[ariesonu]

@arunkk/sbraj: +10
ME TOO enjoying both the threads to the core. Somehow I have a feeling that Sugeeta will have the LAST laugh here.

[pramod]

@Sugeeta,

1. My wife is an exceptional driver. She has driven from a 800 to Fiesta to a Qualis. She loves driving cars. She doesnt drive to reach from point A to point B. She can actually fit well in this forum, if she wishes to join.
She has driven Bangalore - Kanyakumari, Bangalore-Munnar-Kochi and many more long trips, along with me, where she shares usually 30-40% of driving.

2. Your post shouldnt speak for all Women. You should speak only for yourself. If you are speaking for the whole female community, then, you are under-estimating the view we men have, towards female drivers.

3. SOME of the female drivers are very good. Many arent.
Male species have a good % of drivers who are far from perfect too.

[mallumowgli]

People who will have the last laugh are those who have not contributed and are only sitting back and enjoying. Rest all of us, inlcuding Sugeeta, would be the laughing stock - particluarly those who gave serious thought to this thread

[CPH]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

People who will have the last laugh are those who have not contributed and are only sitting back and enjoying. Rest all of us, inlcuding Sugeeta, would be the laughing stock - particluarly those who gave serious thought to this thread

Unfortunately there is a serious element to the thread. Due to poor driving skills of male and female drivers as well as the ignorance to alcohol and drug influences (both male and female), using the phone while driving (male and female), drinking hot tea/coffe and smoking a cigarette (I have only seen females doing so), smoking and holding mobile (i have seen only females), silly street racing (male), doing silly stunts (male) needlessly many people lost their lives or have been crippled.

I personally have seen to many people die on the roads for male and female input.

Females are as sexist as males just in other ways. There is no point in bringing up such a topic other than for sexist reasons on either side.

I don't know why people waste time on starting such topics, but since we are on it I would like to highlight the consequences and even more so what can be done to tackle the casualties and fatalities that are incurred by male as well as female motorists.

@ Sheel - There were female F1 drivers. The last one was Giovanna Amati (Italian). The reason why she and other female drivers didn't get successful was the physical strain was above their body's capabilities. India has got very competitive female drivers (Saloon racing) and so has the rest of the world in saloon racing, Nascar, DTM, WRC, Mont Carlo etc.

I resent your statement as a male generalisation as much as ariesonu's wife's comment. This is the evidence how much both sides (and this includes Sugeeta) have to re-think.

All parties should rather think about how they can improve their own skills than just making statements about their driving skills. This way we might be able to save more lives and make less families unhappy because their loved ones might make it home safely for another day.

[Mr. Nobody]

cant believe the men who are dominated by their manly wives are defending their driving . speaking the truth is not insecurity .
most women cant take any criticism in any field let alone driving . if someone criticizes their driving we are chauvinist ?

The earth is ruled by us MEN . an average man is always a better driver than a avg man . when men drive the car is a extension of his self . he his self aware of surrounding . for women its just a box of metal that can magically take them from A to B .

Originally Posted by CPH

@ Sheel - There were female F1 drivers. The last one was Giovanna Amati (Italian). The reason why she and other female drivers didn't get successful was the physical strain was above their body's capabilities. India has got very competitive female drivers (Saloon racing) and so has the rest of the world in saloon racing, Nascar, DTM, WRC, Mont Carlo etc.

sheel never said there are none . just see the percentage of men /women in any type of racing like Moto gp , F1 ,wrc ,a1 ,drifting etc . its a tiny minority .

[rajushank84]

Originally Posted by CPH

Unfortunately there is a serious element to the thread. Due to poor driving skills of male and female drivers as well as the ignorance to alcohol and drug influences (both male and female), using the phone while driving (male and female), drinking hot tea/coffe and smoking a cigarette (I have only seen females doing so), smoking and holding mobile (i have seen only females), silly street racing (male), doing silly stunts (male) needlessly many people lost their lives or have been crippled.

I personally have seen to many people die on the roads for male and female input.

Females are as sexist as males just in other ways. There is no point in bringing up such a topic other than for sexist reasons on either side.

I don't know why people waste time on starting such topics, but since we are on it I would like to highlight the consequences and even more so what can be done to tackle the casualties and fatalities that are incurred by male as well as female motorists.

@ Sheel - There were female F1 drivers. The last one was Giovanna Amati (Italian). The reason why she and other female drivers didn't get successful was the physical strain was above their body's capabilities. India has got very competitive female drivers (Saloon racing) and so has the rest of the world in saloon racing, Nascar, DTM, WRC, Mont Carlo etc.

I resent your statement as a male generalisation as much as ariesonu's wife's comment. This is the evidence how much both sides (and this includes Sugeeta) have to re-think.

All parties should rather think about how they can improve their own skills than just making statements about their driving skills. This way we might be able to save more lives and make less families unhappy because their loved ones might make it home safely for another day.

This is exactly what I am trying to say! Don't talk about male or female, talk about what needs to be improved w.r.t driving skills. Why is it that we accept sexism from females, but not from males?

Anyway on the topic, here is my observation which is very specific to Chennai, India: Male drivers are highly skilled, but lack road ethics. Female drivers have road ethics, but are very very badly skilled. Probably has something to do with interest levels and age at which they learn. Boys here are obsessed with vehicles, they dream of vehicles all the time, fantasize about it, and they go and try to learn driving as soon as hey can. They do it at a young age, with complete interest and concentration. They take pride in their skill level and constantly compare with the next guy, so naturally their skill level keeps going up until they are very much in control of the vehicle.

