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

[JunoWatt]

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

Driving in my experience really is something you can pick up again after a hiatus. I learned to drive using a manual gearshift and have driven an automatic for many years (probably about 15 years), but using the manual came back in about 5 minutes when it was necessary to drive one recently. 20 minutes driving around for a bit of practice and I was ready for the real road. DS(17), who also learned using an automatic, managed to get a manual shift off the motorway after a blowout on one of his first outings in a stick. He doesn't drive regularly in any car as insurance is too expensive.

juno - I was surprised too. I'm always surprised at the reasons for people NOT wanting too too, as it's so empowering and a basic life skill, IMHO.

Minty - you are making perfect sense.

My friend passed her test early this year, she was always scared to drive (practically the last thing she posted on FB was 'when will I stop feeling scared?') and sadly she crashed about a fortnight later and died; one of her kids was injured but was ok and her dh is making a good recovery but has some brain damage.
I simply hate these 'women who won't drive because they're scared are pathetic' threads.
nothing more to say really

That is so minty you are very sensible. Not everyone is able to drive safely on a road, and I think that women are able to see their faults more then men, and I think also its a masculine thing to be able to drive to. I guess some see it as an extension of their erm penis

I think considering yourself to be a "good driver" or even a "safe driver" is a very subjective thing. A friend teaches advanced driving and says there are far more crap even dangerous drivers on the roads than there are decent safe ones. Loads of people have licences who quite frankly shouldn't and you can't measure it by how many accidents you've had - bad drivers often cause accidents they are not a part of.

sybil that is awful, my point entirely! Cars are leathal, and have the potential to kill in the wrong hands, and its very sensible to not learn to drive if you feel that you will not be safe on the road. A car is not like a bike it can do serious damage, I wish more men would take heed too.

From Yell(dot)com/MORI survey:

'The cost to learner drivers for an hour?s lesson varies across the UK by more than £26, with lessons in Scotland being the most expensive, according to an online survey by Yell.com and Ipsos MORI*.

The poll of driving school advertisers found that hourly lesson rates in either a manual or automatic car in the UK, start as low as £7.50 and go right up to £34, with the average in the UK being £22.30.

According to DirectGov statistics, the average learner driver needs a whopping 45 hours of professional training to pass. This means that based on the Yell.com survey, the average cost of learning to drive in the UK is an incredible £1,004.

In Scotland, the average cost per lesson is £24.03, making the total cost of taking lessons an eye-watering £1,081.

According to the poll, Welsh learner drivers get the best deal, with the average hourly rate of manual or automatic lessons in Wales being £19.99 and the overall cost of becoming road-ready therefore being £899.55.'

Admittedly, my mother learned in Ireland where I think costs run on the low end of the scale, but those UK costs you gave are averages. And not all drivers need the full 45 lessons, though some need more.

I still wonder why men than women see this as something worth budgeting for.

When three of the DCs learned in school in the US at 16 they had seven 'in car' lessons and about 12x45 minute sessions in a simulator, followed by an in-the-school-neighbourhood driving test, and the requirement (administered on the honours system) to spend 100 hours driving with a qualified driver before heading to the Secretary of State's DMV to get the licence no sooner than 6 months after passing the road test in school. While DD1 just sees a car as the most efficient method of getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, the next 2 are good, conscientious drivers.

So what?

I have a licence, OH doesn't. We have no car, would be useful but we are very close to excellent travel links.

Still lol that the OP is 'diappointed'
Im more disappointed many young people cant cook. Or cant read a bus timetable, or cant swim. Much more vital life skills.
And given petrol is now approaching a staggering £1.40 a litre and set to keep going up, drivi g may become an obselete skill.
Cycling if often faster under about 7 miles in a city.

'I think also its a masculine thing to be able to drive ..'
Not so different from Saudi Arabia, as the OP suggested.

I think women are more likely to be nervous about driving in the UK because it's seen as a masculine thing to do, Pigletmania, and nervousness is likely to lead to crashes just as much as overconfidence/testosterone is.

What is very sensible to do therefore, is learn to drive well, and get to grips with your British female attitude to driving and with your fears, not avoid it altogether until your inability to drive leaves you isolated and forced to live on what you can carry home by way of groceries, putting off doctor appointments until you can find a friend to drive you.

Dont most people live near their GP? We have many surgeries within 2 miles.

What is very sensible to do therefore, is learn to drive well, and get to grips with your British female attitude to driving and with your fears, not avoid it altogether until your inability to drive leaves you isolated and forced to live on what you can carry home by way of groceries, putting off doctor appointments until you can find a friend to drive you.

I did try and learn to drive WELL (2k later)- some people just can't, male or female. My inablity to drive does not leave me isolated or forced to live on what I can carry home (Online grocery delivery anyone?). My doctor is 2 doors away. I have a bus stop outside my garden gate and the town centre is walkable. Many non drivers pick their houses with not driving in mind.

