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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think if you don't know how wide you're vehicle is then you're not safe to be on the road??!!

84 replies

MadreInglese · 22/01/2009 13:48

Had a ridiculous near miss this morning with a muppet who seemed to think that her car was two feet wider on the passenger side than it actually was.

She's not the only one, I see loads of people (esp town centre) driving way out in the middle of the road. Yes, be cautious, but to the point of being dangerous? It always seems to be larger cars too IME, why drive a car about that you don't know the size of?

I don't get it

OP posts:

beanieb · 23/01/2009 00:13

Oh you are so NBU, I spend my life (in my little nissan Micra) repeating 'if you can't drive it, why the heck did you buy it?'

skramble · 23/01/2009 00:29

Nothing worse than middle age woman driving estates or people carriers, sorry but they are crap at manouvering as are most woman. Sorry but it is true. just watch woman in the supermarket carpark. Guys def are more bolshy and gunghoe (sp?).

And those that say oh I am a cautious driver and never had an accident in so many years, ever looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the carnage you leave behind .

skramble · 23/01/2009 00:36

fircone sorry to disagree but it is normally not at arms length, they are normaly curled around their wheel with the seat back far too far forward you wonder how on earth they turn the wheel.

I am also thinking of the woman who help out at the PTA or local charity shop might have a little "pin money" job, wear calf length skirts from M&S with boots and nice tops, have estates or nowadays a people carrier with a dog in the back to distract her even more.

ThumbBurns · 23/01/2009 00:57

Skramble, if they are the same women I am thinking of then you missed off the "tasteful" obligatory gilet, whether faux fur, sheepsking or Puffa style!

sarah293 · 23/01/2009 08:05

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Original poster

MadreInglese · 23/01/2009 08:53

Ooh loads of replies!

ROFL @ custy's mini roundabouts comment [smile

To clarify the situation yesterday morning:

Parked cars on either side of the road but plenty of space for two cars to pass comfortably and safely. I'm in a teeny miniature Ford, she's in some kind of chunky looking saloon car. She was coming towards me quite fast but sticking out in the middle of the road, I stopped far over to the left thinking she was going to barge into me. She then also stopped (?) even though she could have easily passed me. Soon enough a few cars had built up behind her and me so no-one could move. I made shrugging gestures at her, she flapped her arms at me. Seriously, you could have got a bus through the gap, but she obviously thought she was driving a double decker! In the end I had to stick reverse lights on and wait for three cars behind me to reverse (one round a bit of a blind corner) just so this woman could get past. She's lucky she didn't cause an accident!

OP posts:

ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 23/01/2009 08:57

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ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 23/01/2009 08:59

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Bombus · 23/01/2009 12:08

It might be true that over-cautious drivers cause more accidents (I don't necessarily agree, but anyway...) but I would imagine that over-confident drivers (be they women or men) cause more serious accidents. Some arrogant tosser on the motorway thinking they are invincible and driving far too fast is likely to cause a fatal crash, whereas I would think someone taking forever to get their car out of a space might just cause a prang and no lost lives.

ThumbBurns · 23/01/2009 12:18

I think over-cautious drivers BY THEMSELVES don't cause more accidents - it is the build up of impatience in the OTHER drivers that leads to rash manoeuvres that causes the accidents, usually. IMO.

MsSparkle · 23/01/2009 12:30

This thread is funny and very true. I am always saying "you could get a bus through that gap" when driving. I have to say that i don't thank the other driver for letting me through if i can see they can clearly get their car through to pass me but are just being precious. Instead i think to myself they shouldn't be on the road if they can't judge what gap their car can get through. To me it is bad driving if you can't judge what space your car can get through. There is being sensible and judging the space accordingly then there is being plain ridiculas and over precious.

When they teach you to drive nowadays you have to be able to judge the space you can get your car into via parallel parking/reversing round a corner/three point turns.

purpleduck · 23/01/2009 12:41

My dh always shouts "YOU COULD GET A TANK THROUGH THERE!!!!"

when I first got my license, I did the 2 inches back, one inch forward (repeat 10x) thing when I was getting out of a parking space. Much to the amusement of all the fellow Rugby parents. I think it was so funny as I was driving a...

Citroen AX (smaller than a Saxo )

I probably could have done a whole figure 8 in the space...

charleymouse · 23/01/2009 12:52

YANBU

Riven I am a tit then.

