Aren’t we though. 
This thread is aimed at men, but open to all. 
Anyway, this come’s out of another of those break-room discussions. We’re all men, sitting around talking about all those idiots out there on the road, and not one would admit to being anything less than perfect. Not one.
Nine of us. There’s something going on here, huh?
So here’s your chance to bare your souls, men who sometimes err “on the road”. Men who stupidly change lanes without looking, then glare at the driver who was already there, and skillfully avoided a crash with you, etc.
Fess up. Are you a pretty lousy driver?
Me, I’m pretty safe when driving fast, or in a neighborhood where there are people. But cruising down a city avenue, 40-50 mph, I can be pretty lax. Or even on the freeway in medium to light traffic I can kinda lose my concentrationn. So I have, once or twice, glared at that driver who skillfully avoided my dumb ass.
And my car can go a lot faster than I’m capable of driving it.
C’mon, take a deep breath and admit it. You’re not a pro.
BTW; being accident free does not qualify you as a good driver.
Peace,
mangeorge
Well…I’ve actually got some sort of problem. Whenever I get on a freeway I immediately start to pass out or fall asleep, it’s hard to describe (and yes, I live near you mangeorge). Doctors don’t know why. Off the freeway I’m fine, but overall I’d say it makes my driving kind of “suspect.”
Eek! :eek:
zigaretten, during the time I was actually paying attention in driver’s ed, my teacher told us that when driving on long expanses of road, driver hypnosis can set in, exacerbated by staring at the lines in the road. So try not to stare at the lines. I don’t know if this helps or not, but it is a suggestion.
Monica…I appreciate the suggestion but this is something that sometimes starts on the on-ramp. And I’m quite used to it by now, which is to say I’m used to getting places without freeways. Heck, given the freeways in the Bay Area, half the time I get there faster.
Sleep apnea? Do you also fall asleep during boring meetings or at less than entertaining movies or while doing other seated activities that do not require a lot of engagement? If so, it could be sleep apnea which is terrible but very treatable.
Umm…
I do not think sleep apnea means what you think it means.
What Lorenzo’s thinking of might be narcolepsy, yeah?
Or have I been mightily whooshed?
[sub]And the term I’ve always heard for the other is Highway Hypnosis.[/sub]
Narcolepsy is a little more random than sleep apnea, but that is beside the point of the OP.
I’m 18, and naturally, a horrible driver. I think my insurance is as high as the law will allow 
However, I maintain that men actually are better drivers. It may not be by much (I haven’t taken a national survey yet 
) but I think it is true. One night confirmed these thoughts.
Carpooling home from a church activity, we had three close calls… can you guess what the sex of the drivers were and what they were driving? The correct answers are:
- Women
- SUVs
I, by no means, am saying that ALL WOMEN are bad drivers (but I think I’ll take flak for it… it always happens), but from many of the things I’ve experienced, women aren’t as good of drivers as men.
Pilots are some of the worst drivers especially after a long flight.
(I’m a pilot. 
)
A great quote, that I can’t recall where I heard (probably here at the SDMB):
“Practically everybody thinks that they are an above average driver.”
I truely am a horrible driver, I tend to get confused in busy intersections, hesitate too much and get really nervous when I drive in large cities with complicated traffic situations.
Luckely I live out on the country where those situations almost never are present.
I don’t own a car so I don’t get much driving experience, which proberly doesn’t help much either.
Btw. I’ve had my license for 3 years now and only trashed one car (due to ice on the road) - no human injuries.
Ahem! Any pilot will tell you he’s better driver than a non-pilot. Didn’t you read The Right Stuff?
(Yes, I’m a pilot; and I really am a better driver than most of the “left-seat passengers” I see on the roads. )
Well, flying is a lot easier than driving.
Actually, he does know what he’s talking about. My dad has sleep apnea and that’s why he used to nearly fall asleep driving. The problem is secondary to the apnea- if you don’t get enough restful sleep at night because you stop breathing and wake up when you start again (thus never going into the deep restorative stages of sleep), you are more prone to fall asleep while doing boring activities like driving. Once he started using his bi-pap machine so he wasn’t having problems with sleeping, he stopped nearly falling asleep while driving.
http://www.lungusa.org/press/medical/medapenea.html
http://www.lung.ca/sleepapnea/drivers/
http://www.news.wisc.edu/view.html?get=4746
Sometimes when I’m driving on the road at night, I see two headlights coming toward me fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion, the sound of shattering glass, flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
Did anyone else narrate this sentence in their head, with a Spanish accent?
I think it was a quote from a movie… I can’t remember which one now… :smack:
Clear and Present Danger?
… which pretty much describes my wife’s driving.
The Princess Bride
I’ve seen enough bad drivers of both sexes to know that it doesn’t matter which has the slight advantage. Good drivers are overwhelmingly outnumbered by bad.
So…which version of GTA do you play, 3 or vice city?
I don’t think “bad” drivers even realize that they ARE bad drivers. My sister, her husband, and my step-father are AWFUL drivers and yet if you ask them they think they are good! They usually drive either too slow or too fast and just do stupid shit all the time in the car. I’ve been in the car with my sister when she went through a stop sign. I pointed it out to her and she hadn’t even realized it was there. Later on the same trip we were stopped at a red light. She suddenly started going forward but the light had not changed yet. When I asked what she was doing she said she thought the light was green! And no she is not color blind. The list goes on.
I, of course, am a great driver.