What is it with women and driving a car that freaks them out so much?

lol, do you feel better now @Adirondackwannabe? ;-)

Being such a good driver myself, I am probably a nightmare as a passenger, as naturally I see things the driver doesn’t ~

@harple Thanks. Just needed to blow off some steam. :)
And this is my permission for the women on here to rip me a new one.

Just show this thread to your SO, she’ll take care of that for us. And BTW, did you check the undercarriage of your car? While you were being annoyed with her, you might have run over the other hunter…

I think it’s kinda natural to feel a little tense as a passenger at times. It’s a control thing. I am fine with my friends, but, driving with my daughter still stresses me out at times. She’s a good driver, she’s 24 years old for fucks sake, but…I still remember the time she almost sandwiched my side of the car between a giant oak tree and an oncoming vehicle when she was 16 and in training. haha

The classic….

Me: “Slow down honey a trucks coming.”
Her: Indignantly ” IT’S FINE, I’M FINE!”

Gah!

You do realize you’ve just raised a red flag at half of Fluther right now, dear?

@janbb

It’s the circle of driving life. haha

@janbb Yeah. Let me have it.:)

Aw, you’re too much of a pussycat for me to take a baseball bat to today!

Your s/o doesn’t represent women. You need a bigger sample group…so there is no answer to your question…lol.

Rejects premise of question.

@janbb And you’re too much of a sweetie to beat up on me.

Because those silly darling little creatures are just, well….way too fragile ;¬}
Runs & hides.

I’m impressed that you saw the hunter had a valid license. Such keen observational powers are unusual in men ;-)

@picante We were past him when she noticed. It’s on his back. That may have been what got me riled.
I need to mellow out.

Perhaps you’ve given her reason in the past to question your judgement and driving skills? picks up the baseball bat that @janbb dropped

When you look in one direction, off to the side of the road, as you were, it is natural to start drifting off in that direction. Perhaps that is what she was reacting too as well?

My husband is an excellent driver. The only time I feel the need to say something is, after he’s been riding his motorcycle for a while, he starts driving the car like that, taking the corners and bends a little too fast, making me a little car sick. I don’t have any reason to feel anxious in the passenger seat when my husband drives.

Driving a car is probably the most dangerous thing you will ever do in your life. I think anyone who isn’t at least a little bit afraid when behind the wheel is more irrational than someone who is.

And that’s quite the generalization, but you already know that.

Hey, is this our way of relieving Christmas season stress, as per @marinelife’s question? Good job, @Adirondackwannabe !

Ah—forgive me. I know less about hunting than I do about driving. And your woman is clearly a backward-looking backseat driver. Unless you really did flatten his buddy, of course.

@picante That must have been the bump i thought was something else.

Funny enough I’m taking my car in for a brake job this afternoon, so I can stop inches from my unsuspecting targets. lol

@Coloma Brakes are for wusses. ( I was going to say brakes are for pussies but thought that might draw some major flak)

@Adirondackwannabe : You mean because the wording of the Q is so inoffensive and mild? ;-P

@JilltheTooth You mean “Mellow the fuck out” is a little strong? You haven’t seen me on a bad day.

Thanks guys. I think I realized I didn’t take the high road and treat her better that got to me. I’m mostly pissed at myself now.

We hope you never have a bad day on Fluther then…

@Keep_on_running You don’t know how scary that thought is.

Psssh. They call me Maria Andretti. ;)

@Jude Ayrton Senna was better than any Andretti. pffft

Lame

@tinyfaery I know.

I live in marathon bicycle land out here. The whole world and all the city slickers come on up to the country to ride these hills in their little spandex shorts. lol

These damn bicyclists, they are a bigger hazard than all the deer, squirrels and raccoons in the county. One of these days I tell ya! haha

@Coloma So we’re offending women AND bicyclists tonight? You guys! Gosh.

@Keep_on_running

Haha….well, jump on in, what’s your driving peeve? ;-)

P.S. That just came into my awareness because I almost nailed a bicyclist on a blind curve on the highway the other day. The guy blended in with the scenery, not very smart to dress in the colors of an oak tree when you’re riding on a narrow, 2 lane highway in the hills. lol

I just get so confused by all the lights and thingies and stuff! I hope I get married soon so I have a man to take care of hard things for me!

