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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to bevery disappointed that only 63% of women can DRIVE!! ffs

566 replies

JunoWatt · 02/06/2011 11:52

its like saudi arabia here
ONLY JUST OVER HALF OF US! GET A LICENCE LADIES

OP posts:
Riveninside · 03/06/2011 13:22

I remember a thread once where a substantial number of women said they would not respect a man who couldnt drivw. Now that i found a bit barking.

With regards to rural people. Clearly you need a car but why come into my city and clog the roads? While waxing lyrical about quiet countryside. Many city dwellers dont have cars and i reckon a lot of morningcongestion is country dwellers driving in. Id actually like to live in the country but chose not too so we woildnt be dependant (and it is dependancy, not liberation) on a car just to get milk or go to things.and the ridiculousexpense of acar.

MrsClown · 03/06/2011 13:24

Nesta, why should we roam in groups, heaven forbid I may want to go somewhere unaccompanied!!!!!

Riveninside · 03/06/2011 13:26

Am laughing at roaming in groups. Like MN gangs Grin

NestaFiesta · 03/06/2011 13:27

Mrs clown- get a cab!

Mabelface · 03/06/2011 13:34

I don't want to drive. I use my legs, trains and buses, with the occasional lift in DH's van. I'm already a little portly, but if I drove I'd be twice the size I am now, as walking is my exercise. I think a lot of car drivers get lazy and won't walk 10 minutes to a shop, or 5 minutes to school etc.

TheNextMrsBuble · 03/06/2011 13:44

Thanks for that knottyhair. Always great to lower the tone with personal insults. Yes my opinions are valid, as are those others posters. Except maybe yours it would seem.

MoreBeta · 03/06/2011 14:06

I wonder if young men are motivated to drive as they think it will help them get a girlfriend because women are impressed by men who can drive them around in nice fancy car? Wink

Riveninside · 03/06/2011 14:36

Are women impressed by a fancy car? Im not. If a potential boyfriend cojldnt get anywhere without a ton of metal id think he was a bit clueless. And surely at boyfriend/gurlfriend age its mainly too young to drive anyhow?

I have told ds1 (17) that he is not to get in the car of his 18 yo mate. Ever. Groups of young males in a car with an inexperienced driver are at the highest risk. They dick around and try and impress.

ScrotalPantomime · 03/06/2011 14:40

When I see a fancy car, I tend to think "tiny penis"

limitedperiodonly · 03/06/2011 14:50

I'm impressed by a fancy car

ClaireDeLoon · 03/06/2011 14:58

I'm jealous of fancy cars esp aston martin but would not think more highly of someone because they drove one

MintyMoo · 03/06/2011 15:04

Scrotal - me too!!! My Maths teacher drove a fancy pants car, we all thought 'bet he's got a well small willy' Grin

limitedperiodonly · 03/06/2011 15:05

Obviously I wouldn't think more highly of someone just because he drove a fancy car.

There'd have to be something more to them - like the sort of man who'd slow down his Ferrari to let a mother duck and her babies cross the road.

ClaireDeLoon · 03/06/2011 15:37

yy limited, or stops his lambo to help rescue a kitten from a tree.

horriblemotheragain · 03/06/2011 15:39

Oh FFS, why does it bother you? Any skin off your nose? I don't drive - can't afford to learn and it is annoying to me but even more annoying are smug idiots like you who think it's that simple just to "get a licence"! Saudi Arabia my arse.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 03/06/2011 15:42

My DH could not drive when I met him, so I gave him a few lessons... and said the wedding would be off if he did not pass his test Smile. I was sick of doing all the driving to parents/inlaws (250 miles each way) whilst he snoozed!

MitchiestInge · 03/06/2011 15:46

I'm really shocked there's such a massive discrepancy between male and female drivers - do not understand why I had to plough through so many individual explanations though, what does that tell us about the wider picture? Are women more prone to medical conditions that disqualify them (actually I routinely have short term medical disqualifications which are unfair and unnecessary) or more environmentally aware or is it, as people have already pointed out, that women earn less so can't afford it?

Don't understand the generation thing either, my grandmother drove and she would be about 130 now.

olderandwider · 03/06/2011 15:58
bruffin · 03/06/2011 16:07

"boggling at assertion that 63% is "only just over half"."

