# Who are better drivers...men or women?



## terrib (Jul 28, 2010)

*The Answer Is ...*
In a study released by Quality Planning, an analytics company that validates policyholder information for auto insurers, women came out on top.

The study analyzed different kinds of vehicle code violations (traffic violations) and then compared how many times men were cited versus women. The conclusion was that men break more traffic laws and drive more dangerously than women. Because they violate laws designed to make the roads safer, men cause more accidents and expensive damage.

Want to challange that? Take the test and let's compare...I um...failed..I got a 4 out of 10....and I have never had an accident. The last speeding ticket I had was 28 years ago. 

Are You a Good Driver?


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## Sam (Jul 28, 2010)

The reason we cause so many accidents is because we're sitting behind women who won't get out of the way.  :lol:


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## Baron (Jul 28, 2010)

My aunt drove for more than forty years without an accident.  She saw thousands in her rear view mirror.


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## terrib (Jul 28, 2010)

Ha! Ha!...put your money where your mouth is and take the test, Sammy...it is only ten questions...click on, Are You a Good Driver, above^.


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## Sam (Jul 28, 2010)

Haha! I got 7/10 and it still reckons I should hand over my licence. Excuse me while I go pay a visit to my local DVLNI and throw it on their desk.


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## Baron (Jul 28, 2010)

Sam W said:


> Haha! I got 7/10 and it still reckons I should hand over my licence. Excuse me while I go pay a visit to my local DVLNI and throw it on their desk.


 
I've heard that Ireland is planning to switch from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right.  It's being done in two stages, starting with buses and trucks.


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## Patrick (Jul 28, 2010)

They're all hostiles to a cyclist. Both men and women tend to be really aggressive when they get behind the wheel but male truck drivers have to be the worst. I used to make a sport of overtaking male lorry drivers on technical descents just to wind them up. Some of them think it's an outrage to be overtaken on a descent by a cyclist and blast their horn in response and speed up for some reason. The male competitive instinct.


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## Ilasir Maroa (Jul 28, 2010)

I got a 4/10, but then, I don't have a license.

BTW, you need an 8/10 to keep your license.


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## Patrick (Jul 28, 2010)

Ilasir Maroa said:


> I got a 4/10


 

Muhaha, I beat you by 2.


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## alanmt (Jul 28, 2010)

I am a fair driver. Good may be a bit of a stretch. I have cut down on my reading while driving.


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## vangoghsear (Jul 28, 2010)

7/10 and It told me I was a good driver.  I think the ones missed determine if it asks you to turn in your license.  



> Congratulations, you got 7/10 correct.
> You're a good driver - at least, when you want to be.


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## Sam (Jul 28, 2010)

That's strange. 7/10 and it told me to hand my licence over. It must know I'm a bad driver. :lol:


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## Like a Fox (Jul 28, 2010)

I got 8/10, and I think I stuffed one up with the side-of-the-road stuff.

I'm a good driver. Though my caution and calm are often overtaken by ambition and impatience.


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## Deleted member 33527 (Jul 28, 2010)

I got 8/10, haha! I've never gotten a ticket, never been stopped by a cop, never gotten close to being in an accident.

However, I don't have a license. Just a permit. That alone might put me in the "bad driver" category. I'd be in a lot of troube if I did get stopped by a cop.


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## Gumby (Jul 28, 2010)

I got the same message as van, with a 7/10. (hey for california that's good)


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## Eluixa (Jul 28, 2010)

Failed. Five out of ten. I am a very cautious driver and will sit and wait patiently for my turn, but I make decisions according to the circumstances too. If there is nobody for miles on a desert road, I am not going to sit at a red light. However, I did get a ticket for just slowing through a stopsign as a kid, lol. Unfortunately, the only other person on the road for miles, was a cop, and he was behind me.


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## garza (Jul 28, 2010)

I got eight out of ten, but the darn thing didn't tell me which ones I missed.

My mother learned to drive in 1918 when she started dating my dad. She drove herself to the hospital in 1980 and died there of colon cancer. 

During her life she drove a lot, and she drove fast. My parents last vehicle was a '79 Plymouth hemi-head van which my dad claimed my mother would hold on 90 for mile after mile on interstates, saying that 100 was too fast, though the van was capable and she did top it from time to time.

She never got a ticket in her life. Not a parking ticket, not a speeding ticket. She never had an accident, not even a little one. 

My mother was a year younger than my dad, and when he hit 75 she wouldn't let him drive anymore, saying he was too old. When my dad was 80 they took their last trip up the east coast, through Tennessee, the Carolinas, Washington, and New York, because my dad wanted to travel over Skyline Drive one last time, they both wanted to see relatives in DC, and my mother wanted to have her hair done in the beauty salon in the lobby of the Empire State Building one last time. My dad said she just wanted to prove she could still handle New York City traffic.

