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| Men | 57% | 292 votes | Total: 509 votes | |
| Women | 43% | 217 votes |
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Add to FavoritesAs a woman, I'm usually the first to defend my sex. But when it comes to female drivers on the road, I stay as far away from them as possible. Now I know people will often try to make a scientifically-based argument as to why men are better than drivers than women; they'll go into the realm of spacial reasoning and equate it to men's so-called superior math skills. Maybe there is some truth in it, but I'm not an expert on spacial reasoning. All I know is that socially women are conditioned to be weaker drivers. Why? There are a number of reasons, and while some have to do with the act of driving itself, most have to do with larger possibility that women will become distracted while driving.
Men are raised to like cars. A love of cars is one of those conditioned aspects of masculinity that modern society has embraced. A woman, to preserve her femininity, often has to feign ignorance of cars. Even driver's education is often tailored to this sexual dichotomy; I know my teacher never talked to me about what the car was doing, only what I was doing. But as a woman, she probably didn't know and probably assumed I didn't want to know. The boys in the class discussed many of the intricacies of fuel pumps and exhaust systems during their observation hours. Now, automotive knowledge does not necessarily mean one will be a better driver, but it at least helps the situation when the driver knows what is happening at a mechanical level. When something does go wrong, I feel men are better prepared to handle themselves; let's be honest, how many women actually know how to jack up a car and change a tire? My father made very sure I knew how to before I even thought about my license, but many women do not know the wrench from the lug nuts.
But I don't believe education is the biggest factor. Like I said, in emergencies men often have the upper hand, but that does nothing to explain why I think more women on the road cause emergencies. Men speed; the accidents men cause are often more deadly because speed is a killer, and they are more apt to refuse to wear seatbelts. But women also respond differently to the idea of driving. For men, it's a time to show off. The car they're driving matters, and they want to show off. Women, on the other hand, often drive oblivious to the act of driving. They drive out of necessity, and for the most part they do not focus on the decisions they make behind the wheel.
While men may drive in the company of friends, women completely engage in the company of their friends. They talk, gossip, laugh, tell stories and bond, which is all good except when it interferes with their attention on the road. Men may drive with friends, but for the most part they are not communicators by nature. The era of cell phones has also made the road a more treacherous place, but once again, while men may make calls, often for business, they rarely carry on lengthy conversations period, let alone while driving. Women, on the other hand, talk for the sake of talking, and they do not care whether they are driving or not. And I refuse to believe that anyone is capable of paying complete attention to driving while on a cell phone; I don't believe it's physically possible.
So are men better drivers by nature? Of course not. But the socialization of men and women, the strict gender gap that exists in certain realms even in the twenty-first century, that has a lot to do with why I think men are better drivers. Could it change? Yes. But we need to treat men and women equally starting in childhood. We need to realize that women should be able to survive without men, and therefore need to be taught the same survival techniques, even in driver's education. But the social aspect of this equation, the tendency of women to desire contact and communication during any act, even driving, that's a harder barrier to surmount. And I'm not exactly sure how we can go about breaking that boundary down.
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Women
Men may drive the car better, but women cooperate with traffic better. My wife doesn't know the difference between the radiator and the lug wrench. Doesn't that make me a better driver? No. So let's have some fun with this.
Aren't men better drivers because driving a car is a dominant act and men are dominant? Of course not. It's better if men drive only on straight roads lined with water-filled crash barrels and absolutely no traffic. Then men can really show their stuff. "Hold my beer and watch this," men shout in prelude to demonstrating their driving superiority. Hey, how many women do you know who do that, huh?
Cars understand men better than women. Cars feel more comfortable with a testosterone-overloa ded driver at the wheel. Cars are dangerous and men are dangerous and the twain shall ever be. It takes a real man to drive a car. To push it to its limits, to redline the tachometer in rush-hour traffic to get home after work. To chirp those wide-profile Pirellis during a lane change and slip ever so gracefully into that eye-of-the-needle opening that seems like the door to freedom and gains an important two seconds in a twenty-minute drive home. To explode from that traffic light with hands straight-armed in the ten-two position on the wheel and the pedal to the metal. God, what a rush. It's even better if he's wearing Armani sunglasses at midnight and black driving gloves with little holes over the knuckles to release the fire.
Come on . . . who drives the car on a date? Men. Who drives the car to Burger King with Mom in the passenger seat and the kids fighting in the back? Who drives to church on Sunday? Men do the driving because women don't like to. They don't feel comfortable behind the wheel of a two-ton destroyer with four-piston rear disk brakes and performance-enhancin g drugs. Women don't care about the important stuff like power-to-weight ratios and changing out the computer chip that suppresses maximum top speed. Women don't want to think about optimal tire pressures and G-forces in the turns. What do they care about torque-converters and four-wheel traction?
You only have to look at insurance company rates for men and women. Men clearly win that argument hands down. I mean, after all, it's a free-market, supply-and-demand situation. Men are charged more because they're willing to pay more for the privilege. Women don't like to drive as much so insurance companies lower rates for them to get them on board. Simple economics, eh?
Traffic tickets? Whoa. If it weren't for men, half of the municipalities in the country would go broke. Men contribute far more than women to local welfare, road repair, and ambulances. You gotta hand it to men for that, right? Men keep the economy working. If only women drove cars, where would the money come from to pay those escalating official salaries?
And there's more. Men are the ones who want the 5.0-liter LX Mustang or the latest edition of the Corvette Z06 with a 7-liter, 505 horsepower engine in a magnesium engine cradle. How many women care about that, huh? Not many. Okay, so maybe that's extreme. So let's look at the compromise, a nice comfortable Cadillac Escalade. But does Martha care about the 6.2-liter Vortex engine and road-sensing suspension?
Nah, she cares that she doesn't have to shift gears and about the Bose Cabin-Surround sound system so she can enjoy XM-Radio and whether the Tri-Tone Climate Control air-conditioning is directed to the backseats when she and her friends go shopping. She cares more about getting safely to work after dropping the kids at school than cornering stability in that hairpin turn on the way to the supermarket.
And next but not last, who are the ones who still drive a stick? Men. A manual transmission with six gears for a smidgen of extra control and more power at any speed is the sole purview of men. To drive with both hands and both feet takes talent that women don't even want. Slamming the clutch to the floor and careful coordination with the gas pedal to smoke the tires out of the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot is a skill lost on women.
Sure, there are anomalies. Danika Patrick knows how to drive a car. She's cool. We have a friend, a forty-year-old woman, who single-handedly rebuilt (and enhanced) the hemi-head engine of her restored her 1968 Charger and she has lots of tickets; way cool. My wife actually got a speeding ticket one time in the thirty-five years I've known her. I applaud them all for their contribution to the general welfare and their zeal to drive like real men.
The qualities women drivers have over men are terrific road courtesy and exemplary common sense. They are more patient, more focused on getting "there" and back safely, and less interested in their NASCAR standing.
In the end, men are higher risk drivers. They get the most tickets. They have the most accidents. They are arrested most often for traffic violations and DUIs. There's more to driving than testing the performance limits of a car: back to, "Hold my beer; watch this."
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