Typical woman driving a car too big for her

[Lewqa]

That’s what my work colleague (a woman) said whilst sat next to me this morning when I gave her a lift in. We were waiting to pass a car (SUV) in the work car park where the driver was taking a while to park, lining it up etc.

I have heard this sentiment before from others, it’s not the first time.

AIBU for saying that men are just as bad as women when it comes to their driving/parking ability with these bigger cars?

Perhaps suggest they walk home if they’re unable to self regulate whilst waiting for others to park.

Same here. I drive a Hyundai i.10, 2009 plate. Lovely little car for getting around town and for parking. SUV drivers trying to negotiate city streets look like pricks.

Is that because of the timings of it, school run etc, which are generally more frequently done by women?

It’s situational bias isn’t it 🤷‍♀️

I wouldn't criticise the person in the big car unless they were making a real cock up of parking it. Nothing wrong with taking your time and lining it up properly. Better than the driver rushing the procedure, parking wonky and making it difficult for whoever parks next to them. Perhaps the woman has a partner like my late DH. He was fanatical about the cars and god forbid you got a bit of dirt on it, let along a scratch! I too used to park extremely carefully so as to avoid the abuse and silent treatment I'd get if I scratched the alloys.

I drive a Puma if I am on my own or a VW Crafter if I have my little boy with me, I can park them both with ease (and I am in my 60s), although the Crafter does overhang the bay behind us sometimes. I think some people are good at parking and some aren't, I am not sure age or male/female comes in to it.

They are. Most of the well off middle classes around here think it’s tacky to have a big prestige car. It’s wealthy really quite elderly female pensioners with little cars (who probably shouldn’t still be driving) that shop there mainly where I live, or wealthy pensioners in a car their husband wanted to show off to his golf club mates in.

I really don’t notice any difference in driving and manoeuvring mistakes between men and women but what I do notice is that when a mistake is made by a woman the fact it’s a woman making the mistake is woven into the criticism/insult. You don’t even need to be making a mistake.

To reverse into my drive from a single track road I have to hold up the traffic for about 30 seconds depending on how difficult it’s been made due to parking around my drive. People get very impatient even though I’m clearly not hanging around and have no choice in order to get into my own drive. I am better at this than my DH because I reverse a truck as well as a car into the drive all the time. When he is reversing into the drive he may get a revving engine or a bit of gesticulation, when I reverse into the drive I frequently hear ‘come on you stupid bitch’, ‘fuck sake, get a car you can handle’ or similar, or much more impatience from the beginning. It’s from men not women but it’s disappointing if women are parroting the idea that women can’t drive or manoeuvre as well as men.

No, just when I'm out and about, at any time. I don't do a school run.

But are we talking about office hours, because if we take the general view of when people drive I would suspect that women are doing it more often during office hours than men, just because of things like SAHM and that often women also work part time around their husbands for childcare.

it could still be this contributes a lot to it

Nope, evenings, weekends, any time.

I would guess about 99% of people with an SUV do not need one. I would have a separate category of licence for larger and high performance cars, with higher standards, more regular eyesight and theory tests, and a clean standard licence for a period (say five years) before you could ever have this licence.

Problem would end very quickly as most people would have standard size cars.

I suspect that, out of any couple, it is usually the man who has had more input into choosing the family car. The female half might have preferred somethig nippier

(thinking particularly if my old boss. He actually had the pedals of his enormous vehicle extended for his petite wife rather rhan choose something sensible. And yes, I have heard him use the exact works ‘that car is too big for her ‘ about women drivers. Oh the irony!)

Men driving vans are the worst. You only have to look at the state of these vans to see that.

Saw a man recently make a right meal of parking a car. The reason was it was too long for the little car park at the GP’s/pharmacy. Took him ages. Even then he parked in the disabled space. Not that anyone disabled got out of it.

Women are much more likely to struggle to park…. Because they tend to do it more carefully. It’s no coincidence that male drivers account for about 51% of drivers but over 65% of accidents…..

I'd say most people driving these are driving a car that's "too big" (for them). Generally speaking nobody needs a car as big as the ones you are referring to.

The poster said she hates them bought solely for height and safety, not that she hates them being used for what they’re built for.

Aren’t the seating areas generally the same size no matter the car?

No denying it - my husband is great at parking whereas I seem to make a right meal of it! I must be a ‘typical woman’. Mind you, I’d still be terrible trying to reverse parka micra!

The latest data I could find is from 2023, but:

• male drivers are 50% more likely to hit another car whilst parking compared to a female driver.
• 21% of men have hit another car whilst parking in the last 12 months, compared to 14% of women.

Maybe if men took a bit more trouble and more tries to park, they’d be better off…. 🤷‍♀️

Cars are too big these days TBH. This isn't America. Some people can't even park their cars in older properties with small garages. You have to use the garage for something else because the monster vehicle won't fit. On the gender front, statistically men (young men) are worse drivers. They kill more people anyway

I do think there is a problem with car sizes generally. We are not the size of America, Spain or Italy even. Nor France. Our roads in places are very narrow and small. Sometimes you see vast campervans getting stuck down little Devon roads. And wondering why. Or huge SUV’s struggling around a multi-storey car park built in the 70’s.
I have seen middle aged ladies who are clearly well heeled driving very cautiously in pot holed Kent scared of damaging the large car they seem terrified of driving.
I have also seen some women guilty of being in the middle lane of a motorway. And not understanding it is not for driving slowly in.
Then again there are plenty of drivers who are male who drive like aggressive so and so’s. Ones who have no insurance or licence even.

A few months ago in a supermarket car park, a small blonde woman approached in a monster suv.
I decided to watch. She reverse parked perfectly in one smooth movement!
I am an experienced driver with a clean licence 30+ years.
I cannot reverse park my small car!

Yanbu, I see terrible parking and driving from men too.

If anything, men are often worse because many have bad road rage.

This unfortunately. I say that as a woman who does have one of these enormous cars but can park it quickly and efficiently anywhere, even whilst towing a horse trailer