Letters to the Editor
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But are they worse?
Females may not be inherently worse drivers than males, and I am aware of no data to suggest that they are involved in more injury-wrecks per mile of driving than males, but I have had some experiences that make me wonder.
After having several occasions to demonstrate my skill at surviving car-bike interactions in which the driver of the car had two X chromosomes, I began to seek an explanation for why women seemed to be less capable than men of observing a bicyclist (I’m a very large person and was often struck in residential districts while riding on a tandem with my son and two large red panniers on the back. We were nearly as large as some European cars.) I noticed that the drivers who either ran into me or nearly ran into me were often either on their cell phones or had earbuds in place. Since I walk around town a great deal, I began counting and noting the gender of the people who were driving-while-cellphoning. Not surprisingly, in more than two-thirds of the cars driven by people on cell phones, the driver was female. Since several studies have shown that driving while on a cell phone is worse than drunk driving in terms of the driver’s reaction time and ability to recognize hazards, this is a possible explanation for my personal negative experiences with car-bound women.
Before someone jumps all over me, I do recognize that it may have been the result of a small sample size in terms of my negative car-bike interactions (7or 8) and thus may mean nothing. Also, since I was only counting the cars driven by cell phone users it is possible that more cars were being driven by females when the count was made. That said, I still have to wonder…