Women no worse drivers than men
Monday February 09 2009
I see that the high heels and Caterpillar boots are flying again on the issue of driving (Letters, February 7). There are valid points either way, amidst the exaggeration and emotion.
I still see men as masters of the high-speed idiotic manoeuvre and women as masters of the low-speed metalwork bash.
In my opinion, one is no better than the other as a group, if the argument is about quality of driving.
While admitting to having been taught to drive by a woman, my number one gripe is returning to my car to find a woman parked right up against it, and banging her driver's door off it, because she did not notice the space for two cars at the other side of her.
This is common.
On one occasion I challenged this behaviour in a calm and reasoned way. Of course, being male, the possibility of being falsely accused of exposing myself or something equally ridiculous did cross my mind. The response I got was: "It's not my problem, I'm parked between the lines". Indeed, this was true. The driver's side wheels of her car were on the white line, while there was a gap of about a metre at the other side of the space, and another vacant space, away from my car.
There seems to be a train of thought among women with young children that, if they are on a school/creche run, it is a given that people like me should pay a few hundred euro to fix dents on our car's broken front number plates or clipped side-view mirrors as a consequence of their being "busy".
Certainly, women are not immune from the gender disease either.
I often have to flash my lights at females in enormous SUVs who are on the mobile and won't move.
This commonly occurs when attempting to join a main road in traffic. The traffic moves on and they forget to move on, just sitting there, engrossed in the conversation.
I am not impressed with arguments about people of either gender getting stuck in snow -- the last time I saw decent snow other than the recent fall was around 2000. We are simply not used to it.
In terms of manners, women are no worse than men, but certainly no better in my experience.
Anthony Halpin
BRAY, CO WICKLOW
