From ST Life! - published Aug 6, 2007
I am man, watch me drive - by Jeremy Au Yong
THE problem about writing about this topic is that there is a very real danger of offending some very sensitive people, who will try to run me over with a car, or at the very least send me several angry e-mails.
I am talking, of course, about whether men are better drivers than women.
I would tell you what I – a man who has had his driver’s licence for 10 years and never had more than a slight dent, which wasn’t my fault in the first place – think the answer is right away, but I have made it something of a policy not to offend anyone within the first three sentences of a column. Men are better drivers than women. (Once I hit the fourth sentence, it’s open season.)
I know it sounds sexist, but I can’t help but say it. It’s not a rational thing. I’m male and that makes me a driving snob.
All men are born with a deep-seated belief that they are above-average drivers, way better than women drivers. This translates into open contempt for women drivers, whom we consider to be the root cause of 90 per cent of all road accidents. (The remaining 10 per cent, we believe, is divided between taxi drivers and Malaysians.)
Nowhere is this belief held more firmly than in the passenger seat. If you think women are terrible back-seat drivers, you have never seen a man back-seat drive.
My brother is an IT consultant and otherwise a reasonable person who considers the facts before making a judgment. But put him in the passenger seat and he immediately believes whoever is driving the car is legally blind.
Brother: Look out for that truck.
Me: I see the truck. It’s 50m away and I’m going at only 60kmh. Also, it’s stopped in a carpark.
It is nearly impossible for him to emerge from the passenger’s seat on good terms with the driver.
Ok, but the point of this week’s column is not to poke fun at my brother while he is out of the country. It’s actually to assess if there might be any truth in men’s assumption that women drivers – how do men put it – suck.
The general stereotype is that women are road hogs who change lanes suddenly, park badly and generally got their licences by wearing short skirts to the driving test.
“That’s unfair,” I hear women say. “Men are more dangerous drivers as proven by numerous studies which show they are involved in more accidents.”
“Hang on a minute,” men say. “The reason we get into so many accidents is because you are driving at 40kmh straddling two lanes and we get so agitated we drive ourselves into a divider so that we don’t have to be stuck behind you anymore.”
Women then roll their eyes and huff: “Well, excuse me for keeping to the speed limit.”
As you can see, it is a complex and emotional issue. But let’s see if we can resolve it with some case studies.
Case 1: Crystal, a friend of mine, who cannot negotiate the Specialist Shopping Centre carpark without leaving some of her car paintwork on the walls.
“Who designed this carpark? It’s impossible to turn in here. IMPOSSIBLE!” she will say examining the damage to her car, at the same time stepping out of the way of the stream of cars zipping around the carpark.
To be fair to Crystal, she may not be an expert driver, but she sure is careful. She puts on her seatbelt, checks her mirrors and always makes sure to signal at least five, sometimes 10, minutes before she actually turns. She would never ever attempt to drift around a corner like they do in the movies, which brings me to Case 2.
Case 2: Martin, a friend of mine, who decided – despite being completely sober – to try a handbrake turn. He ended up hitting a tree, resulting in thousands of dollars of damage.
“The road was completely empty,” he said later, by way of explanation.
So let’s see where we are on the topic after these two random examples.
On the one hand, women can sometimes be quite incompetent behind the wheel. On the other hand, women rolled their eyes while men were making a point earlier, which really ticks me off. On another hand, (I’m borrowing a friend’s hand to make these points) men can sometimes make bonehead, reckless decisions on the road.
On another foot, (my friend refuses to lend me his other hand) it could be said that there also exists some incompetent male drivers and reckless female ones.
Where does that leave us? Some might look at the facts and conclude that it’s hard to say if men are better drivers than women.
I think it’s crystal-clear that men are better. Not that I have a rational reason.
Like I said, I’m male and that makes me a driving snob.