Girls on the hand, learn when they have to. They are scared, to begin with. The initial emotion is fear, not the thrilling enthusiasm that boys have. The buzzword in their mind is "SAFE, SAFE". And whenever they go out on the road, it is a big emotional exercise for them. They are pitted against male drivers with much higher skill levels, and are completely bowled out. Notice I say "pitted against" - that again is because of the lack of ethics on the part of most male drivers in Chennai, India.

As I mentioned, all these are general observations and purely anecdotal. A couple of months back, my cousin's wife completely humbled me by driving in the city with a perfect skill level, better than most boys. She has been driving from her teenage (for over a decade). So there are exceptions. But the interesting thing is, she was driving typically like a boy, cutting lanes etc etc. But when we went to the hills, she was doing all the wrong things, and I had to point them to her - despite me being a driver of just 4 to 5 years, and a team-bhp reader of about the same time - but not having a decade+ experience to cars.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Sugeeta

...as far as lesson 6 goes, I am a big time sufferer of this syndrome - Men never ask for directions.

I jokingly attribute it to being a Geminian trait...

@ Sugeeta: I totally agree with you there! It certainly is a Geminian trait, which was passed on to Cancerians, Aquarians and Taureans aeons ago through the sharing of genes. Men born under the sign of Aries, Virgo, Capricorn and Scorpio went shopping, and inadvertently bought a slice of this trait too, but could never find their way again to the place where they could return the trait and ask for a refund. Sagittarians, Pisceans and Librans hated the others for being blissfully happy when utterly lost, and inoculated themselves with this trait a few centuries ago, while the Lions managed to get infected with this trait because of something they hunted down and gobbled up.

Fed up with their inability to find new places to get lost in (after all, the world, it is said, is indeed a small place), they invented the GPS. Now, all men claim never to get lost - they only find new places.

A friend from Pune on this forum is going to flame me for this soon.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Mr. Nobody

cant believe the men who are dominated by their manly wives are defending their driving . speaking the truth is not insecurity .
most women cant take any criticism in any field let alone driving . if someone criticizes their driving we are chauvinist ?

when men drive the car is a extension of his self . he is self aware of surroundings . for women its just a box of metal that can magically take them from A to B .
.

I agree completely. Sadly many people over here are not even discussing such points - all they have to say is women drive slower and carefully, obeying all rules and not over speeding, and thus they are good drivers. To me that logic is mostly lame.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by CPH

All parties should rather think about how they can improve their own skills than just making statements about their driving skills.

I agree. And more so in the Indian context, where there is only one word to term the way 99.99% of us drive - Crazy.

Every now and then we have a thread pop-up about what can be done to make driving a pleasurable experience in India. IMO, the only thing each of us can do is to better our own driving. Berating others or trying to change others is not only not going to yield results, but is bound to result in arguments/scuffles that would only spoil our day - leave that for the traffic-cops to do (hopefully).

Hopefully if we drive well, those around us - our wife/parents/siblings/friends and most importantly kids (the next generation) would assimilate this trait and we might end up with atleast the next generation being sane drivers.

Regarding gender differences, I agree that an average guy might be more skilled in riding/driving, but the average woman is more disciplined. And any day, I would rather have disciplined people on the road than unruly/rash riders showing off their skill.

[Sugeeta]

CPH,

I agree with you on many counts and believe that good driving is a combined balance of speed, skill and judgement and should be backed by good decision making capabilities (a subset of the skill category but important where split second decisions can avert mishaps on the road).

ariesonu and promod,

Good to know your respective spouses drive well.

Mr. Nobody,

Same request again, please appreciate the humor.

Cheers
Sugeeta

[pramod]

Originally Posted by Mr. Nobody

cant believe the men who are dominated by their manly wives are defending their driving .

Well, if you are not aware of any lady who could really DRIVE, then you are ill-informed, Mr.Nobody!
The best thing would be to ask u to sit on the left seat, when my wife is driving. You may have a thing or two to learn.
I really have some interesting questions for you. Let me PM u

[sajo]

It is fun reading this thread!

Also, in my personal experience, female car drivers around me are as good or bad as the next person. In other words, average, and do not induce any sort of fear in me while climbing into the passenger seat with any of them. (That honor is reserved for Cabbies).

However, I would like to take an exception for female riders. On two wheels, the equation changes somewhat. And quite a few of them on Pune roads are ones I stay really away from.
Ofcourse, there are a miniscule of very good riders amongst the ladies too. More power to them!

[ajman28]

This thread sure turned out to be "hot topic"!! Its almost like a thread on a new car launch or a new test drive

Anyway, couldn't resist NOT sharing my views regarding the genders and cars.

I have seen only two types of female drivers:
1. Extremely good (Way better than many male drivers)
2. Really bad

On the other hand, the male drivers come in many forms:
1. Top notch
2. Extremely good
3. Good
4. Bad
5. Ugly
6. This is not my car and I own the road!!

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

I agree that an average guy might be more skilled in riding/driving, but the average woman is more disciplined.

We need to consider that an average female driver is mostly educated and from a well off family,
but most of the male drivers who drive cabs, ricks, tvs 50s, m80s, pulsars, etc are uneducated and hence lack road sense.

This creates a false impresson that all male drivers are aggressive and reckless.

[sajo]

Originally Posted by Daewood

We need to consider that an average female driver is mostly educated and from a well off family,
but most of the male drivers who drive cabs, ricks, tvs 50s, m80s, pulsars, etc are uneducated and hence lack road sense.

This creates a false impresson that all male drivers are aggressive and reckless.

+1 to that...thats well said mate!