The daily grind of entitled wankers

[Grace212]

A slightly unusual question for the board

I’m looking at driving again after a very long time. Today I had a refresher lesson. It was nice. But I did find myself wondering, will my world contain more or fewer entitled wankers if I’m driving again? As opposed to frequent public transport and a cab about once a week?

This may be the maddest question on the board but ...life is so full of arses.

Maybe we can have another lecture on why sitting close will kill us

While avoiding the elephant in the room which is that car safety has focussed on men forever,
Women have a (think it was) 40% greater chance of being killed or seriously injured in low speed crashes

But no!
It's women's fault for sitting so close!
Like we have to, to reach the ficking pedals
Oh and operate the thing with our abnormally small feet

Yes we know it's more dangerous but thanks for the easy earlier anyway.

That's right,

It was a poster who decided in their imagination that grace had argued arrogantly

That poster also agreed with the insteuctor that grace was too close even though that poster wasn't there at the time

What is it a woman's word is worth against a man's again? I think it's half.

My feet are so small that I don’t pay VAT on my shoes.

Driving instructor sounds a plank. Don't use him again. The world is awash with entitled wankers of both sexes - waiting rooms, roads, public transport, hospital wards, you name it, they're in every environment.

I'd probably drive on Mum days. I do alright on buses and trains because I will (always politely) ask people to move their bag so I can sit down and request manspreaders to shift up etc. I was shaking internally the first few times I did this, but the vast majority of people are in their own world on the train and aren't being deliberately dickish.

This is where being little has a huge advantage - most men don't want to be seen being horrible to someone significantly smaller than them.

Careful now.
Am mra will read that about the shoes and start a campaign for justice
I'm not even kidding!

Justice for shoes?
Loving this thread btw! As a cyclist, then walk/ public transport before driving if I have to, I’m not sure I have much to add other than I would have been tempted to terminate that driving lesson after the first 15 mins and refuse to pay as I don’t like paying paying for someone to patronise me.

Your instructor should not be spending lunch of the lesson discussing cars and having bantz with a random man.

I’d get a new instructor if I were you. Although it’s not easy to find a good one.

We got a female instructor for 17 year old DD at her request. She was rubbish and manipulative .

Then we got a male instructor who came highly recommended , who seemed good and got her through her test in a few lessons. Only later did DD disclose that he spend much of the lessons “ talking about politics mum but I just ignored him “.

“Oh really , what kind of politics ? “

“ Just stuff about Donald trump and how the holocaust and the moon landings were invented . And sometime about government conspiracies” .

Um. I think, fraggling, that you've decided in your imagination (possibly abetted by autocorrect)that 'Joh' is 'John' and are making some possibly invalid assumptions yourself.

Small feet can make a difference, not because women's feet are wrong but because of the design of cars.

Sometimes we just have to work with what we we've got @fraggling. I agree that cars have been designed predominantly by men, the same way bridges, boats and planes have been, and you know that it will take years for women to be in positions where they can change things and equal numbers are acheived in what were misguidedly previously designated male roles. Until inequality is just a word and not an experience we have to work with what we've got.

I made the comment about arrogance because op was paying a professional for teaching and advice but appeared to be ignoring that advice. Once op explained further it became clearer that the vehicle and perhaps the instructor may not be a good match.

@fraggling you are putting connotations to my posts that are not there.

Going back to the OP's original question, I think in terms of being subjected to annoyance, harassment, being patronised etc by random male strangers, then public transport is worse. True, there are wankers behind the wheel of a car but they tend to wankers towards men as well as men. I mean, at least when you're in a car you don't have to talk to them. Nobody's going to say, "Give us a smile, luv."

Joh I don't know if you saw my query, but are you a female driving instructor?

I'm debating now about asking for a refund. I don't like doing it after the event but I feel that having cars explained to me for 45 minutes was not right. I do understand that the instructor feels people should understand what they are driving but it wasn't a good use of the cash.

re the bantz, he didn't count that in the lesson time. He did say, "right, just catching up with him" - I agree if you take students there for lessons, stay on good terms with the security guard. So we clocked in for lesson time afterwards.

but yes, the more I think about the 45 mins explanation, the more I think it's wrong. Also I reminded him I was on a refresher lesson and he said "ah, let me tell you how I teach refresher lessons". I kept thinking he would shut up faster than he did.

