Friday, November 16, 2007

Men vs. Women Drivers

The majority of guys will tell you women are much worse at driving than men are. I disagree. I think men and women are equally bad at driving. We just get there in different ways.

When women do something stupid while driving it's accidental, usually because they weren't paying attention or they made a bad spatial or timing judgement. When men do something stupid, it's intentional. We know it's not a good idea, but we're going to do it anyway.

For instance, a woman will cut you off, causing you to slam on your brakes and risk losing control of your car, because she gave only a cursory glance (if she gave one at all) over her shoulder to check her blind spot. A man will cut you off, causing you to slam on your brakes and risk losing control of your car, simply because he wanted to be in front of you.

I'm not sure which is worse. Though men get frustrated that some women don't seem to have the mental capacity for good driving, we in turn may have the capacity but don't use it. What does that say about us?

As validation of this point I would bring up the fact that insurance companies charge more to insure young men than young women. Not because men are worse drivers, but because they know men are going to try stupider things. For instance, you never see women pulling this kind of crap:

1 comment:

Beau Sorensen said...

I think you're right. Men are far more agressive than women which causes the men to be worse drivers in some sense. Of course, men don't apply makeup, blowdry their hair, or paint their nails in the car, getting rid of that advantage they had.
It's the same way with directions. Men are worse in that we don't ever ask for directions, but women are worse in that they can't read maps.