Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Female drivers & rules of the road?

Not a rant here, just an observation.

I've seen six near-accidents over the last week, all at the fault of young to middle-aged women drivers. None were really due to overly reckless driving or speeding, but simply not driving defensively or understanding basic rules. Most of the extreme dangerous driving I see is committed by males, doing things like running red lights, passing in no-passing zones, and other willful and aggressive acts. These persons are endangering everybody else on the road, but at least they don't make up a sizable percentage of drivers.

I know quite a few women who I'd classify as having "logic-based" thinking, and they practically never have accidents, but I sure do see a lot of women these days thinking they have the right of way with no green arrow, turning out of order at 4-way stops, pulling out in front of traffic without looking, driving at full speed down the center turn lane, and crossing the highway centerline while putting on makeup or talking on the phone. Several of the instances I saw this past week could have been really bad if the other drivers hadn't been driving defensively.

Anybody else notice this happening more frequently? Are these drivers just more distracted than their male counterparts or do they maybe not have a real understanding of basic driving rules? Lots of real jack-wagon male drivers are certainly out there, but they sure seem to be outnumbered by pleasant young women that just aren't paying attention......

Picture this. You are in the right lane driving a 26 wheel semi weighing 100,000 pounds. You are doing the speed limit. I Jetta comes down the freeway entrance ramp behind you and there is plenty of room, maybe ten truck lengths of open space for the Jetta to merge but in your mirror you see it driving down the shoulder of the freeway on your right side. Is it passes you you see a blond woman driving with a cell phone in one hand and "talking" in the air with the other hand. There are two baby seats in the back seat. She pulls into your lane as soon as she pulls in front of you so close you cannot see the lights on the back of the Jetta then she puts on the breaks and slows to ten under the speed limit.

When I was driving this was a real situation averaging at least three times a day. I thank God I never hurt anyone nor did I ever have an accident but I have slid loads trying to stop aand keep from running them over.

Distracted driving seems to be on the increase amoungst female drivers, the vast majority of female drivers that I pass on the road are occupied with the cell phone. Seems they feel they aren't distracted by talking/texting and cannot bring themselves to put the phone down while driving. Add this to the fact that incresingly they are driving large SUVs at or above the speed limit. They seem to feel that yellow/red lights are an inconvenience and they blow thru them at ever increasing rates of speed. They drive in a non-defensive mode seeming to feel entitled
to drive however suits them with little regard for the safety of others with whom they share the road.

I know a guy who used to drive a log truck and he often said the same thing. He said he nearly rear ended lots of women who would simply pull right out in front of his fully-loaded truck. Maybe they didn't understand Newton's First Law of Motion?

This too is meant to be observation rather than rant. There are plenty of male driver's who are a danger on the road for reasons ranging from incompetence to [bleep], but there is just something "different" about many female drivers, usually those of a young age. It seems to me that more than distractedness the problem lies with a lack of understanding of the physics involved in driving. They just don't seem to be mentally in control of the vehicle.

An eighty thousand pound standard 18 wheeler takes the length of a football field to stop if he is driving 45 or less. Above 45 add both end zones. If you pull out in front of a truck remember those figures. Less than a football field and you are in his kill zone and there is nothing he can do about it.

Now before someone jumps on me and says something about semis who tailgate, those drivers who do not leave room should have their CDLs pulled, they do not belong in the seat of a tractor.

i think women think that cell phones are a natural extension of their ears, and women just have to have their mouth rattling even if they are not saying anything of consequence. I all the time see women driving one handed, talking/texting with a cellphone, and watch them pull into a parking area, exit the car, and walk in the store still talking.

I'm an agressive driver but very safe.
I didn't really believe you guys on the texting and driving for a long time. Then I saw one driving down the center of two lanes. I said what the heck is that car doing.
Got around "her" and saw her wondering all over the road trying to text.
Bet these type have a short life span

Came up on a car very quickly on my morning commute this a AM on the interstate. I was already in the passing lane having just passed a semi. As I passed the slowing car I glanced over to see a young female looking at her phone. By the time I went by she was maybe down to 45-50mph-speed limit is 70. The Semi nearly took her out as he had vehicles to his left passing him.