@nikipedia Nice, I almost missed the sarcasm.:)

Hahahaha. My husband hates when I yell out from the passenger seat to “watch out.” Here’s the thing, if you don’t see the thing in the road we are concerned about, in less than two seconds we will be in a crash. When someone only has a moment to warn, it usually comes out as a shout or with a harsh tone. Also, men are usually the drivers, not the passengers, so it is really easy for the always driver to criticize how the passenger acts. Let her drive for a month straight and see how much you back seat drive her.

@JLeslie So true! I have to say, the last time I did this to an SO, after they had snapped back and we had both calmed down, I did point out that I didn’t scream because I thought they were going close to the other car, I screamed because I thought they were gonna hit the damn thing!

Edit – And yes, I appreciate that a scream isn’t very useful in this situation – it was involuntary!

Oh, and men hate to think they ever would ever make a mistake. They hate to be told they might be missing something or doing something wrong.

Well ya know, might as well toss in the ancient agers too. I had a little old lady rear end me at the stop sign at my corner a few weeks ago. Just a nice little “bump”, no damage, I let her go, boy was she workin’ it! Haha

I’m watching out for her now and her blue Chrysler. lol

@nikipedia : No no, dear, when you get married you’re supposed to take care of his hard things….

I drive most of the time, and my wife has nothing but compliments. However, when she drives, which is more nowadays due to her retirement, I have many complaints. So does my son. I am such a bad example. I need to bite my tongue. We’ll get there eventually, even if it is a day late and a dollar short.

But will I bite my tongue? Oh gosh. It’s just too much for me to control. I hate wasting those dollars. But of course, it has nothing to do with control issues. Oh no. Indeedy not! ;-)

Now where did I put that little remote that turns all the lights green as we come along?

Well I will personally say my SO scares the fuck out of me when she drives. Not so much a women cant drive thing, but she cant handle stress when driving. So something fucked up will happen (generally not her fault) but she will freak and not know how to react fast enough. Driving with her in NYC were some of the scariest moments of my life. One time she actually told me that sometimes she just closes her eyes and hopes it will all be ok. >_<

<< Big time backseat driver, here. In my defense, my ex had quite a few accidents and insisted on always driving. I feel much more comfortable when I’m in control. If I could talk to the pilot during a flight, I’d probably get kicked off the damn plane.

@uberbatman Closes her eyes? Holy shit.

I know what you mean. I was visiting family over the past weekend that I only see once a year. My niece had her long-time boyfriend with her, and one afternoon he drove a group of us home from another visit. I had never ridden with either of them before, except that I did participate in teaching my niece to drive, ten years ago.

They had been talking about what a poor driver Zach is, and it’s true that he’s not as skilled as I would have liked. But I was sitting in the back seat, and I decided early on that no matter how unskilled he was, we’d probably survive the trip. So I shut up (and decided not to look too closely at every move he made). My niece had other ideas…

At one point he was in the right hand lane, with solid traffic to his left and two cars about to enter the highway from the right. I thought he was a bit too aggressive in deciding to place our car between the two merging vehicles (at night and in the rain). I would have decided (at the point where I noticed this) to simply reduce speed and let both cars merge safely ahead of me, and leave the cushion ahead of myself. (The way that I drive myself, I would have noticed the cars on the entrance ramp a quarter-mile ahead of where he did, and I would have added speed to be well ahead of both of them.)

So Zach is being cautiously aggressive about trying to thread the needle between these two vehicles, and Katie is getting progressively more anxious about the pending merge maneuver. Suddenly she just shouted out – screamed, really – “Zach, stop!” as if that would have made any sense, and started to grab for the wheel.

That’s when I thought we might be in real trouble. If he had actually listened to her to “Stop!” or if she had taken the wheel, we’d have been in a smoking heap on the side of the road in no time. As it was, he managed to complete the move he had planned, even though it may not have been the wisest thing to do. But it was better than the alternative.

@Adirondackwannabe and that is why I ALWAYS insist on driving :P

What is it with women drivers having cheaper car insurance?
It’s almost as if they are safer drivers than men or something…. hmmm. :p

@everephebe Can I kiss you?

@janbb Yes as long as you don’t stop for directions along the way. :D
I mean that would just be plain sensible if you were lost… :p

@everephebe I’ve always hated that trait in men. Egh “I’m a man, I can’t possibly admit I dont know where I am”. Fuck that lol

Hey, I know where I am, I’m in the car. I can’t be lost. :)

@everephebe You get big credit points for that statement.

I hate driving a car, I hate riding in cars, I hate cars. They scare the shit out of me and they always have. I never wanted to get my driver’s license, I never wanted to learn to drive, and I will avoid getting in a car for as long as possible between trips.