Your imaginary life of a non driver bears no relation to reality.

BTW I am insulted by the phrase "Your British female attitude to driving", it's both sexist and racist. Nice one!

The doctor my mother went to for 40 years joined a practice with her BIL a few miles further up the road from her original surgery. Mum didn't like going to the new doctor who bought the old practice and having to detail her entire and extensive medical history when she went for visits, which the old doctor knew as she was there when it all happened.

She even found that walking to the old doctor's surgery before the move was unsatisfactory if she was ill, as it was right at the other end of the village, at least two miles away (to walk but not as the crow flies iyswim). Not great if her problem was a nasty bunion, ingrown toenail, chest infection or diarrhoea that wouldn't go away.

Her dentist was miles away (two different buses, round trip took four hours plus appointment time), same for the eye specialist (bus and train plus appointment time), and out-patient appointments in hospital for treatment for dermatological problems had to be postponed when friends' plans changed.

"According to DirectGov statistics, the average learner driver needs a whopping 45 hours of professional training to pass. This means that based on the Yell.com survey, the average cost of learning to drive in the UK is an incredible £1,004."

Yes, and this would exclude the poor from driving, or make it very difficult indeed. I really think we have a very strong argument for teaching children to drive at college after all there are loads of driving jobs and we teach them other work skills and vocational courses. I would bet most employers would see it at as more valuable to them that a geography GCSE.

mathanxiety I think you have missed my point entirely, some people for whatever reason will not be able to drive, not everyone can and is able to do so safely, that is why they withdraw from it quite sensibly and use other alternative means of getting about. I manage just fine with public transport, and get my groceries delivered online. There is a regular bus service just outside my door, no need to drive imo. It is expensive is op going to fund my lessons, test and car running costs then

Comparing it to SA is totally wrong, they do not have a choice, we do! Unfortunately for you our choice is not to your liking. Some people male/female should not be on the road, they are too dangerous, I think women tend to be more realistic about themselves and are more honest than men.

"Her dentist was miles away (two different buses, round trip took four hours plus appointment time), same for the eye specialist (bus and train plus appointment time), and out-patient appointments in hospital for treatment for dermatological problems had to be postponed when friends' plans changed."

As much as I champion people being able to drive I actually think this is an argument if favour of better public transport.

Have you not read sibil and mintys stories, my point entirely, some people should not be on the road.

Well I live 10 mins walk from DR and Dentist and supermarket is about 15 mins walk away. I go by bike to collect groceries, any heavy ones I have delivered. We have a regular bus service outside my house.

Online grocery delivery is fine if you have a computer, which my luddite mother does not. Many older women do not have computers. And she was already ensconced in a nice, comfortable house that didn't seem like a prison until my dad died, with house prices through the roof at the time she was considering either moving or learning to drive, and neighbours she has known for 40 years to rely on for friendship and help if necessary. This is not an imaginary life. Mum does not live with a busstop outside her door and her doctor and other medical professionals do not live within easy walking distance. She sees them all far more frequently now than she did when she was younger. You are young and fit now but you will not always be so.

My mum is not the only one of her many widowed friends who live in the computer-less houses they brought up their children in, and were chauffered from when necessary by their husbands until the husbands (predictably) died before them. They have known about computers since the early 90s at least, but they have been shy of getting one for various reasons, which can be boiled down to 'They are machines and therefore belong in the world of men.'

There is no other way to describe the phenomenon that Pigletmania mentioned besides 'British female attitude to driving'.

Again, Piglet, try riding your bike when you're 72. Mum loved riding her bike. She hasn't for years.

Refusing to learn to drive on the basis that you don't need to because you are fit and healthy and young, and you have the services you need close at hand right now is shortsighted in the extreme.

It is a bit insulting mathanxiety I would rather people take a sensible decision to be off the road than kill or injure someone. Who knows what will happen when we are older, you might not be able to drive who knows. I think that British females are very sensible.

Better public transport is never going to get everyone from their front door to the door of the doctor or anywhere else. If it did, the roads would be clogged with thousands of buses.

I don't think more women are more honest than men in Britain. I think they are more likely to believe that driving is for men. Women and men have very similar high driving rates in the US because there is a universal driving culture there, for better or for worse. It could not possibly be that British women are that much worse drivers than American women. There is something else at play here, and I think it boils down to culture and belief in gender roles.

No like minty I have dyspraxia which makes driving 10 times worse and more difficult, I have already failed numerous tests and cannot afford to learn to drive or run a car at the moment. If I am bad now, how will I be when I am in my twilight years.

No I don't think driving is for men, I just wish that I was able to do it. In the US they have a very high pollution rate with their gas guzzlers. Its how so dependent on their cars they are, I know because my auntie lives in the US and she is how I cannot pass my driving test. She told me that its not like you are retarded or anything and she likened it to a disability not being able to drive I was lost for words.

I think that seems to be the general attitude out there.