Some of us don't drive but at least we can do maths Grin

MintyMoo · 03/06/2011 16:13

When I was in the 6th form the boys seemed more fussed about learning to drive than the girls. Most of the boys weren't going to Uni and were able to use their Saturday job money to learn to drive, whereas the girls tended to want to save that money for University which is what I did.

I think a lot of reasons could exist for the discrepancy;

  • medical issues, I don't think women are more prone to these but it may be that women give them greater credence when weighing up whether they're safe to drive or not (obviously I'm talking about things like Dyspraxia here, not things like Epilepsy which may see you refused a provisional licence). The women I know with dyspraxia seem to be more cautious about learning to drive than the men I know with it - for me it's handy if you can learn but not the be all and end all of existence. I think my male friend who has dyspraxia sees driving as much more important than I do although he's not overly fussed whilst he still lives in London. I know he would like to learn one day whereas I'm frankly too scared to.
  • Men may see being able to drive as a status symbol, all of DP's mates drive, he said he'd have been laughed at if he hadn't learned. This wasn't the issue with me, when the last of my old school friends (to be fair we were a group of 5) passed her test I did get some teasing but that's stopped now. The girls I was in the 6th form with didn't seem as fussed about getting their licence asap compared with the boys.
  • Perhaps it is a case of women being more likely to be unable to afford lessons. Some of my female friends were actively discouraged from learning to drive in the 6th form and at Uni by their father's (but did anyway) - worryingly this was only about 6 years ago! For those who reach adulthood unable to drive they may find their DP learned at 17 and if money's tight learning may not seem like a priority to them when there's already one driver in the house
  • The other costs, whether that's running two cars or the cost of insurance, petrol, MOT etc may put some women off driving
MittzyTheMinx · 03/06/2011 16:13

I don't drive and another one beholden to no one.
Use public transport happily, very, very rarely rely on asking anyone for the use of their car, and there are very few occassions when I ponder that it might be useful.

It has never bothered me or been an issue to me but the attitude of some MNers towards non drivers has actually given me issues about the attitude towards people like me Hmm

Like bollox is it like Saudi Arabia, and the 'ONLY JUST OVER HALF OF US! GET A LICENCE LADIES' is so patronising it makes me want to puke.

I might learn to drive one day, I will encourage DC's to and support them if they choose to and I think if half the morons on the road who think they can drive because they have a licence but are patently just a danger to other road users, were honest enough to step out of the car and not get back in again, it would be a well blessed miracle.

It isn't just about having the opportunity and therefore learning as some sort of right, making the active decision as to whether or not it is a skill to which you are well suited should be a massive consideration.

My Mum drove but not my Dad and it is a much safer world because of this fact.

MitchiestInge · 03/06/2011 16:17

Isn't 63% six out of ten, therefore just over half?

NestaFiesta · 03/06/2011 16:18

I don't know why there is a discrepancy between male and females driving. A lot of men I know are more interested in cars than a lot of women I know. That's a very big generalisation but cars have never really interested me and neither has driving. My DH was dead keen as soon as he was old enough and bought his first car before he took his test (I didn't meet him til he was 39 so its not like I have always relied on him and didn't bother msyelf). Cars just leave me cold.

That's not to say there are NO women who love Top Gear or that ALL men love cars, it's just that in my circle, as a very, very general rule of thumb, men seem more keen than women. I know I may get a battering for this but honestly I am only speaking anecdotally from my own experience.

I also don't think this thread is having a go at drivers who choose to drive and enjoy driving, just that many people (me included) are getting riled when drivers kind of say "I can drive, why can't you?"

bruffin · 03/06/2011 16:23

"Isn't 63% six out of ten, therefore just over half"

No half is 50%

whereas 63% is much nearer 66% which is 2/3rds

If you look at it "just over a 1/3 of women can't drive" is much more accurate than only just over half can drive.

MintyMoo · 03/06/2011 16:29

I also don't think this thread is having a go at drivers who choose to drive and enjoy driving, just that many people (me included) are getting riled when drivers kind of say "I can drive, why can't you?"

Amen to that. I'm going to start preparing a medical dossier to give to people in response to that in future.