Oh come on, let's have a rant.

In addition to what's already mentioned, they don't come to complete stop at stop signs, don't use turn signals, don't make lane changes properly, drive slow in the fast lane, don't take control of the intersection when making left turns, driving distracted talking on cell phone or texting, turn into the wrong lane, stop in the middle of the road to gawk, stop on the on-ramp instead of properly merging when entering onto the freeway, grrrrrr.


I'm not sure that it's happening more frequently where I live. Colorado drivers have always been horrible. I don't see that it's unique to women either. Very often I see old people making these mistakes and I'm 66, so have nothing against old people. Often they are driving so timidly that they endanger everyone else. They rarely have accidents but they are often the cause of accidents.

Rant over.

KC

I am starting to see a lot of young women driving like young men. Speeding and passing like they are bullet proof.

And I have long noticed in both my truck driving and while in a car the biggest a$$ holes seem to be driving Jettas no matter what gender. I see a Jetta passing I become extra alert as there is no way to guess what they might do. I have no idea why that is.

i watch jack arses do that to truckers all the time.....have pissed off the wife a time or two cause while i do tend to drive like a bat out of hell im pretty phuggin cautious when it comes to passing people, especially semi's.....unless ive got plenty of phuggin room i dont pass....course ive also lost count how many times ive had to lock up the brakes on the pickup cause some jack arse coming the other direction doesnt bother to look before trying to pass.....have had to take the ditch twice

On cell phones and talking with their hands...always in the fast lane and often changing speeds by 20% up and down...

A lot of folks seem to think it's their right to merge onto the highway rather than their responsibility to merge safely.

Well said! I drove a semi for a couple of years (not nearly as long as you) and the fellow that helped me get started, used the football field for a teaching tool.

Your the first fellow I have heard use that example since him. It brought back some good memories of an old and departed friend. Thanks!

Amen to that one!

My observation is that talking/texting on the phone has taken the place of putting on makeup while driving, with women. Second place dangerous is people with handicap stickers on their automobile. I know that I will catch flack for saying this, as I have before, but if you will watch it, it is there. You see something unsafe happening, look first for the phone and if not that, look for the handicap sticker/tag and report back. miles

This! Have these people not noticed that the merge sign on the on-ramp is angled toward them because it's directed at them? That doesn't mean I won't make way if necessary and reasonable, but like you said, Paul, it's the responsibility of the merging driver to find a slot in traffic.

KC mentioned left hand turns at intersections. This is something that's concerned me for years. Do they not teach the right-of-way rules in driving school any more? Left hand turns have the least amount of right-of-way at an intersection. It drives me nuts when I'm sitting at an intersection and waiting to turn left and some well intentioned person tries to wave me through. I almost never will accept that courtesy because if an accident occurs, I'll be at fault as the driver with the least amount of right-of-way.

One area where I see women driving particularly badly is in parking lots. Usually it's some dolled up soccer mom with carseats in the back of her high dollar SUV with her phone glued to her ear. These types seem intent on getting into high gear before they get to the stop sign at the end of the parking lot. These types are the reason that my wife and I watch our kids like hawks when we're walking in a parking lot.

I think it would be safe to say that most women have never towed a trailer in their life. They have no clue what's involved in slowing down with a trailer attached. I've had several women pull over in front of me not but a few hundred feet from a stop light( in hopes of being 2-3 cars ahead in the "better" lane) while towing a skid steer or other heavy trailer. Also frustrates me that women seem unable to merge using the gas pedal. They get up to 55-60 and that's it, time to use the brake pedal and pull in front of someone, when simply speeding up to 70 or so would have simply and safely done the trick.

We have an intersection uptown (small town) that is a real circus. The street coming from the west (covers the two main blocks of the business district) is a one-way. The street coming from the east is a two-way up to the intersection. The approaches from the north and south are two-way. The three two-way streets have stop signs, the one-way does not. Very often, when you come from the east and stop, your blinker indicating which way to plan to go, a car coming from the west will stop and sit there, the feeble mind of the driver wondering why you don't make your turn before he/she proceeds.