[WindRide]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

Here is your answer :

Whatever.
Since this thread has turned extremely silly, not sure why the mods are and not locking it up for posterity.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Whatever.
Since this thread has turned extremely silly, not sure why the mods are and not locking it up for posterity.

On the contrary, this thread has been an eye opener coz it showed that so many of us are prejudiced against women drivers. Some have even said that women cannot drive due to genetic reasons. Reading some of the comments on this thread, i can understand why the OP wanted to point out that women can drive well too.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Whatever.
Since this thread has turned extremely silly, not sure why the mods are and not locking it up for posterity.

When people write in a hopeless attempt to prove women are equally good or even better than male drivers, the thread is alright, and when someone points out the real facts and write about specifics, the thread becomes silly. Hmm.. good observation there.

[CPH]

Your 12 points do not make a good driver whether male or female.

I have no problem with professional female drivers. My mother used to drive races and bought her last sport car in her 60s and passed it on when 70.

I have a lot of respect for Danica Patric and Michelle Mouton who won the WRC for Audi.

The reason why some women are appalling when driving is their evenly poor instructors. I have seen terrible male drivers and seen evenly bad female drivers. Either are usually bad because of lack of practise.

Points that make a good driver are:

Consideration for the traffic situation

Making regular checks of water, oil, tyre pressure, lights, brakes, shock absorbers and emergency equipment and take necessary action to remedy the faults.

Not using the mobile phone and using both hands while driving.

Keeping your distance to the car in front.

Not driving aggressively.

Looking far ahead of the traffic to help keep it flowing and to be prepared for early and smooth actions.

Avoiding risky situations.

Knowing when to drive at what speeds.

Training emergency situations.

Thinking ahead.

I have had only little experience in India, but plenty in Europe where it is evident that more and more women drive very aggressively, which shows up in the insurance statistics. In Britain now more financial damage is done by less female drivers than male drivers. Controlling temper is where more and more women fall short.

Not driving aggressively.

[mallumowgli]

Well, men, read CPH's post and raise your hand if you follow all of what is said in that!! Am sure 95% of the drivers, men or women, in India wouldn't qualify

[sgiitk]

I was reading somewhere that men have fewer accidents than women, but mostly bid ones. women have small/minor shunts.

There can be two reasons for this :

1. Highway driving is mostly a male preserve. In a family it is rare to see the lady driving on the highway,
2. Ladies temperamentally are less aggressive (I know many henpecked husbands may take up issue on this one, if they dare!).

[Urban_Nomad]

Stereotypes are controversial, but boy are they fun (just ask a "Mr Russel Peters"). A very entertaining read.

And kudos to the thread starter for touching upon a subject one may shy away from, owing to its controversial nature.

Originally Posted by Sugeeta

In my locality itself, I can identify at least 6 good / excellent women behind the steering.

Ummm ....... I see where you are going with this, but 6 people in a "locality" may not be a very big number, haina?

Originally Posted by clevermax

Some may find this as utter crap but I have to say it:
Women also have some amount of testosterone in them (as men having Estrogen in them), but less compared to men, but the levels vary from individual to individual and I believe it is those woman with slightly higher levels of this hormone who show superior driving skills than the rest.

So, manly women make better drivers. Thanks for sharing.

My mom is the 1st member in our khaandaan (males included) to learn driving. I cannot express in words how proud I was to see her behind the wheel (cuz I am a full on mama's boy), negotiating the Delhi traffic without much fuss.

In fact, she also drove from Delhi to Jaipur with me and my sis (who is a fairly good driver too) in tow to see my Dad during his posting there. Now, she finds driving a bit tough, not owing to her skills but age + sight.

That said, I am a bit prejudiced in terms of the "overall" good : bad women driver (car) ratio simply because of some first hand experiences on road. Likewise, bikers, especially in Pune have a special place in my heart. I love it how they can turn a km's worth of journey to a long drive by constantly riding at speeds not exceeding 5 kmph, bang in the middle of the road.

[CPH]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I was reading somewhere that men have fewer accidents than women, but mostly bid ones. women have small/minor shunts.

There can be two reasons for this :

1. Highway driving is mostly a male preserve. In a family it is rare to see the lady driving on the highway,
2. Ladies temperamentally are less aggressive (I know many henpecked husbands may take up issue on this one, if they dare!).

After my first post in this article I went out and of course had to have an experience that women would not like to hear about.

I was at a traffic light under a flyover with 2 lanes on the laft. My lane opened up to a third lane. I had to chose the middle lane: A female driver was on the right. When the traffic lights turned green I even indicated that I want to use the lane in the middle. The female tried to change lanes without indicating. This wasn't the problem.

I had the right to be on the middle lane as it was indicated by the lines. When beeping she couldn't care less, which was the first thing that annoyed me as she forced me of where I had right of way.

What really was annoying is that she had her mobile in her one hand chatting away and in the other hand she had a cigarette and tried to hold the steering wheel.

