much of that aggression has gone out, as you need to take more care with a bigger, more expensive car