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?

Where I live someone uses their porsche suv to tow their horse. Never knew porsches could tow a decent weight before I saw that.

I think a lot of people have poor driving skills. I grew up swapping between many farm vehicles so am used to driving lots of different sizes. I would go from my excel to driving a friends landcruiser and horse float with no issues in size perception. But that's lots of practise.

Around where I grew up the driving issues were from male drivers wearing hats. And don't get me started on the oversized, penis compensators in cities. SUVs are fine but American supersized things are just ridiculous. There is one where I park who tries to squish his penile compensator into a reserved spot marked for small cars. Hangs out into the car park traffic like a womble.

Go karts are the best. Dad tried to teach us to drive when I was 9 but we were a bit too short. So he built us a go kart and would grade tracks in the house paddock for us or we would put the grass tyres on (ie bald) and fang around on the wet lawn and clover doing slides and circle work. Cannot say how many times when driving cars that I've had to rely on the go kart skills. For example I was driving a road I always drove, doing 80 km/hr (signed limit). On a big, sweeping corner felt one back tyre slip, then felt the other slide and was a wee bit sideways. Had to straighten up before the other side of the corner due to the guard rail starting. Cue go kart sliding skills kicking in. Many people would have fallen off the road.

I think everyone should do go karts as it's great practise for steering, accelerating and stopping.

Have you considered a booster seat? I think they are still recommended for children who are the same height as you.

I know they won’t. The DVLA is a joke. Nonetheless, the reason there are so many poor drivers on the roads are that a) the standard to pass a driving test is so low; and b) there are not periodic re-tests with licences removed from those who fail.

I have just read the most recent comments. People saying they can’t properly see around their car and so don’t have a sufficient awareness of its size to park it conpetently, yet they still drive it?! If they cannot see sufficiently to park it how will they see if a child walks out in front of them when driving?! And blaming their height when many women (who are not all some kind of alien species of giant woman!) competently drive lorries. Ridiculous.

Ultimately anyone who knows they cannot safely drive on a motorway (the easiest and simplest and safest driving) or is scared to change lanes or drive over 40mph or pull out at a busy roundabout or who is scared by the idea of driving in a busy city/ on rural roads or through mountains/ can’t reverse on a single track road or park competently/ can’t cope with busy traffic at higher volumes than existed in 1970 or any combination of the above should know they are not sufficiently confident and safe to be on the roads or react to unexpected circumstances as they arise and therefore should refrain from driving unsupervised even if the DLA has, bafflingly, issued them a licence. Or their friends/ family members should intervene and stop them causing inconvenience (at best) or substantial risks to others.