Some time I had another incident on the motorway. I overtook a number of cars on the fast lane at about 150kph (being a bit faster than the speed limit). While overtaking I saw a car appearing fairly quickly behind me. I could not have moved over. The car came so close that I could not see her registration plate in the rear view mirror. When I had the first opportunity to move over I saw the female holding in one hand a cup of coffee from the the motorway service station and in the other hand a cigarette.

If she had an emergency that would have possibly let to burns and an even more serious incident in due course.

Even if women claim to be better in multi tasking then men, both incidents were outright stupidity.

Your experience might be right in India, but in Europe the behaviour of women has changed in traffic, where more and more women get ruthless in their driving style.

Having worked for a number of years alongside the police force in Britain on automotive related issues this is not only an observation of mine, but also of police and insurance companies.

[Sheel]

If women were as good drivers we would be having female F1 drivers.

I am not saying women can't, they can and how well, don't we see it everyday?

*not talking about minuscule percentage of talented female drivers.

[ariesonu]

I have followed this thread since the day Sugeeta put down those 12 commandments. Then yesterday I took extreme 'RISK' & asked my wife to go through the thread.
Her first reaction ((without offence to anyone PLEASE)) "They are all so chauvinistic pigs".
I could understand her frustration so I asked her to re-read the thread with me. Believe me the second time it was not only funny but downright hilarious.
We the BHPIANs who swear to follow all the road rules, who never make any road mistakes (so as to say) were here fighting like small children trying to defend our egos & to nail down a point that actually exists solely in our minds. Some were courteoius enough to drag their Moms, Sisters, Wives & proabably all female relatives into this mess. Some good enough to suddenly find women drivers making driving mistakes at the drop of hat. Funnt ain't it.

I simply ask WHY??

Why so much of INSECURITY from female drivers.
We are a nuclear couple & I taught my wife to drive for the simple reason that, in case anything happens to me she can atleast drive me to the nearest hospital. Today she drives MUCH MUCH better than any average man, including me. She has driven in Calgary too & so on Mumbai roads. She takes 5 minutes to get adjusted from LHD to RHD & vice-versa. She works on Andheri-Kurla road & anyone from Mumbai can vouch that that road has the WORST kind of traffic density & arrangements in Mumbai. Especially with Metro work all over that place. She can drive, park, service, change headlamps, coolent et all without me in assitance. I never taught her all this.

Some of the same members had appluaded one of our distingusihed lady member "THE ONE" when she drove a Scorpio from somehwere in Rajasthan to New Delhi (Highway driving). Or may be they were being modest for the sake of "ATITHI DEVO BAVAH".

Get me a replacement for "MRS INDRANI NOOYI & MRS CHANDA KOCHAR" who are driving one of the world's biggest Corporate & India's foremost bank respectively & I think that they are doing quite a wonderful job.

..Or you can definately bash me for my views & satisfy your egos.

Raab Rakha.

[Judemayne]

Dear All,

Please gentlemen;95% of the drivers (99.99% male out of 95%) on Bangalore roads do not deserve the DL they are holding-they have no idea about the minimum etiquettes required. I am not pointing a finger only at the Yellow boards but at all-even the white collared. i learnt driving from my dad-a very courteous man both of and on the road. In those days even to spot two vehicles at the same time on a stretch of 200m was an event but still he followed the normal norms of right of way even if the oncoming traffic was a cyclist.
Lets not point fingers at the Ladies they are as good or bad as us.
Regards,

Col J H Mayne

[coolfyre]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Get me a replacement for "MRS INDRANI NOOYI & MRS CHANDA KOCHAR" who are driving one of the world's biggest Corporate & India's foremost bank respectively & I think that they are doing quite a wonderful job.

I hope that no discussion starts on who (men or women) are better at heading corporates especially after the kind of comments/experiences we hear everyday about India's foremost bank headed by Mrs Chanda Kochar.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Why so much of INSECURITY from female drivers.

Is there an insecurity?

I think people are calling a spade a spade.

We see bad drivers on the road. And some of them are women. In this thread, people have been generalizing and saying that most women are bad drivers from this relatively low instance sampling. Mostly based on their subjective experiences and interpretations, which may be correct for that instance.

BTW, the thread is highly entertaining. Keep going. And where is Thad?

This thread may run the risk of degrading into rant against female drivers.

[headers]

Originally Posted by Sugeeta

Recognise us for our capabilities…DRIVING BEING ONE OF THEM.

Relax....don't stare at us on the road. Do you see us staring at all men on the road??

ROFL: I do agree i've seen more than a couple of lady drivers who are experts behind the wheel.

BTW, we stare ONLY to RELAX. Also, do you think men stare at women who are not good looking? No ways..

[arunkk]

Originally Posted by sbraj

BTW, the thread is highly entertaining. Keep going. And where is Thad?

This thread may run the risk of degrading into rant against female drivers.

+1 to that. I am following this thread and getting a good laugh out of many posts here (Just like the irritating comments of non-petrolhead friends thread).