I’m not sure I should answer this question.
‘Pft, women drivers!’
It’s an age-old trope that women are the more hazardous sex behind the wheel while men are the prime species when it comes to driving standards.
But not only is this gender stereotype dead – or at least dying, we hope – it is also statistically untrue.
In fact, if you deep dive into official motoring conviction data and road casualty figures you’ll find that our streets would be far safer if only women were allowed to drive…
Last Thursday I was knocked off my motorcycle while out training. We had stopped at the end of the road, turning left. My two trainees emerged onto the major road but there wasn’t a sufficient gap for me to follow, so I briefed them to look for somewhere safe and wait for me to catch them up. Meanwhile, I was aware that the vehicle behind me was now coming up along side me on my offside. At first I thought it might be going right. Instead, it turned left, catching the offside of the bike and ditching me into the kerb.
Last month, I was travelling along a fairly narrow road with cars parked on either side, following a Range Rover. As is my habit, I was maintaining a decent distance. The Range Rover stopped because the oncoming bus was unable to get through the gap and neither could the Range Rover. The Range Rover reversed and continued to do so until its bumper made contact with my front wheel. Fortunately, by then my shouts of ‘STOP!’ had the desired effect and I managed to remain on the bike.
Prior to that, the only accident I’d had on a bike involving another vehicle was a standard SMIDSY at a junction where the driver emerged and I collided with the front of the car some forty years ago.
In two of those incidents, I was stationary. In all three I was not remotely at fault. In all three, the other drivers were women.
Okay, this is purely anecdotal, but the idea that road safety is gender specific is utter bullshit. Mind you, if only women drove, none of those accidents would have happened because I wouldn’t have been there to be knocked off, having been prohibited from riding due to my accident of birth.
These people are morons. Statistics are meaningless junk.
And have you ever noticed that female drivers tend to be a little less, shall we say, polite when you give way to them? Men always seem to flash lights, wave & acknowledge you if you let them pass, women I find only half the time, especially older women.
It’s because they dare not take one hand off the wheel to wave and probably didn’t see you anyway, as they are only interested in the next 3 metres directly in front of them. Mirrors are totally redundant, except for applying lipstick, whilst texting.
I also notice they are less likely to let you out at junctions. Whenever someone flashes you to go, it’s almost always a man
I tend to find that it’s a rough 50/50 split sex-wise as to who lets me out at junctions. The big difference I find is between those who are professional drivers and those who are not.
In France the worst drivers are young women. They drive too fast and too close behind other cars. (In fact, most French drivers, male or female, young and old, drive to close behind.)
My wife is as safe a driver as I am, we both have a pretty perfect record. The rare odd incident were the other driver was at fault but nothing more. However, I drive far more than she does. I’ve worked for many years in jobs that involved driving from one end of the country to the other. If we go anywhere together I will usually drive. If you are going to base your calculations on the actual figures you need to take such things into account.
Which they don’t, hence it’s all bollocks on stilts.
My wife has an infallible technique at roundabouts. She waits intil it’s not safe to go, then she doesn’t go.
Does she ever drive in the UK? I’ve definitely been stuck behind someone like her during my motoring career!
I’ve kept a log of occasions where what I was driving must have been wearing a cloak of invisibility: there have been fourteen occasions since 1971. Woman pulled out into the path of my orange beetle in 1977: clear view, low speed, damaged both. Another woman pulled out into the side of my black Saab 9-3, writing off the Saab and her Fiesta: clear view, she crossed a dual carriageway to reach me. The last one was almost funny but could have been tragic. Stopped at a T junction to turn right and was tboned from the left by a toddler on an electric trike. No damage was done to either but I was less than polite to the woman who was in charge of him. All the rest were blokes just to satisfy the statistics.
Around here well paid hubby takes the small car for part or all of his commute leaving wifey with the big 4×4. Bought for status reasons by that same hubby. She, wifey, finds it a handful, trying to peer through the steering wheel, and is terrified of scratching her beloved’s pride and joy. So she drives worse than a learner.
Do Range Rovers not have rear facing video cameras? But which of all those buttons, switches and knobs activate that camera view?
Try driving in Bradford! It’s why I never learnt…wild, wild west
Perhaps something more of the wild, wild east?
I found learning to drive and driving in Bradford (and riding motorbikes there) really helped my driving.
You have to develop a sixth sense of what’s about to happen.
It also instills a sense of knowing when you need to be assertive and command the road space.
Plus, you learn to rely on judging people’s speed to tell if they’re braking, not just their brake lights. Not after a load of a certain demographic were disconnecting their brake lights and stopping in front of people so they got rear ended and a new car/injury claim
What frustrates me is the police’s attitude to these ‘bumps’. Ten years ago I was driving over a rural crossroads, with right of way, and a woman driving a Waitrose van emerged from the side road without stopping and slammed into my offside front. Both vehicles written off. A bystander called the police; they sent a PCSO who handed out safety leaflets and then went home. No hint of a prosecution, even though it was completely obvious who was at fault, and if she’d arrived at the crossroads half a second later I could have been killed. They didn’t even breathalyse her. And yet if you stick your nose one metre into a yellow hatched box with cameras, it’s an automatic £60 fine … rising to £200 if you’re on holiday and don’t get the FPN in time, as I know to my cost.
I seem to recall an actual analysis of male vs female accidents from donkey’s years ago was that women were involved in more crashes (mostly due to inattention), but these were low-speed resulting in minor damage.
Men were involved in fewer crashes, but these tended to be of greater severity and cost, with speed and excessive risk taking (attempting to pass between cars while overtaking kind of thing) being the key factor.
I think this was from General Accident insurance where my ex worked, but as I said, probably donkey’s years ago.
Doubt much has changed other than the fact they no longer do this sort of analysis, since it’s clearly sexist / misogynistic / patriarchal kind of thing.
I think such an analysis today would find a three way split: climate change: racism; colonialism.
It would conducted by an esteemed seat of learning (a current “university” which was formerly a prison) by an extremely gifted, 16 year old “professor of colour”.
The solution would be obvious: a more stringent driving test and higher insurance premiums (and penalties) for the white male racist, colonialist patriarchy. None of these things (and a free car) for oppressed “people of colour” which would be (a small part) of their due “reparations”.
Oh, and abolish the MOT for same, as proper maintenance is, of course, another symbol of “white supremacy”.
As are cars and roads, but best not to mention that.
You heard it here first, but it was actually first proposed by jamiacan “philosophers” in the 18th century (sorry, third century. The world began in 1619)
We will never know because any analysis will be tainted by the wokesters.
and which one does people like Caitlin Jenner qualify for? Male or Female?
Quite so. If you can’t answer the question “What is a woman” without using the term “identifies” then you’re gonna be screwed doing statistical analysis.
They’d need to take their socks off for numbers between 10 and 20 anyway.
I thought a bit more about this after an experience yesterday.
Driving down the road behind a car. Next thing I find I’m catching up. So I say looks like they are turning right here. Next thing about 10 yards before the junction brakes come on and then as the car starts to turn the indicators go on. Was a woman driver. That is very common. Also they tend to drive about 10 mph below the limit. As speedos are usually out by a few mph, calibrated by my GPS, it means they force people like me to overtake them when I really don’t want to. More accidents.
I suspect that men may be involved in more accidents but I’m confident that most are caused by indecisive drivers of which there are plenty women. They then drive off as they are not actually involved in the accident.
Although TBH I have noticed a lot of younger male drives, usually with neatly trimmed beards, doing exactly the same things. The downfall of men is well underway.
Lord T,
Just because they have neatly trimmed beards, doesn’t necessarily mean they are men, these days.