They both died the next year, three days apart. The day after my mother's funeral my dad went to bed early and never woke up. They had been married 60 years and had dated for two years before that. Neither could ever have survived without the other.


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## The Backward OX (Jul 29, 2010)

> she just wanted to prove she could still handle New York City traffic.


How many NYC cab drivers does it take to change a light bulb?

None a your bidnezz. Ged oudda my way.


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## The Backward OX (Jul 29, 2010)

Baron said:


> I've heard that Ireland is planning to switch from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right. It's being done in two stages, starting with buses and trucks.


 
That one's got whiskers:

http://www.writingforums.com/writers-workshop/105577-nigerian-road-humour-940-words.html#post1243050


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## The Backward OX (Jul 29, 2010)

Mermaid on the breakwater said:


> I used to make a sport of overtaking male lorry drivers on technical descents just to wind them up.


What's a technical descent?


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## The Backward OX (Jul 29, 2010)

Eluixa said:


> If there is nobody for miles on a desert road, I am not going to sit at a red light.


 
America has traffic lights in deserts? Maybe they're expecting the Road Runner.


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## Eluixa (Jul 29, 2010)

The Backward OX said:


> America has traffic lights in deserts? Maybe they're expecting the Road Runner.



Nah, you did not read right. I said stopsign. Just like that, forgetting to separate the two words. What is with you that you did not catch that? Are you sleepy?


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## Eluixa (Jul 29, 2010)

Oh, I guess I did say that, but I meant the stopsign from when I was young. I guess it's me that's tired. And I watched an awful lot of the roadrunner too.


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## ash somers (Jul 29, 2010)

hmph, i got 4, i'm surprised i'm even admitting it - are the road rules different in australia?


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## spider8 (Jul 29, 2010)

I got 5/10 but didn't understand a lot of the questions, like the flashing red light. We only have something similar in the UK at level crossings.

In our Highway code, when I was learning to drive, they had a section at the back called 'Custom and Common Sense', that they don't have now. It said that although braking distances were specified, if you stick to them you will often get overtaken and it said to use some common sense (although it didn't actuall say to ignore them). My common sense told me that if the car in front was liable to hit a brick wall then I'll keep to the specified distance (even though modern cars can brake a lot faster). If the car in front is in no danger of hitting a brick wall (or oncoming traffic) then I don't need to stick to the braking distance.

My common sense also says the if the speed limit is 20mph because it's a school road, you can ignore it at 2 o'clock in the morning. But the pedants would say to hand in my licence. Also, if there's a 30mph limit and the car in front is doing 25mph, it's a lot safer overtaking that car at 35mph than 29mph.

I can imagine men will cause more accidents because men drive more, even as a job. If a woman stops at a junction with a stop sign that you can see is clear (you're driving behind her) a lot of men won't expect her to stop and will drive into the back of her, and the law will say he's wrong (and indeed he is, just like I'm wrong doing 21mph on a school road at 2am). I'm more likely to drive into the back of a male driver who does this because I won't be totally ready for this.

Of course there are great women drivers and poor male ones. But women have taught me to be prejudiced.


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## TruthSeeker (Jul 29, 2010)

I'm glad they didn't run those tests over here when I got my licenses. 5 rights, and I guessed most of them.
After having more taxis in town, everything became complicated about driving.
I bet half of the men were either taxi drivers or violated law because of them.


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## spider8 (Jul 29, 2010)

"Women - For pity's sake. DON'T DRIVE!" -  (Harry Enfield & Chums.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39qdhbkTko4&feature=related

"Women - Know your limits."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w


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## ross (Jul 29, 2010)

Men are far better at parking - which I think that has been scientifically proven. They also handle sweeping generalizations better...


ahem...


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## Like a Fox (Jul 29, 2010)

ash somers said:


> hmph, i got 4, i'm surprised i'm even admitting it - are the road rules different in australia?


Haha! Man, please let me know next time you're headin' to the big smoke, and I'll be sure to warn my fellow drivers to get off the road.


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## Gumby (Jul 29, 2010)

ash somers said:


> hmph, i got 4, i'm surprised i'm even admitting it - are the road rules different in australia?


 
_They got road rules in australia? 
_


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## JosephB (Jul 29, 2010)

No. Haven't you ever seen Mad Max?


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## Patrick (Jul 29, 2010)

The Backward OX said:


> What's a technical descent?


 

One with lots of turns that go beyond 90 degrees. We call them technical because you need to know how to enter and exit corners properly to go fast. 


Remember, if you receive a low score on the test, it's just the test that fails. You always know best. :wink:


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## vangoghsear (Jul 29, 2010)

Gumby said:


> _They got road rules in australia?
> _


 Only one.

