Low male opinion of female drivers

Shirley Dixon, Gleaner Writer

Today Automotives begins a five-part series in which one woman gives her perspective and experiences with driving. It begins with her canvassing men's generally low opinions of female drivers. Starting next week, she will tell all from her personal vantage point behind the wheel.

We've all heard or seen the jokes about women drivers - "they can't park", "they drive away with the gas nozzle still attached to the car", "they get themselves into crazy fender-benders" - the list goes on. I recently overheard a group of male extremists at work having an after-lunch discussion. Surprisingly, with a general election in the air and the Christmas season in jeopardy, they were sharing not-too-complimentary opinions about women drivers.

"One thing I know, they are selfish, they don't give a bye and I will not confine this to a geographic region," said the one who seemed to be least vocal of the group. "They turn without indicating; when them do put on the indicator they are not sure whether it should be right or left. Women have a serious problem right there so," quipped the one who is not too sure he wants a bald head or a Mohawk hairstyle.

"All I know women nuh fe get drivers' licence! The only place a woman must be in a car is in the passenger seat!" roared the burly one, who elicited kudos from the group for making that statement he thought profound.

"Women, they cause a lot of accidents, but are rarely involved in one," said another. "That's because they are selfish. Most of them are blinkered," came the rejoinder from the lanky one.

The consensus from this group, and other male drivers with whom I spoke, is that women make nuisances of themselves on the road daily. That they "love to drive big vehicles, SUVs, but cannot manage them". That they cannot park and have difficulties with parallel parking, especially.

"They park 'scatter corner'," one experienced driver said. He related seeing an SUV parked diagonally, occupying two spaces in a bank's car park, and musing "it must be a woman". He waited patiently to see the driver of the vehicle and "lo and behold, it was a woman".

"No man nuh park so," he said.

According to this driver, who has had more than 30 years driving company vehicles, female drivers drive men crazy in different ways. "For example," he said, "men take chances and they know they are taking chances, but many women are reckless without consciously thinking about what they are doing, like flying around you around a corner."

"Some of them brake up if them see a mosquito in front of them; that will cause accidents", he said.

On another level, some men - and even women too - agreed that many female drivers behave like they have a score to settle or something to prove. "It's as if they are saying 'I am equally as good', so they will prevent you from overtaking, even when they are crawling. They tend to be defensive and overly aggressive, because they believe men think they are inferior drivers and they have to prove them wrong," said another male motorist.

"plenty" problems

Top traffic cop Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis reinforces some of the negative opinions of female drivers, while noting some exceptions. Lewis said there are "plenty" problems with female drivers as "there is a culture of discourtesy in that they don't give 'blighs'". Plus, he said, "they are caught speeding more on a proportional level, especially the young female drivers".

Among the more common infractions are breaking stop signs. Lewis also said he has found female drivers have less knowledge of the road-traffic laws than men.

However, he notes that when they are stopped by the police female drivers are "very polite. They have a lot of excuses and some of them really seem believable". Plus, in terms of travelling with their vehicle's documents, women are far better than men - as they are at paying traffic tickets.

However, Lewis said some women are very cautious - "too cautious sometimes and because of this they cause accidents".

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