# Worst driver: Arab/Taxi, Asian/Women, Soccer Mom/Minivan? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 10, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424 "2005-11-10T17:02:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/41 "2005-11-11T00:31:42Z")
One thing I really like about driving in Northern Virginia is that it’s so much easier to change lanes there. In Texas or California if you’re going to change lanes on the freeway you’re actually expected to: 1. Put on your turn signal. 2. Look in your mirror to see if there are any cars where you’re about to be. 3. Turn your head and look in your blind spot to be sure. _Yeah, RIGHT!_ :rolleyes: Do you have any idea how _long_ that takes? Besides, how many people can actually be expected to remember a complex sequence of tasks like that? In Virginia, as soon as the idea comes into your head that you want to be in the next lane, you just jerk on your steering wheel and zip right over. If anyone is stupid enough to be in that spot already, it’s _their_ problem to get out of your way. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/42 "2005-11-11T01:07:27Z")
I don’t really pay attention to ethnicities, but I do pay attention to the sex and apparent age. I also try to look at license plates to see what state/county people who piss me off are from. When it comes to sex, I seem to notice (or am more likely to notice) women only slightly more than men. What I know for sure is that around here, the people who really drive like shit heads are young-professional-shirt-and-tie-but-no-jacket-cellphone-talkers and chubby-frosted-and-feathered-hair-wearing, massive-SUV-driving middle-aged women. They cut me off, ride my bumper, rebuke my attempts to merge (especially when my lane is about to end, forcing me on to the shoulder…if there is a shoulder, what with all the construction around here) and seem to get off on getting directly into the stopping space I leave between me and the car I’m following. As for license plates, I used to believe that Ohio drivers were the worst anywhere. Then I visited Ohio and realized that things are far more laid back than in Nashville. I think driving in Tennessee, and Nashville in particular, makes you a terrible asshole on the road. Maybe it’s all the orange barrels. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/43 "2005-11-11T01:26:14Z")
> [@Plynck](#): > > You could be right. And it could just be sour grapes. However, I think that people who drive certain types of cars tend to change their driving style to suit the car. Yes, based upon my own experience. Fair enough; FWIW I wouldn’t even necessarily argue that you’re wrong. My whole point was that your generalizations have no more or less basis than the OP’s. > [@](#): > > Now you lost me. I thought I said age, and you said socioeconomic class. The way you phrased it, I thought it you were conflating the two. On review I see I was misunderstanding you. > [@](#): > > In response to the BMW comment, perhaps yes. [Scott Plaid]I win![/SP] > [@](#): > > But there is some physiological basis to the comment about age, which is why I admitted to contradiction. Well, I don’t think that’s an unsupported generalization, though: there are mountains of data proving that very old and very young drivers are the worst. We don’t (AFAIK) have similar data on drivers by ethnicity and/or stock portfolio. > [@](#): > > Very well then: Can you, or anyone, tell me why an Arab/Chinese/Latino is less capable of operating a motor vehicle than the preferred driver of your choice? Nope. I don’t know that they are; I didn’t and wouldn’t make broad generalizations like the OP.\* Again, my point was that in regards to BMW drivers, you were. \*I will agree with whoever it was that said that where you learn to drive does make a difference. Traffic laws are more along the lines of “suggestions” in much of Asia; but after a couple of years there, I had fully adapted … to the point where I had problems readjusting back to the states. Based on my experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if a study found that new immigrants were bad, aggressive and accident-prone. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/44 "2005-11-11T15:01:29Z")
> [@furt](#): > > [Scott Plaid]I win![/SP] No need to get mean about it. 😃 It occurs to me that this might be a good question for General Questions. I’ll put a link there to this thread in case anyone wants to pursue this with anecdotal rather than statistical evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/45 "2005-11-11T15:15:12Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > There is an asian shopping center in the Cupertino area. It has an asian supermarket, acupuncturist, massage parlor, beauty shop, etc. All signs are in both English and Chinese (I think it’s Chinese). My mom and her friends fondly refer to that place as “The Most Dangerous Parking Lot in the World.” I admit it, I laughed. Is it a Ranch 99? These parking lots are, across the board, the best places in the world to get into low speed accidents! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/46 "2005-11-11T16:39:19Z")
I’m not one to stereotype, but the worst drivers around here are the fucking white people. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/47 "2005-11-11T17:09:35Z")
I ever tell you guys about the middle-aged woman at the licensing bureau who wondered why her real license hadn’t arrived yet? And that she’d been driving around with this piece of paper for 9 months? A piece of paper that says she passed her written exam, and was _only allowed to drive while supervised_. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/48 "2005-11-11T17:24:04Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I’m not one to stereotype, but the worst drivers around here are the fucking white people. Well sure, copulating while driving is a major distraction. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/49 "2005-11-11T18:26:42Z")
> [@Hung Mung](#): > > Well sure, copulating while driving is a major distraction. Does road head count as “fucking”? ---
**Author:** ![eveanyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@eveanyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eveanyn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/50 "2005-11-11T23:51:11Z")
There is one group of drivers which has been omitted from the debate. Teen to twenty-something males with their hats on backwards. Surely you’ve seen him. I say ‘him’ because the issue of driver stereotypes has been discussed at length in my car and we laughingly decided that it is pointless to stereotype. It amuses me to think that the hats-on-backwards guys that cut me off or refuse to signal are actually just the same guy that I keep seeing over and over again. vroooom…squeal to stop…:: hip hop music boom boom ::vrooooom…stop…etc. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/51 "2005-11-12T15:39:58Z")
> [@Bill The Cat](#): > > If you don’t believe that Asian women are shitty drivers in general, go to Chinatown in a major metropolitan area. Or go to Tokyo where at least 99.9% of the shitty drivers are Asian, and mabye 40 to 50% of them are women. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424/52 "2005-11-13T06:19:14Z")
> [@](#): > > **ShibboOleth** : I’m not one to stereotype, but the worst drivers around here are the fucking white people. You are so right and I think I know why. We white people are always busy trying to see what race, sex, age and weight other people are so that we can stereotype them. _Stereotyping is really important stuff!_ We get so involved in that that we forget to watch the road, mind the traffic, drive defensively and practice a little courtesy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-driver-arab-taxi-asian-women-soccer-mom-minivan/330424.md?page=2)