Rule #1  "Largest vehicle has right of way."


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## Kat (Jul 29, 2010)

7/10 says I'm a good driver, when I want to be. 

Looking at my marriage, my husband has 14 tickets on his record. He's been in three accidents where he was the driver. Did I mention he's only in his mid-30's. 

Whereas I had one ticket, speeding. Washington state has odd speed limits compared to Oregon. And the only accident I've been in is hitting a deer. 

If you ask my husband he will still say that he is the better driver, lol.


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## Foxee (Jul 29, 2010)

Kat said:


> If you ask my husband he will still say that he is the better driver, lol.


I bet he'd say he always knows where he's going, too.


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## JosephB (Jul 29, 2010)

I'm thinking GPS has probably saved a lot of marriages.


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## Foxee (Jul 29, 2010)

Possibly a marketing campaign waiting to happen.


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## garza (Jul 29, 2010)

Digging back a short time I found an article I remembered seeing from the ABC.

ABC The Drum Unleashed - The Emperor's New Clothes: lycra lunacy

So Ox may be in more danger from a careless cyclist than from a woman, ah, that is, from a vehicle driver. According to the article, cyclists are not required to have third-party insurance, so broken bones are your problem unless you can win in court.


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## JosephB (Jul 29, 2010)

Foxee said:


> Possibly a marketing campaign waiting to happen.



I bet someone's had it on the drawing board at some point.

I'm the opposite of the stereotype. Growing up, I watched my dad drive around aimlessly,  time and again, while my mom fumed. Eventually it would erupt into an argument. I vowed to always stop and ask for directions.

But even with good directions, I can get lost. I have a terrible sense of direction and easily get turned around in my head. I think it's related somehow to my dyslexia -- so the GPS has been a real godsend.


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## Blood (Jul 30, 2010)

Foxee said:


> I bet he'd say he always knows where he's going, too.


From now on, you can change your own flat tire!


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## Foxee (Jul 30, 2010)

Blood said:


> From now on, you can change your own flat tire!


Uh oh...now I've done it!


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## Blood (Jul 30, 2010)

Let's see here...women drivers...​
















Oh yea, women are definitely better drivers, no doubt about it!   ​



​


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## ArcThomas (Jul 30, 2010)

I got a 6/10
regardless a test doesn't make you a good driver. Fact Over Theory.
Neither women or men are better. they both suck. the difference is during these studies the population is not being tested as a whole. I know way more good male driver's, but that is not to say guys drive better or worse.
The problem is people have come to think driving the law is driving good. No. Driving Good si driving good. You can drive the law and be a complete fool. But someone who truelly drives good has no need of the Law.
So seeing as I'm male. men drive better.


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## The Backward OX (Jul 31, 2010)

The fact that Q1 is unanswerable should have alerted you lot to the further fact that the entire test is a load of rubbish.


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## Olly Buckle (Jul 31, 2010)

Much too American to make sense for me, the only yellow lines we have are parking restrictions for a start. And what sort of English is this? "If you are driving 40 mph, how much far away should the car in front of you be?" 


 I did take the trouble to read the Irish equivilant of the highway code before I drove there, it did not prepare me for the series of signs on the steep hill which repeatedly said "SLOW" in the road, followed by one that said "SLOWER". Like the missus said, "How did they know".


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## Patrick (Jul 31, 2010)

Olly Buckle said:


> Much too American to make sense for me, the only yellow lines we have are parking restrictions for a start. And what sort of English is this? "If you are driving 40 mph, how much far away should the car in front of you be?"
> 
> 
> I did take the trouble to read the Irish equivilant of the highway code before I drove there, it did not prepare me for the series of signs on the steep hill which repeatedly said "SLOW" in the road, followed by one that said "SLOWER". Like the missus said, "How did they know".



Where I cycle, they position the "SLOW" so it's facing towards you as you're climbing the hill. It all seems very ironic then. I can't think why they'd do that when most cars are stuck in first gear trying to get to the top, and some of the coaches actually stall completely.


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## Olly Buckle (Jul 31, 2010)

Mermaid on the breakwater said:


> Where I cycle, they position the "SLOW" so it's facing towards you as you're climbing the hill. It all seems very ironic then. I can't think why they'd do that when most cars are stuck in first gear trying to get to the top, and some of the coaches actually stall completely.



That reminds me of a village in Derbyshire where we holidayed, as you came out of the village there was a no speed limit sign (as it was in those days), followed directly by a hairpin bend and a steep hill.


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## Foxee (Jul 31, 2010)

Mermaid on the breakwater said:


> Where I cycle, they position the "SLOW" so it's facing towards you as you're climbing the hill. It all seems very ironic then. I can't think why they'd do that when most cars are stuck in first gear trying to get to the top, and some of the coaches actually stall completely.


