[coolfyre]

This happened last weekend at the sarjapur ring road signal. We were at the signal, I was in my car and next to me as a girl in her early 20s may be, was on a scooter. We were headed towards the silk board junction.
When the signal went green, this girl zoomed through and went ahead and I started at my normal pace.
After going about 200 meters or so, this girl is right in front of me and the road infront of her is completely empty and this girl is riding slow at 20KMPH or something like that very slow.
I gave a slight honk requesting her to give way, she did not oblige. I tried that another 2-3 times, still she did not budge. I just waited for a few secs and blowed my horn out for which she got scared and went left and as I was passing by, I just looked at her, she also looked at me and it looked like as if she was asking me why were you honking for no reason.

This one happened this morning while I was on my way to work. I was passing by a road where the apartment complex is right on the main road. While passing by it is very difficult to see even a bike / cycle coming out of those gates because of the trees and construction around the gate.
So I make it a point to horn when I am close to the gate so that people coming out know there is some vehicle passing by. This morning as well I gave a horn and as I went close to gates, I see a white honda city driven by a lady who looked like to be in her late 30s or early 40s completely engrossed in applying her lipstick looking into her mirror and absolutely not looking to her left from where I was coming and only looking to her right as thats the way I was heading and she also wanted to go. I just honked loud 2-3 times to get her attention and as I was passing by, I made a gesture at her asking where she was looking.

I still would respect these women drivers because they did give me the way only after honking bad at them, but most men/boys don't budge at all even after honking bad at them.

[am1m]

Where are the all the women drivers when it comes to highway driving?

The past few years, have seen an increasing number of women driving in cities, but have hardly seen 1 or 2 on the way during our long drives.

Both my mom and my wife drive and have been driving all their adult lives. Mom used to take us kids on drives in her Ambassador to Ooty (hairpin bends, without power steering!), Mangalore, and Goa from Bangalore regularly. On long trips these days, my wife and I swap the driver's seat every 100-200km.

But I can recall only one other car where there was a lady driving. This thought occurred to me during our drive back from Goa yesterday and I made it a point to scan all the cars around when we were at toll gates. Couldn't spot even one car that had a woman driving. Very strange.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by am1m

Where are the all the women drivers when it comes to highway driving?

I think that our women drivers are being honked, cursed and crowded out by the rowdy driving population.

My wife picked up driving as a skill on our used A Star AT recently. But she's constantly being harassed by morons in bigger vehicles despite driving well. Hell, even I got harassed by a Xylo cab this morning in the A Star. I'm thinking of graduating my wife to our bigger Manual Transmission equipped TUV 300 since i've never been harassed in the TUV 300 before...

And on a related note - our bicycling kids of today, the potential vehicle owner-drivers of tomorrow, have also been crowded out. Most kids I know are reluctant to venture out onto the roads on their bicycles. How will they develop into vehicle drivers in the future?

[rovingeye]

Originally Posted by locusjag

And on a related note - our bicycling kids of today, the potential vehicle owner-drivers of tomorrow, have also been crowded out. Most kids I know are reluctant to venture out onto the roads on their bicycles. How will they develop into vehicle drivers in the future?

I think for this one, we ourselves are partly to blame. As parents, I find we are a little overprotective compared to what our parents were. Let me not generalize, in my specific case, my wife is just too overprotective.

I got my 6 yo girl a nice looking bike and went on our first ride around the block. She fell and hurt herself a bit. I boosted her confidence and she was ok, maybe a little shaken. We get home and my wife gives me a mouthful about how careless I am and how dangerous it is etc etc. And all this in front of the kid.

Next day, I ask my doll, "Should we go out riding?". She goes, "Not in a mood". I'm like -"Whatttt???".

When I was a kid, I used to die to just take my bike and go somewhere and feel the wind in my hair. And my kid is the exact opposite. I feel they're growing up too cocooned and I worry about that a lot.

[Rob UK]

Originally Posted by rovingeye

I got my 6 yo girl a nice looking bike and went on our first ride around the block. She fell and hurt herself a bit. I boosted her confidence and she was ok, maybe a little shaken. We get home and my wife gives me a mouthful about how careless I am and how dangerous it is etc etc. And all this in front of the kid.

This is a standard feature of many women the world over. My Dad was always in trouble with my Mum for letting us do dangerous things.

It all switched around in adulthood & I was in trouble with her for getting my Dad back into motorbikes after a 40 year break

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Its nice to hear the voice of reason once in a while amidst this cacophony of male chauvinism.

True that!

If 2 indian couples are sharing a car, what is the common expectation? The men take the front seats, and the women sit at the back?

This one time, I had one beer while we were out with friends. Wife always drives when we go out. It was an awkward moment when my friend & his wife were suggesting that one beer is nothing and that I should drive. Then, they didn't want me to sit in the back seat. Why?

When my daughter was a toddler, I used to surprise her by sitting next to her in the rear seat, and let my wife drive. Just to break the gender stereotype. For the long run, I don't know if it worked, but both me and my daughter had loved it, & we made good memories. IMHO, the little things we do add up.