TPHW I have also been told I am a good driver as I drive like a man.

IMO a lot of women are poor drivers but there are also lots of poor men drivers.

Basically whatever is different about the other driver compared to me is what is wrong when they have done something stupid. Ie man, smaller car/bigger car, better car/worse car, older/younger I don't discriminate in my "you twonk" I criticise everyone.

sarah293 · 23/01/2009 12:57

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annoyingdevil · 23/01/2009 13:38

Not sure about the spatial awareness thing. I was told by my driving instructor that mine is excellent. My confidence, however isn't, which is what I think women have a problem with.

Probably, becuase we're so used to being told we're rubbish (by men and other women - as this thread demonstrates)

My first driving instructor had the cheek to tell me that women couldn't reverse as they were latent in some area of the brain

ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 23/01/2009 13:42

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Ivykaty44 · 23/01/2009 14:30

Insurance for woman is lower as woman statisticly dont drive as many miles on the roads, therefore reducing the risk of crashing.

Much as I would love to say it is due to woman being a better standard of driving - it is not.

This though doesn't mane that woman are worse drivers than men. Cos woman are just as good at driving as a man is...so dont ever let a person coment on your driving to the fact of your sex.

Reallytired · 23/01/2009 14:51

lol.. I driven plenty of miles in the past. Even now I do 15K miles per year.

Many insurers do ask what your annual milage is and they still give women a discount.

Ivykaty44 · 23/01/2009 15:02

Insurance is a quatoer each month to spread the risk, that is why if they have to many men aged 50 appling for insurance they will increase the price to either send them of elsewhere or warrent the price against the risk.

This is why an insurance quote os only valid for one month, after that the books may be full of 25 year old woman and they dont want any more.

Or if they dont have enough woman of 45 then they may well give a discount to spread the risk.

PlainOldPeachy · 23/01/2009 15:53

Ah TPHW I love drivers like yu

(mainly I like to stare like a Psycho in their wing mirrors to scare the bejaysus out of them after I see them criticizing me LOL )

I won't often pass cars in mine, not since the lorry that pulled out of a side road as I was passing someone giving me nowhere to go years ago and cauasing a written off car / badly bruised ribs (and I was lucky with that)

Am with the over cautious lobby me. I'd rather cause an accident becuase i'd taken a few minutes at a junction and someone gone up the back of me (THEIR fault btw) then by =driving like a prick.

PlainOldPeachy · 23/01/2009 15:55

Insurance- theya sk how many miles you do separately; that's a different iossue. There are fewer accidents caused by women statistically *though you'll always get a man saying 'thats coz the women dont even otice the chaos they cause and just drive offf..... ')

We always preferred to seel HP cars to women as they were less likely write it off buy another then find they couldn't pay us back.

OrmIrian · 23/01/2009 16:39

hedgewitch - I confess to somewhat riper language in the car. My children refer to 'mummy's driving words'

It brings out the worst in me I'm afraid although it's only when I'm in a hurry.

The things that wind me up are, in no particular order;

people who slow down on the approach to a green light in case it changes! WTF? You're supposed to speed up for that very reason.

those who don't indicate. Sometimes this appears to be because there are no cars about but there are pedestrians who need to take their life in their hands and need to know if some tosser is going to throw an unindicated left!

those who pull up to the car in front just so that you can't get onto the main road. How mean-spirited can you get?

Mobile f*ing phones. Nearly lost my DS#1 in his buggy once when some besuited cow in a BMW flew across a pedestrian crossing when we were on it. Was so angry! So was another pedestrian who removed the need for me to swear at her by doing it roundly himself .

And breathe...

MadamDeathstare · 23/01/2009 16:53

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ripeberry · 23/01/2009 16:53

I'm quite good at judging the width of my car and will squeeze through the smallest gaps if i can.
I used to have an old Saab 900i a few years ago and it was great as although it looks massive (lenght) it is quite narrow so i could get past great big Qs that built up on the local roundabout and leave the people in their 4X4s fuming that they could not follow

PlainOldPeachy · 23/01/2009 17:25

had to laugh at post of yours ion a full thread t'other day- seems your name isa dragon? I thought it was a play on Somerset dialect- 'Oim 'ere I am' but didnt want to point out you had a N where the m should be at the end

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