 Maybe it was a comment instead of an instruction.


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## ash somers (Jul 31, 2010)

garza said:


> Digging back a short time I found an article I remembered seeing from the ABC.
> 
> ABC The Drum Unleashed - The Emperor's New Clothes: lycra lunacy
> 
> *So Ox may be in more danger from a careless cyclist than from a woman, ah, that is, from a vehicle driver.* According to the article, cyclists are not required to have third-party insurance, so broken bones are your problem unless you can win in court.



Oh, that's hilarious! 

As a woman and a cyclist (I don't think I'm careless though, but perhaps that's debatable) it would appear I'm double-trouble on the roads. Couple that with my abysmal score of 4 and well, all I can say is ...

Oxy-pooh, If I'm ever in your area, give me a wide berth and lookout! I'm a com'in to getchya for my big insurance pay out!


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## Patrick (Jul 31, 2010)

ash somers said:


> Oh, that's hilarious!
> 
> As a woman and a cyclist (I don't think I'm careless though, but perhaps that's debatable) it would appear I'm double-trouble on the roads. Couple that with my abysmal score of 4 and well, all I can say is ...
> 
> Oxy-pooh, If I'm ever in your area, give me a wide berth and lookout! I'm a com'in to getchya for my big insurance pay out!



If you hit the Ox you will go head first over the handlebars and Ox won't even realise you bumped into him.


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## Olly Buckle (Aug 1, 2010)

In London approx 50 cyclist a year die under the wheels of lorries turning left, about 45 of them are women. It seems that it is not that women are more careless, but that men are more willing to break the rules and cut the corner on the pavement. Watch out ash.


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## ash somers (Aug 1, 2010)

Wow, I guess it's lucky I don't live in London, heh!



> If you hit the Ox you will go head first over the handlebars and Ox won't even realise you bumped into him.


Don't worry, I'll get his number plate. I have eyes like a hawk and memory like an elephant.

And then I'll get Alan on the job, it will be all over bar the shouting and before he can say

_That blasted sheila from down south did clean me out! _- buwahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!


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## The Backward OX (Aug 1, 2010)

ash somers said:


> Don't worry, I'll get his number plate. I have eyes like a hawk and memory like an elephant.


Would it surprise you to learn that my rego number (Amer. license plate) for the past 49 years has been *XO.001*?

XO.001


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## ash somers (Aug 1, 2010)

no, not surprised at all, what does surprise me is that you still have your driver's licence  *runs*


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## The Backward OX (Aug 1, 2010)

Olly Buckle said:


> In London approx 50 cyclist a year die under the wheels of lorries turning left, about 45 of them are women. It seems that it is not that women are more careless, but that men are more willing to break the rules and cut the corner on the pavement. Watch out ash.


 
I don't follow this. What could the truck driver have done differently, that would have prevented the incident? Turned left from the right-hand lane perhaps, as if he was in America? Of course the woman in such a case is careless. Every thinking person knows that trucks and corners are a bad combination.

Oh, sorry, I did say every THINKING person. That excludes a certain 50% of the population.


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## Olly Buckle (Aug 1, 2010)

> What could the truck driver have done differently,



Check his mirror certainly, possibly indicated as well, remember 'mirror, indicate, manoeuvre'?

For those of you who drive on the wrong side a little reminder that we drive on the left in England.


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## Patrick (Aug 1, 2010)

Olly Buckle said:


> In London approx 50 cyclist a year die under the wheels of lorries turning left, about 45 of them are women. It seems that it is not that women are more careless, but that men are more willing to break the rules and cut the corner on the pavement. Watch out ash.



That's why it always annoys me when people complain about cyclists who traffic hop (I do it all the time to put myself in a safe position), or break the odd rule by going across a bit of pavement. These people just have no idea what it's like to be on a bike when there are raving loonies who think it's OK to come from the wrong lane at roundabouts, and expect you, as the cyclist to give way when they're in a half a tonne killing machine, and the cyclist is on a flimsy bit of carbon fibre, and has nothing for protection other than a helmet, and others who think it is OK to overtake in the narrowest of roads and almost touch you as they go by. And these people still complain about cyclists even when they read or see reports of cyclists dying as a result of driver impatience. The funny thing is, most drivers have nothing but bad things to say about cyclists, but if you ever see a cyclist blow a tire or have a mechanical problem, if there's another regular cyclist in the area, they'll usually come over and help with the problem. Beats the usual road rage and absolute intolerance for anybody else drivers usually have on the road.


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## BitofanInkling (Aug 21, 2010)

I'm not a good driver, thanks to my anxiety.  I'll get there eventually though, it's a matter of practice.


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