Sorry too outing!

Hmm. I actually think some people do have their seat too close to the steering wheel, but more for psychological security than comfort.

I'm a mere 5'2 and so long as I raise the height of the seat I'm able position the chair far enough back from the steering wheel to have plenty of clearance, yet still reach the pedals and hold the steering wheel with relaxed arms.

Statistically it is unlikely that the drivers I see hugging their steering wheels for dear life are all much shorter than me.

Sometimes what is comfortable is what you are used to and it doesn't always mean there isn't a better way.

I'm 5'. I drive a pickup truck. We swapped for an automatic because I was having real trouble with the old pickup's clutch - because my feet are only a size 3, so I can't rest my heel on the floor, my foot is always hovering, so that, in combination with the heavier clutch was just ruining my knee. No problem with the automatic.

I've driven loads of different cars. BMWs are particularly bad for shorties in my opinion, but everything else has been OK.

I do have to sit a bit close, so I recline my seat a bit in the hopes of deflecting - I know it's dangerous, I know that if there's a head on and the airbag goes off, I'm likely to get a broken nose (at best, probably more damage than that), but I have to be able to depress the pedals (not a clutch any more - I can't recommend automatics enough!), and until car manufacturers make cars for shorter women, I don't have much choice.

I had fun and games recently - my husband was a bit cynical that the reason I drive the car I drive is because it has a driving position that mostly works for me. So we went and sat in a lot of cars.

I'm 5ft1, with small feet (3) and what feels like short legs.

I sat in a 3 door Astra - couldn't move the seat far enough forwards on the rails to allow me to depress the clutch apart from on tip toe. Not safe or sensible for ongoing vehicle life.
Vauxhall Moka - couldn't get the hip bone length of the seat position to be in a way that didn't push against the back of my knees and cause numbness.
Most cars I tried (Ford etc) I couldn't reach the handbrake without having to scoot my shoulder around the seat.

So I'm back in a Skoda Octavia.

I don't like doing it after the event but I feel that having cars explained to me for 45 minutes was not right

My sister's instructor used to spend half the lesson just talking to her too. Every time. Such a waste of money.

The guy I picked for my lessons just had me get in, and after pointing out each pedal, just had me start driving and see how it went! I think that something in the middle of the two would be better, although as a refresher, my guy would have been fine.

Oh god the foot hover. I cannot drive for longer than 40 minutes doing the foot hover.

I didn't mind BMW 1 and 3 series, but I had to drop the seat down (but I have to anyway to stop the lip of the seat cutting off bloodflow to my knees).

So basically I'm flat cap and fingers if I'm driving.

but I have to anyway to stop the lip of the seat cutting off bloodflow to my knees

Argh yes - I used to use one of those wedge cushions in an old car, because you couldn't pump the seat up much, and yes, the seat was too deep so I couldn't bend my leg properly, and it cut off the blood, so the wedge just pushed me forward that little bit to make it slightly more comfortable.

The truck actually lets me tilt the seat forward a bit, which cures that issue.

I agree about Fords. I have to have my seat almost as far forward as it can go and I’m 5’5”.

Which is course is at least average for a woman but very small for a man. It’s almost as if the car is designed for men.

This thing about hovering over the clutch - when I drove, that's what I did. It never occurred to me that people with bigger feet don't have that discomfort.

Re ribs being broken, I don't know what would happen if there wasn't an airbag in that situation. If an airbag had been activated in the time the guy drove into me at a roundabout, I'm imagining I'd have had some sort of injury? I remember thinking, when I was driving, that if I'd had an airbag option I'd probably deactivate it but safety things will have changed by now.

We had askoda octavia it was v comfyi felt like it fitted me iyswim

We have a mini cooper and it's ok but bizarrely feels like xeat should just come up short inch to make me right place in windscreen

Also just realized writ8ng that is why i always have upright driving position, dh has leaning back. He's nearly a foot taller than me so suppose trying to get lower!

I have wondered about deactivating airbag as well but can you do that with driver.

As it is, I've never driven a car where seatbelt wasn't in wildly the wrong place no matter what i did to adjust it

With small feet, you can put a wide board under the mat, to raise the level of the floor a few inches for comfort. Simple but effective.