Posted on 04/21/2012 12:30:08 PM PDT by library user
Gentlemen: on a scale of one to ten, how much do you value your relationship with your wife? Girlfriend? Mother? Sister? Female co-workers? If you answered more than, say, a five, you might want to skip this article entirely, because it could get you into a lot of trouble.
You see, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently commissioned a study from the TransAnalytics research firm and the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina. And that study found that women seem predisposed to hit the gas when they really mean to hit the brake.
In fact, the data reveals that women are twice as likely to accidentally hit the accelerator than men are.
The study looked at police data on crashes that occurred within North Carolina and at news reports on accidents that happened elsewhere. And in cases of unintended acceleration, women were at fault roughly 66% of the time.
But its not just women who are to blame. The study found that older drivers and younger drivers are particularly dangerous when it comes to gas-pedal accidents.
In North Carolina, those accidents were most common among persons younger than 20 and older than 76. In out-of-state news reports, though, seniors clearly cause the most mayhem, with folks over 76 blamed for 40% of all unintended acceleration accidents. (Older drivers also shouldered the blame in many of those Toyota and Lexus accidents, which led to the recall fiasco of 2010.)
Men: if youre still reading this, please note that youre not off the hook yet. In fact, when the number-crunchers leading the study looked at all accidents not just those involving unintended acceleration guys were at fault 60% of the time.
Whats behind all these numbers? Are men really more dangerous behind the wheel? Why are women more likely to be involved in gas-pedal accidents? Do women in North Carolina need to change their shoes?
We have no idea and even if we did, we probably wouldnt hazard a guess.
But it does raise a question weve already raised once today: how much good are NHTSAs brake-override regulations really going to do?
Is this one of those “War Against Women” things? LOL!
my best guess is that it might have something to do with children fighting in the back
More importantly how much more likely are people panic and keep pressing the wrong pedal.
That seems to be where most of the damage is done.
I’ve often wondered why more of them don’t poke an eye out putting on lipstick.
That there is funny, I don't care who you are.
Actually, it wasn’t women in that age group. The two worst groups were under 20 and over 76.
With older women (the 76+ age group), I’d suspect it’s because a lot of them probably didn’t start serious driving until their husbands died or became incapacitated, and they’re just not very experienced or good drivers and tend to panic.
With teenage girls, they’re probably not paying attention.
Must be because they insist on using their left foot for the break while keeping their right foot still on the gas.
The left foot is for the clutch period!
You want to slow down or stop, take the right foot off the gas and apply the right foot to the break
High heels!
When I was a kid I remember when a neighbor (female) drove through the back of her garage and into the pool. Almost drown. Formed an early opinion in me of female drivers. Just a hunch, but of men causing more overall accidents, I wonder if that 60% is based on miles driven or just a total? I wonder also if you take drunks out what the number is.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390665n
Obama to GOP: Now’s the time to step on the “gas”
December 5, 2011 11:34 AM
President Obama on Monday, said now is not the “time to step on the brakes,” as he urged Republicans to extend a payroll tax cut that is set to expire soon.
Does that figure account for miles driven?
Why would you take drunks out? If more men than women cause accidents because of drunk driving, then it's fair to include them.
Or did I miss your point?
“Lady, you’re transmission is shot. It’s in pieces, I’ve never seen anything this bad. What did you do?” Mechanic
“Well, you know the gears above the steering wheel. `PRNDL’?
I started out by shifting from `P’—prowl—into `Dart,’ then got on the interstate so shifted to `Leap.’
When I hit about 70 MPH I threw it into `Race.’”
I want to see the stats on how many attempts at parallel parking it takes to make a car fit. :)
Notice they don't say what percentage of the time men were at fault.
.
.
.
(Yes, I am just kidding.)
The only time I saw a woman do this was my ex just at the time I was in front of the vehicle. Had to be an accident, right?
I’m a two-footed driver. Learned to drive racing go karts, then graduated to sports cars. I don’t ride the pedals either. Because of my experience, my reactions are very fast, there’s no dead time in between shifting from gas to brakes. But I don’t think I’d recommend this method for all drivers.
I am trying to start a fight about who are better drivers; men or women. ;) Just guessing that men are more likely to drink and drive than women, so I would want them in my data comparing driving skills. Of course I know it is dumb to generalize. I’ve know careless/reckless men and women drivers. What I like to tell myself is that since I used to drive somewhat recklessly myself, I better learned the capabilities of my vehicle and improved my reaction time. I can think of some close calls where I felt lucky to avoid a bad collision with my family in the car and was thankful that I reacted appropriately to the situation when called upon. Whether it was luck, God, or my hard earned skills that saved the day I’ll never know.
Whereas men are four times more likely to pass gas. It’s usually a form of entertainment rather than a mistake, however.
Funny, a similar thing happened to me. During the divorce she suddenly accelerated and swing sharply across two lanes of traffic, right at me... in midtown NYC...at rush hour. What are the odds, steering and gas malfunctioning at the same time as I was starting to cross the street?
True story. Damn lucky that news kiosk was there.
Ask 100 women what a “clutch” is, and 98 will say it’s a handbag.
Watch closely how you wife/girl friend/daughter drives. I I bet you'll see it first hand.
When my first fiance and I broke up she said,”I’m going to miss you.”
I said,”I know you are,I tampered with the sights on your rifle.”
When I was 16 and learning, I thought the clutch was a foot rest.
The Old Man pointed out to me that practice would damage the clutch and throw-out bearing, so I stopped.
“the primary reason they see worn out brake shoes or pads is from riding the brakes with the left foot”
That’s not a problem for me, as I definitely don’t ride the pedals. But it’s also the reason I wouldn’t recommend it for others.
Now that’s an entry for a joke by Jeff Foxtworthy about courtesy smell on the Red Neck Comedy Tour.
With a 5-speed, I have to be a 2-footed driver.
Once I was driving an automatic car and creeping at a light, my left foot just jumped on the brake for no reason. What a shock that was. It was looking for the clutch pedal hehehe.
OK, this blonde’s (male? female? `Pat’ let’s say) car was running roughly and had no acceleration.
The mechanic checked it out and Pat was paying the bill, checking out the repair order.
“What was the problem?” asked Pat.
“Just crap in the carburetor,” said the mechanic.
“I’ll have to get up a little bit earlier before work, but I suppose I can do that.”
Thank you—please, stop!
You’re too kind.
What a great crowd!
What percentage of elderly drivers are women? My grandmother did all the driving after my grandfather had had a couple of heart attacks. And then there are the men who just aren’t there, because they’ve already died.
Once I gave an elderly couple a lift across a mall lot to their car. He couldn’t walk (probably angina or CHF) and she couldn’t drive. Don’t you want me to call someone for you, I kept asking. No, we’ll just sit in the car until he feels better, they said.
It's worse when they fard!
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fard
Did you here when Rush did the bit about women "farding" in their cars?
It was hilarious!
here = hear = yeesh!
I find that hard to believe. Everyone who’s hit the gas and driven through buildings around here (for some reason we have a lot) have been men. One had just bought my old car a couple months earlier. Poor car. It was a good one.
Matches standard equipment turn signals on women’s vehicles: Left and No-Your-Other-Left.





Annual meeting of the National Association of Women Drivers ...

SnakeDoc

Actually, Blond women are eight times as likely as men to hit the accelerator by accident. Fortunately, only about one woman in four is a natural blond.
I’ve heard of a “courtesy flush” and a “courtesy roll” (window down in the car), but I’ve never heard of a courtesy smell.
That does remind me, however, of a great old joke:
Q. Why do farts smell like they do?
A. So that the deaf can also enjoy them.
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