h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But I have to break ranks and say that women are the better drivers.

I, sadly, have failed my test three times and for your amusement I will tell you how:

The First Time:

I ran a red light. I took lessons in Stevenage where there are no traffic lights but I sat my test in another town, forgot about the existence of the signals and jumped the light. The sad thing is that I thought I had done really rather well.

The Second Time:

I crashed. but only a little one. We were coming up to a roundabout, there was a car in front and I momentarily forgot which pedal did what, so I guessed - incorrectly. It was only a bump but I still failed.

The Third Time:

I went on to the pavement. I forgot I was in a test, leant over to put the radio on, got distracted bu trying to tune it and mounted the kerb, narrowly missing becoming a permanent window display. I was told, and I quote:

"Get of the Car! You're a danger to your self and every other driver on the road."

I took the hint.

My mother, however, passed her test while she was heavily pregnant with my sister and is now an advanced driver. It doesn't stop her swearing like a trooper at anyone who dares cross her path.

"But I have to break ranks and say that women are the better drivers".

Ashley I think you meant women are better drivers than you.

*makes note never to get a lift from Ashley*

I think my dog could drive better than me...

*makes note to accept lifts from Ashley's dog*

Ashley - you say you took lessons - who from? Whoever it was didn't do much of a job. I was an instructor for 7 years, and I would never have dreamt of letting somebody sit a driving test who had never experienced traffic lights. Or roundabouts, or one-way systems, or dual carriageways or anything else they might find on the road. It's no wonder you keep failing.

I never had anybody suffer a walkback (where the examiner abandons the test) or have any kind of an accident on test - that's because I wouldn't let anybody take the test in my car unless I thought they were safe.

I was also honest - occasionally I'd meet somebody for whom it would be cheaper to take taxis everywhere for the rest of their life than to learn to drive - I'd tell them. Actually, I'd usually advise them to try lessons in an automatic - it's a lot easier.

Still, if your dog drives you home it means you can have a drink!

It all depends on the classification of better.

I think if you generalise (which I don't like doing ), women are safer drivers, but also slower . So that's not necessarily better

What I get irritated about is this certain class of bad drivers - they're bloody everwhere. They don't signal, take up multiple lanes, take ages to accelerate, then they speed suddenly but the moment a 50mph speed limit is reached decide 30mph is the way to go - in the middle lane!!

women are safer drivers cuz they are, in general, slow as a sloth.

men are better drivers cuz they can actually get where they want to get with little pain and hassle...

peace.

But men *don't* get there without pain and hassle. Take it from one who endired a 135-mile round trip to the office: men commuting is a recipe for ulcers. Too much stress, too much competitiveness.

And even then, I regularly get to work on my bicycle faster than men in cars can do the same trip. I overtake a car in Reading and overtake it again in the traffic jam in Henley. Happens all the time.

Women are better drivers because they are more likely to just quietly get on with it and not turn the whole process into some kind of competition.

and the problem with competition is...?

maybe most people just can't endure long bike rides?

peace.

Hmm I think this whole debate is based on old gender generalisations that are becoming less and less true, the old perceptions of "competetive men" and "careful women" still apply to an extent but are eroding more and more.

The stereotypes certainly don't apply in my family: My mother drives very competively, and could probablly park on a 20 pence coin, while my father is the exact oposite; I like to imagine that I fall somewhere in the middle...

There will always be bad drivers, a friend had to pause her driving test when a lorry knocked her wing mirror off while she was waiting at the traffic lights she still passed

I've taken four driving tests in my life. Three for motorcycle licence and once for my car licence.
I've failed one of the tests (the 125+cc motorcycle test) because of a simple, slow speed manouvre that I just froze while doing, botched it a couple of times and then because of that failed the whole test as a result. The problem with that was that that manouvre was the first thing you have to do, so it was a matter of paying the full fee for about ten minutes worth of testing, then going home again.
Second time round I had no problems at all with that manouvre and passed the test with no problems.

My car licence test was a bit different, to say the least. after about five minutes of driving I had to do a three-point turn, however, it became a five point turn where I backed into a wall. It was a little nudge because I wanted to make sure that I got round on the second go, but it was still a bump into the wall. It had the effect on me that I figures that I'd never pass after bumping into a wall, and therefor I became less tense and just tried to use the time I had in the car as a regular driving lesson. Apparently, the way I drove after that little bump was enough to convince the driving instructor to pass me, cause I didn't do anything else wrong during that entire test.