Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think it's mostly men who are scary drivers

91 replies

IBegYou · 19/03/2023 09:35

My husband is The Driver. Oh, I can drive, but he will take possession of the keys for any journey he is on. He thinks he's above reproach. A flawless, excellent, even exemplary driver.

He is not. He is a fucking scary driver. Chopping and changing lanes on the motorway to dodge around other cars as if it's some kind of racing game. Going right up their arses as if they can't slam their feet on the brakes. Not indicating and thinking that he's perfectly safe, and that nobody else on the road will be so prickish as to not signal their intent to other drivers. Speeding, looking at his phone, undertaking...

And he has the audacity to be annoyed at me when I can't take it anymore and tell him to slow the fuck down, stop driving like he's in an action movie and prioritise the lives of the people in the car!

My dad is also a fucking scary driver. My sisters husband. My brother in law. My cousin. My friend. All of the scary drivers I've ever been in a car with have been men. The driver who smashed into my stationary car in traffic was a speeding man looking at his phone.

AIBU to think that maybe most men are not frightening reckless drivers but most frightening reckless drivers are men.

OP posts:
Badbadbunny · 20/03/2023 08:24

Nope, there are lots of dangerous fast women drivers too. Just walking away from footie match two days ago - hundreds of people walking on both sides of the road, parked cars each side, people crossing over, and some woman comes screeching out of a side road in her VW and barely misses a group of them by inches - has to swerve into the other side of the road to miss them and then nearly has a head on crash with a bus coming the other way. You'd think that would give her a clue about her bad driving, but no, she then tyre-screeches away, again through crowds of people.

gannett · 20/03/2023 08:26

My mum was a much more aggressive driver than my ultra-cautious dad. Faster and took no shit from other drivers. Though that wouldn't have been hard, I always preferred it when she drove because you didn't feel like it would have been quicker to hitch a ride with a snail. Actually my grandmother (dad's mum not mum's) was also a more aggressive driver than my dad.

TrinaLowsln · 20/03/2023 08:29

You've never been in the car with my mum 😅

SeulementUneFois · 20/03/2023 08:30

Electricfireplace · 19/03/2023 09:55

Surely insurance rates which are higher for men reinforce this?

Main reason for the lower accident rate which drives the insurance premiums is that men generally drive much more. (That's on a like for like basis, not truck driver vs SAHM.)

Runningonempty01 · 20/03/2023 08:31

All these people who are referring to aggressive female drivers, I suspect its notifiable because its unusual. The exception that proves the rule, overwhelmingly the stats show the most aggressive drivers are male.

BorisisaLune · 20/03/2023 08:36

Ponoka7 · 19/03/2023 09:42

There's bad driving and dangerous driving. It's important to separate the two. Drink driving, deaths, serious injuries all feature men more.

You'll have to explain that, imho they are both one in the same thing.

The driving test is ridiculous easy, there is almost no enforcement, most police forces have slashed traffic police units and if caught, even for causing death, its not the norm to be jailed but even if the driver is, it'll be for a year or two.

Barelyable · 20/03/2023 09:51

@IHateFlies this...exactly!
My teen is learning to drive and I have told her that part of the skill of driving is avoiding those drivers that don't know what they're doing/scary ones!

SweetPetrichor · 20/03/2023 09:58

I think bad drivers come in all flavours but aggressive drivers seem to predominantly be men. I wouldn’t get in the car with one. There’s nothing more unappealing to me than a man who think the car is an extension of his penis.

Catspyjamas17 · 20/03/2023 10:00

Absolutely agree. More of the idiotic, aggressive, angry and dangerous drivers on our roads are male. A lot of them in vans/trucks too. I'm sure many of them are under some kind of work or personal stress but you must really not drive angry.

And if anyone else on the road makes a minor error of judgement they are the first to dish out a foul mouthed tirade as well - especially if they spot that it's a woman driver.

lewiscapaldi · 20/03/2023 10:02

God I absolutely hate drivers like this. Sorry you're married to one! Does he ever get gestured at by other drivers? How does he react?

amusedbush · 20/03/2023 10:10

The vast majority of dangerous, aggressive driving I've witnessed has been by men but I've had a fair few run-ins with women tailgating, cutting me up, etc. The women have always been driving huge SUVs and I know correlation doesn't equal causation - it's just what I've seen.

Anecdotally, a friend told me that her mindset totally changes when she drives her husband's big BMW. She said it makes her feel really powerful and like she could "smash straight through a building".

OneTC · 20/03/2023 10:12

BorisisaLune · 20/03/2023 08:36

You'll have to explain that, imho they are both one in the same thing.

The driving test is ridiculous easy, there is almost no enforcement, most police forces have slashed traffic police units and if caught, even for causing death, its not the norm to be jailed but even if the driver is, it'll be for a year or two.

You can avoid and account for much bad driving, you can't do much about someone hooning into you at high speed because they misjudged an overtake.

IBegYou · 20/03/2023 17:18

lewiscapaldi · 20/03/2023 10:02

God I absolutely hate drivers like this. Sorry you're married to one! Does he ever get gestured at by other drivers? How does he react?

Tunnel vision. Or "yeah, yeah" with a bored wave of his hand

OP posts:
TheVanguardSix · 20/03/2023 17:28

A woman behind the wheel of a Land Rover Discovery is a lethal weapon in West London. Actually, this holds true for all London Land Rover drivers. They suffer from pathological arrogance which means that although their precious cargo is straight jacketted into car seats, it’s ok to mow yours down. Who cares?! It’s not their kid’s funeral! They are very much cut from the cloth specifically designed for arch assholes. I swear they’d be more concerned with how quickly they could get the front bumper fixed than for the person they’d hit. They wouldn’t even notice them.

DizzyLizzyKizzy · 20/03/2023 18:19

Electricfireplace · 19/03/2023 09:55

Surely insurance rates which are higher for men reinforce this?

Insurance rates are not higher for men.

DizzyLizzyKizzy · 20/03/2023 18:21

EnthENd · 19/03/2023 13:42

YANBU. Yeah, insurers know this perfectly well, the law just made them ignore it when setting premiums.

You don't believe in equality?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread