Why the rolleyes?
I got no problems with anybody 'cept when they act like an idiot. Well, the poor little lady was simply driving a vehicle that was waaaay to big for her, and maybe she had no choice. But the taxi driver sure as hell was risking some major damage to both ourselves and our vehicles being one foot off my bumper on a wet, dark, twisty road.
Because he just unleashed a touchy feely rant about stereotyping then you followed it up with a story about a spanish lady.
I suspect that Plynck doesn’t spend much time in traffic with multi-ethinic drivers. . .or if he does, that he doesn’t pay much attention.
You may.
May I take this opportunity to recommend you remove the large stick up your ass?
if you read the op and all you got from it was “I think all asain/soccer mom/arabic drivers stink” you need to read it again. or better yet, dont read it again. you may become offended and by my comma use.
I think you missed the point. These stereotypes exist. The OP saw three people living up to these pre-existing stereotypes on the way home, and they did so in dangerous ways. He is mad at the drivers for their driving, and to me at least, he is mad at them for living up to those stereotypes.
You are correct, sir.
Not even close. That North of Boston in my location description? Lynn, Massachusetts. About as diverse as a city can get. Name a country, and I’m sure it is represented. I drive there every day.
Nah, it’s permanent by now.
I can deal with the grammar. The problem was with the content.
Hmmm. Worst driver: Arab/Taxi, Asian/Women, Soccer Mom/Minivan? is the thread title. Seems like you are taking a poll, and giving us three stereotypes.
That was what I was reacting to.
Just out of interest, how exactly did you know that the taxi driver was an Arab?
Agreed. Particularly the Mercedes SUVs.
Are the windows of those things opaque on the inside?
In general, though, I have to say that L.A .drivers ROCK. People like to brag that their city has the worst drivers, but L.A .has the absolute best drivers on average of any place I’ve ever lived. They don’t cut you off, they don’t block the box, they don’t futz around throwing off the flow.
Maybe it’s natural selection. Maybe most of the congenital bad drivers here get shot in road rage incidents, eliminating them from the traffic pool.
Are Mercedes windows bulletproof and opaque?
Generalize based on car ownership = ok
Generalize based on ethnicity = bad
Generalize based on percieved membership in vaugely defined socioeconomic class = bad
Generalize based on city of residence = ok
Please, enlighten me on the reasoning here … :dubious:
You can hate them, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re fucking true.
Let’s face it. Middle-aged Asian women didn’t get a reputation for being shitty drivers because someone decided it would be cool to pick a random group of people and make fun of their driving. They get the reputation because people see the stupid shit they pull, over and over again. Being Asian doesn’t make you a fucking dumbass, but drifting down a multilane road at 10 mph straddling the dotted white line does. If you don’t believe that Asian women are shitty drivers in general, go to Chinatown in a major metropolitan area.
If it makes you feel any better, I completely disagree with the OP on the Arab taxi generalization. The most frequent group of fuckheads who pull the “speed up to exit” shit are young white males in pickup trucks.
The scourge of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia inthe mid 80’s were Catholic Education Office nuns in their Yellow Commodores. They were about half a dozen notoriously bad drivers, famous for thier indecision, manic lane changes, drving at 15 kph no matter what the circumstances. Obviously these women thought that Jesus was watching over them or at least if they killed anyone that unfortunate soul was guaranteed a place in heaven. They were so bad they the subject of unfavourable newspaper editorials. Fortunately, their bright yellow cars stood out enough that if you saw them in city traffic you could take evasive action.
mm
Good question. I took a leap of faith. He could have been Hindu for all I knew. He was dark skinned, dark haired, and driving a washington flyer taxi. In my experince in using Flyer taxi, most are from an Arabic nation. I know this, because they are also very chatty and will tell you. Did I generalize? Yes.
I like guy/gal who can take a jab and come back. good stuff!
Fair enough. But really I was relating a story of three sterotypical bad drivers, and being amazed that all three happened to me in one drive home.
Actually the worst drivers are Agoura hills soccer moms in 5000 pound SUV’s
List of bad drivers in PS desert resort area, with generalization listed after:
“Senior citizens in Bentleys” (ageism, social and financial stereotyping)
“Hispanic male in pick-up” (racism, gender specific)
“Out of state drivers who brake at green light” (geographical discrimination)
“Anyone in a huge SUV talking on a cell phone” (general dislike of vehicle)
“Bangers in souped up Hondas slouched down in driver’s seat” (see #2 above)
“Early AM woman applying mascara as she drives” (hate of careless drivers)
“18 wheeler with driver who has been up on meth for 48 hours” (die, evil person)
Interesting point, but I’m not sure I agree. It seems that it was perpetuating stereotypes, and that is a slippery slope.
