And the older guys I’ve driven with here in Seoul are incredible drivers. I was the car with my boss a few months back and was having dinner with his family. He pulls into the parking garage and then backs into a parking space, which started at a perpendicular angle to the car, in less than 2 seconds. I get out of the car and notice how there’s less than an inch of space on both sides of the vehicle.
I guess all that aggressive driving really does give them some good spacial coordination or something. I’d never be able to park that.
This is a prevalent stereotype in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland which has a high Asian population. My confirmation bias has been confirmed on many occassions.
Still, I’d rather be annoyed by a slow, cautious driver than killed by a maniac speeder.
I work in Koreatown, and I’ve never noticed any particularly slow driving. I think it has more to do with the age that one learns to drive, as mentioned above.
If you’d asked me ten years ago, I’d have said that pretty much the entirety of Sydney’s large Asian population consisted of absolutely woeful drivers. Not just slow, but also straight out BAD.
Then I went to Vietnam.
I came back with a whole different attitude: Asians are the wrost drivers in the world and also the best. My theory is that most Asians driving in the West got their car licence later in life (see the post I quoted), because most people in a place like Saigon don’t have cars. But they do have scooters. After migrating to a new country, this group still has the mindset that the traffic flows like water (as it does with scooters), so there’s no lane discipline, there’s the idea that a red light is actually just a yield sign, etc. This works fine if everybody is doing it, but it sucks arse in a Western city. So that’s the bad Asian drivers. Then there were the GOOD Asian drivers. These were those few who did drive cars and trucks back home through their work or whatever. If you can drive there, you can drive anywhere.
There was also the (somewhat localised perhaps) factor that many Vietnamese in Sydney in the late 80s and early 90s literaly bought their licences through a huge corruption racket. M y ex sister-in-law did this, and once time I followed her along a major city highway with my heart in my mouth as she weaved unknowingly in and out of lanes with her two babies in the back. That corruption has now been cleaned up.
Fast forward to 2008, and apart from the occasional 50-something Vietnamese housewife with the telltale warning sign that screams “stay away from me because I could really hurt you” (like red in the animal kingdom) in the form of the frilly box of tissues on the rear parcel shelf, and the dangly Buddhist thingo hanging off the mirror, I don’t tend to notice Asian drivers these days. They have increased their skills to merely be at the general background shittiness level of all other Sydney drivers.
I thread I started on Indian driving habits is here. The story it involves is here. Indians are Asians, too, although when people say “Asia,” they’re usually thinking of East and Southeast Asia.
I dunno … I think Voyager is on the right track here. In Louisiana and Mississippi, you need to take an applied test.
In what states do you not have to take a driving test to get a first-time license? For renewals, I can understand not having to take another driving test … that’s how it is in Louisiana and Mississippi, too.
I did not have to take a driving test in Hawaii since I had a valid Texas license at the time. As long as I passed the written exam, that was fine; I believe I had to hand over my Texas license to them. This was a long time ago, though, so this may have changed.
In Thailand, I did not even have to take a written exam. As long as I had a valid license from any US state, all I had to do was pass the color-blindness test. I believe Brits get the same deal; no doubt other flavor of Westerners, too.
AFAIK, this is typical – licenses more or less transfer from state to state without having to take a new driving test. I’m sure some states are exceptions. That’s different from having to get a first-time license, though – if you had never had a license before, and you wanted to get a Hawaii license, you’d have to take a driving test.
In Seattle, it wasn’t called DWO, it was called DWA (asian). And of course it’s rude and horrid and everything, but stereotypes come from somewhere …
In Atlanta if you saw a black woman driving a car, you could assume she was talking on her cell phone. (horrid racist stereotype)
I once saw a mom and daughter in the car together, each loudly talking on their cell phones - daughter couldn’t have been more than 10. How do I know it was loud? Well it was summer, everyone had windows up and AC on, and I could Still hear them!
I got my first license in NY, and since then have had licenses in Mass., Illinois, Louisiana, NJ and California, so I’m an expert at the written test which you seem to always have to take. Never had to take another road test, and never heard of a drivers ed class substituting for it.
Louisiana wasn’t quite a written test - more pictures with questions.
The thing that has always bothered me was having to group people as “Asians” although as a caucasian with very little experience in Asia, I cannot tell different ethnic groups apart with any skill. The label disrespectfully lumps diverse groups and nationalities together. That is the first problem with the stereotype. But I do believe there is some truth to it (for some subset) as I drive in the Pacific Northwest of the US and my observation of the really slow drivers (and PNW drivers are terrible overall) do tend to fit the stereotype. Perhaps still its mostly selection or confirmation bias.
Yep. That and people that have their sun visor down when it’s not needed, like when the sun is behind them.
I peg these folks as having zero situational awareness.
My sister-in-law believes this, and she’s Chinese. Several times while she’s driving and I’m riding in her car, I’ve heard her say things like, “Those darn Asian drivers!” I look at her funny, but she doesn’t seem to see the irony.
I have to say that she doesn’t fit the stereotype at all: She drives like a maniac.
I notice it, but I live in San Francisco - according to wikipedia, 33% Asian in 2010. I live in the Outer Sunset neighborhood, which I conservatively estimate at 50% Chinese, 25% other Asian, so most good or bad drivers I see are Asian.
Do people who live in lily-white parts of the US have the same stereotype?
Right. Most of us were in cars all our lives and behind the wheel (even if it was just 'cause dad let us take the car down the driveway) before we graduated HS. Cars are part of the American culture and way of life.
The freeway is a little scary to dudes who didn;t grow up at 65MPH.
My personal stereotype is that Chinese drivers like to stop in the middle of the aisle in a busy parking lot, blocking traffic, on the off chance that a parking space might open eventually. Drives me nuts…