Personally, I think being bombarded with horror stories about awful crashes and drunk drivers and this media (and parental) focus on how cars are death traps just put a deep fear in me. I was also in an accident as a teenager, I was the passenger, in which I was injured… and that only amplified my anxiety.

high 5’s @everephebe

She had a good reason to yell at you- it wasn’t another guy in the road dammit, it was ME!! I was wearing wind pants, a hoodie, and a ball cap, so she easily mistook me for a man. And you fucked up my hip. Thanks.

Oooooh, @Adirondackwannabe , you in big twubble now!!!

At least with a messed up hip I should be able to outrun her.

Wanna bet? I’ve been building up my own Shovel Brigade over here. Just try to outrun me, just try. I’ll get you my pretty, and your fucking car too!

@WillWorkForChocolate Didn’t they drop a house on your sister?

Why do you think she’s so pissed?

No, that was my Auntie. And thank you for bringing up such a painful subject. While you’re at it, why don’t you give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it!

We use to say we’d slide you down a 50 foot razorblade into a vat of alcohol. How’s that sound?

I think I’ll pass.

@nikipedia Come to Mexico, I’ll let you ride my horse.

I think it’s generalizations men make that ‘freak them out so much’ – so they take it out on their driving.~! What’s up with you collapsing random anecdotal occurrence into a stereotype? Do we really need the ‘women suck as drivers’ cliche reinforced by mature adults?

Man, I love this place.

Easy guys. I was more pissed off at myself for letting it get to me. Please don’t beat on each other.

@Adirondackwannabe I’m out.

@nikipedia Play nice or I’ll yank the question.

@nikipedia How is what I said related to cars? ;)

@bob_, it’s difficult for me to understand with my tiny ladybrain. You want me to ride something… and it’s not a car… what a big, hard riddle for me to figure out!

Well, that was fun. :)

@nikipedia Oh, it’s big and hard, alright.

^^ rofl

TL:DR

I would hazard a guess that one gender like to think and plan and relies less in instinct while the other doesn’t even think about what they are doing, they just do it. Both are equally competent, but have vastly different styles.

Case in point; winter driving. My wife will constantly think about where the other cars on the road are, how fast she is going, what will happen if she messes up, worry when she feels the least little bit of tire slippage… but she will get where she is going safely. Me? I get in the car, zone out to some tunes, give the right throttle/brake/steering inputs to put the car where I want regardless of skidding based solely on touch and instinct, and don’t even give a second thought ot the fact that I was doing 45 on ice with four bald tires.

Fortunately for me, she knows how I am, and I am one of the only people she feels safe in the car with. Years of experience have taught her that I am more aware of my surroundings than I let on.

My mechanic always says I’m a loose nut behind the wheel. I constantly make blonde jokes, about myself! ” Oooh, that was a perfect blonde park job.” ” Oh, it’s a blonde proof dumpster.” lol

Lame.

@nikipedia It’s so hot when you play stupid!

Personally I think this whole incompetence of ladies in cars thing is all about sex. A big manly guy wants to take advantage of an innocent woman who is totally confuzzled by the complicated piece of equipment. He’ll drive her wild to where she needs to go, and later she’ll show him that she knows how to handle a much simpler piece of equipment.

Did I say this is about sex? Actually, that’s not what I meant. It’s a about mechanics. Yep. That’s right. Mechanics. A good mechanic is hard to find, but if he knows how to use his tools, you want to keep him. Like I said. Not about sex. Not at all.

Just for the record, I don’t actually find cars (or dick jokes) confusing, I don’t think Mexicans are lazy (not even @bob_), and I don’t think old people are stupid. In case anyone missed the sarcasm.

And I don’t think @nikipedia is stupid. (Which doesn’t affect her hotness at all).

And I find @nikipedia super hot when she’s all smart and stuff.

My husband SO doesn’t see thing developing in front of him. We were driving down a residential street about a year ago. There was a park on our right, and I noticed a woman running toward the road and screaming. My husband didn’t even slow down. I seriously don’t think he ever even saw the 6 year old holding back the 3 year old on the other side of the road in the street. He never even paused. The guy behind us stopped completely. I’m still mad at him about that. Don’t tell him I told you this.

My girl is the same way. She doesn’t notice anything other than what’s on the yellow line. I’m braking Saturday and she asks why, as a deer walks across the road.

Grrrrrr!!!!

I don’t drive. So no problem for me.