Car ownership:
Example one: I own a Japanese car now. Extremely dependable, but not a lot of fun to drive. I tend to drive cautiously. I used to own a VW Jetta. Not as dependable and not even as powerful, but a blast to drive. I drove a lot more aggressively, because it was fun and because I could.
Example two: There seems to be an attitude among the ostentatiously affluent that money grants one special rights not granted to mere mortals. Such as driving however one pleases. These are not the folks who are driving Camry’s.
City of Residence:
A joke. I come from the Boston area, and was making fun of myself and my fellow drivers. I honestly don’t find Boston any worse than any other city, but I play along with it.
Ethnicity and socioeconomic class:
Well, I’m not sure what you mean by socioeconomic class, but if by that you mean soccer moms… I can’t tell what the OP was getting at. If the statement was that soccer moms are by their nature dangerous drivers, then I fear for the safety of all our little ones in the safety seats on our suburban streets. I think it’s a strange stereotype. Natural selection alone should take care of our soccer mom problem, along with any future soccer moms.
As far as ethnicity, I just bristle when anyone makes a blanket statement that being born to a particular race makes one more inclined to a certain behavior. If you were to say that drivers who learned to drive in ___ country prove to be poor drivers, that might be more acceptable, because the driving habits picked up in one country may or may not be applicable to another. But as of yet I haven’t seen anyone here who can verify that the bad drivers they have seen were from another country.
My experience with reportable auto accidents:
Hardly a good statistical sampling, but the only example involving a racial stereotype was one of those nasty days that Mother Nature throws our way.
I will now generalize. I do think that age (irrespective of ethicity, economic class or car model) does play a part in driving habits. The young teenager can feel that they are immortal. The elderly can have trouble with vision and delayed reflexes. And they’re always wearing a hat.
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Oh, sure, blame the black ice.
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.
As for the worst drivers in the world, well, there’s a tie between teenage boys in performance cars and geriatric types who can’t see, hear, or even turn their heads to look over their shoulders and have no reflexes whatsoever. I avoid both of those like the plague. They make even SUV driving soccer moms and pick-up driving white male road ragers look tame.
IOW, based on, apparently, nothing more than your observations, possibly the observations of others, and possibly your own biases, you’ve concluded that people driving BMWs are bad drivers.
And yet, you get very exercised about someone who, based on their observations, possibly the observations of others, and possibly his own biases, has concluded that Asian women are bad drivers.
Again, I see a double standard.
If the statement was that BMW drivers are by their nature dangerous drivers, then I fear for the safety of all our little ones in our upper-middle class neighborhoods. I think it’s a strange stereotype. Natural selection alone should take care of our Yuppie problem, along with any future Yuppies. But as of yet I haven’t seen anyone here who can verify that the bad drivers they have seen were wealthy.
Umm. “Teenager” and “elderly” are not not socioeconomic classes, they are age groups. (“Soccer mom” is though.) And I note that none of the people that hit you were (AFAICT), rich. Whence cometh your stereotyping?
No, you’re just a hypocrite.
FWIW, I don’t have a problem with most generalizations; most of us use them every day of our lives (“I’ll take this route to work since it’s usually faster,” etc), and even our generalizations about people usually contain at least some truth.
It’s only when we overgeneralize or stereotype that we start getting in trouble. For myself, that’s a rule I try to apply to all people, including the ones I tend to have a prejudice against. YMMV.
FWIW, a Sikh cab driver once got in a drag race with a bunch of latino kids who were taunting him about his turban from a neighboring car. My biggest objection to this incident was I was in the back seat of the cab at the time.
Ahh, diversity!
Ohhhhh, this is some slippery territory. But I have to acknowledge, when we lived in Madison, Wisconsin (a college town of about 250,000) for eight years, it was scary every fall when the new Asian grad students would come to town & their wives would learn to drive! You’d see them out getting lessons from their husbands, white-knuckling it all the way.
Now, I give these women tons of credit for having the cajones to move to a new country and take on such a task - truly, a courageous group they are. Nice people, smart and hardworking people. I just didn’t want to be on the road anywhere near them!!! Slooooooow, and unpredictable. Not a good combination.
OTOH, the one accident my Hubby witnessed in Madison didn’t involve an Asian woman at all. A leggy blonde in a brief red dress was having some kind of difficulty in the parking lane which necessitated her leaning into her trunk. Hubby had just enough time to think “That’s gonna be trouble” when BAM!! the car behind him was hit by the fellow following.
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. Although when you say “bad drivers”, I’m not sure I would agree unless you meant “agressive drivers”.
Well done. 
However, I think the point I was making was that a soccer mom, by definition, usually has some kids in the car, and that tends to argue against driving aggressively.
Now you lost me. I thought I said age, and you said socioeconomic class.
In response to the BMW comment, perhaps yes. But there is some physiological basis to the comment about age, which is why I admitted to contradiction. 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?