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Women drivers!

Bus companies say that women drivers are ‘better’ than men drivers, and seek exemption from equal opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation in order to advertise exclusively for women trainees. Women are reported to be ‘gentler’ on the buses, and rather than simply driving on when mechanical failure presents, call in the problem to the depot. This prevents the escalation of damage with consequently higher cost of repair. As for public relations, according to bus companies, women also ‘relate better’ to passengers.

One of an interesting number of points in an op-ed inspired by the campaign by women in Saudi Arabia for the right to drive.

(thanks Alan)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 at 8:34 am and is filed under Drivers, Traffic Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Women drivers!”

  1. Jynet Says:
    June 29th, 2011 at 11:43 am

    As a long time transit rider (35 years this year… how is that possible!?) I used to agree with this point of view, but less and less each year.

    The women in our transit system are not better OR worse than the men. They are each individual, some better, some worse. Some men are great, some are, well, we are being polite here so I’ll go with “not great”. :/ But if you compared the two groups they would be about even.

    Sadly “equality” hasn’t raised the men’s behaviour, it has for the most part lowered the women’s.

  2. Used Car Dealer Says:
    July 7th, 2011 at 7:02 am

    There are actually some studies showing that women are better drivers than men or you might say safer drivers than men. When you compare how many times women and men violate traffic rules, it is the men who come out on top. Men tend to break more traffic rules than women and sometimes these traffic laws are designed to make the streets safer.

  3. anonymouse Says:
    July 7th, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    In the USSR, there was interesting divide. Bus drivers were almost exclusively male, while trolleybus and tram drivers were predominantly female.

  4. Robert Says:
    July 11th, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    I eagerly anticipate more robot drivers.

    Until then, though, I hate to say it, but as a regular bus rider, I enjoy a more aggressive driver. The metro rapids going between westside and downtown LA have cars that refuse to let them in to contend with; it seems the aggressive drivers do better at getting back in to the road after stops.

  5. jeep dealer Says:
    October 9th, 2011 at 4:57 am

    I agree with used car dealer regarding women as better driver. While in San Francisco I got a chance to ride a bus with a woman driving and I can say she is looks at his passengers in the eyes while greeting them warmly then just pulls off and takes off a bit slower than male drivers. The ride feels much safer. I guess this can be contributed to the fact that females have mother’s instincts to protect their youngs that they apply this instinct when driving as well.

  6. car guy Says:
    October 20th, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    Interesting piece. I once rode transit buses regularly. The best bus driver I ever experienced was a woman. She was extremely smooth, and made the bus seem like a limousine. She had the skill level of a good racing driver, who are by far the smoothest drivers around.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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