[am1m]

Interesting, never knew about Mrs.Benz and her contribution to the automobile!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz

"On 5 August 1888, she was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance, rigorously field testing the patent Motorwagen, inventing brake pads and solving several practical issues during the 65 mile trip."

"Two years before her marriage to Karl Benz, she used part of her dowry to invest in his failing iron construction company. As an unmarried woman, she was able to do so; after she married Benz, according to German law, Bertha lost her legal power to act as an investor."

"In addition to her contributions to the machine’s design, Bertha helped finance the development of the Motorwagen. She would hold patent rights under modern law, however as a married woman she was not allowed to be named as an inventor on the patent at that time."


Unfortunate that even today, we have generalized attitudes towards "women drivers"!

[Enobarbus]

I agree with most of you that in general women drive well within the rules and are not aggressive.

But I had this one experience on a sleepy Sunday morning eight years ago which was quite the opposite. I had the Corolla then and I was driving from Panjagutta towards Secunderabad. Just as I crossed the Begumpet flyover, this red Punto started tailgating me and honking at me. I don't know what I did to offend this driver. The Punto pulled to my side and to my surprise the driver was a lady in her thirties. Apparently, I had pissed her off real bad. She pulled alongside and was driving dangerously close to me while glaring and gesturing with her hands. I tried avoiding eye contact but she overtook me and blocked me and got out of her car to pick a fight. I tried an apologetic smile, but it didn't work. She went off like "just because I am a woman, you think you can drive as you like? who gave you the license?" etc. I was in no mood for a fight. I might find myself in trouble if a crowd gathers. So I just turned and set off. She followed me aggressively, overtook me a couple of times, blocked me, slowed down in front of me and did all the antics that men generally do to a woman driver. This went on until Gymkhana grounds and we had to take a different routes.

Thinking back about it, I guess I did something which was the proverbial last straw for her. I bore the brunt of her wrath which was probably stoked by many male drivers of Hyderabad. Although she picked on the wrong guy, I guess she is entitled to her outburst and release.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Enobarbus

Thinking back about it, I guess I did something which was the proverbial last straw for her. I bore the brunt of her wrath which was probably stoked by many male drivers of Hyderabad. Although she picked on the wrong guy,

Very unfortunate experience. Did she get around to explaining what happened that caused the road rage?

Originally Posted by Enobarbus

I guess she is entitled to her outburst and release.

Wouldn't quite agree, man or woman, no one is entitled to an act of road rage against another driver.

[Enobarbus]

Originally Posted by am1m

Very unfortunate experience. Did she get around to explaining what happened that caused the road rage?

No sir. She didn't stop. Never saw her after that.

Originally Posted by am1m

Wouldn't quite agree, man or woman, no one is entitled to an act of road rage against another driver.

Yes. It was a bad case of road rage.
Since it was a woman, I thought I should give her the benefit of the doubt. It's easy to interpret an innocent error as an act of male chauvinism.

[saket77]

While I would hate to be stereotyping but unfortunately I am little annoyed by some women drivers and riders whom I counter everyday while dropping my wife and daughter to their school. These days, it has become a norm to pick up and drop their child to school or to the bus stop by women riding their scooty.

Though we all would agree that there are also men/ boys who are also bad drivers but the dangerous trend I am seeing in tier-II cities is that many women feel that just knowing the basics that accelerating takes your scooty forward and pressing the brake lever stops it; they take the risk of riding on the road without knowing the basic etiquette of riding or driving.

I am a defensive driver and everyday I see some of these women overtaking me from left and right without judging the distance and speed of oncoming vehicles. I would also like to share today's morning incident when I was on the way to drop my fellows to the school. There is this narrow road where a women trailing my car was ferrying two of her kids on her scooty (all 3 without helmet). Since this was a narrow lane, she couldn't overtake me for a while. This narrow lanes then leads to a sort of blind curve where I further reduce my speed, honked and get to the left side of the road and voila! She sees and opportunity to overtake me and she did overtake me on the blind curve without realizing that there could have been an oncoming vehicle. Good for her that there wasn't any but that was a dangerous maneuver. What is most dangerous is that she did not even realize it! This is also the fault of whoever taught her riding but then such people should also apply some common sense. Unfortunately, there are lot many examples that I see everyday and seeing them err so much on basics has made me wary of them. Whenever I see a woman riding or driving well, my respect for them goes up. That is my personal experience in the place I live. Of course, I don't paint them all in the same colour.

Regards,
Saket

[Aiel]

Originally Posted by am1m

Interesting, never knew about Mrs.Benz and her contribution to the automobile!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz

Here's a video on Bertha Benz's journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4PKbHvOVgM

[NPV]

Originally Posted by am1m

Interesting, never knew about Mrs.Benz and her contribution to the automobile!

Then you missed this recent Team BHP thread - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...rip-world.html (Bertha Benz: Lady who drove the first road-trip in the world!)