Male Vs. Female Drivers

I am a people watcher. I do it everywhere. Ballgames, concerts, restaurants and especially as a pedestrian in the big city. Sometimes if I am walking with a friend, I will point things out. "Check out the guy with the claw". You know the claw. It's that swoop of hair that a man combs over the top of his head to cover the bald spot. Doesn't he realize that as the wind blows, the swoop of hair will not stay on top of his head. Instead it becomes a source of humor for me.

I have been watching something lately that is somewhat alarming, at least it is to me. As I watch cars go by while I walk or wait for the pedestrian light I have been noting how many people are on cell phones as they drive. Sometimes they seem oblivious to the fact that there is anything else going on at the time other than the fact that they are involved in a phone conversation. I have sat in my car at red lights and waited as the light turned green. The person in front of me not noticing that the green light is for them to proceed through the intersection. After a few seconds go by I toot the horn with a courtesy beep. The fact that I have the nerve to toot my horn seems to really be a sore spot. Maybe it's because I have interrupted their important phone call. To tell you the truth, I hate the phone. If it weren't for calling the pizza guy I wouldn't even own one. I will admit that I have a cell phone. I rarely use it. For me the cell phone is a great item to have in the case of an emergency. Other than that I would not own one.

I have also watched behavior of drivers. Being a man, maybe I am prejudiced, but it seems to me that women drivers rarely stop to let a car make a left in front of them. Just the other day I turned my blinker on to take a left. The traffic was stopped at a redlight and the line of cars was going no where fast. I signalled for a left turn to enter the Home Depot parking lot. Cars were approaching from the opposite direction approaching the line of traffic at the red light. Here I am with my blinker on. Waiting for a random act of kindness. I have noticed that it's almost always men that leave the space so I can enter the parking lot. Women tend to pull right up to the car in front of them. Cell phone planted firmly in their ear. When they finally notice that I had my blinker on and wanted to turn they stare straight ahead as if I was not even there. Then they inch forward pulling right up to the bumper of the car in front of them, as if I am supposed to now be able to take the left with the 16 inches of space now available.

I have also noticed that women tend to drive really fast. I know men do, but I see women driving on my street with the phone planted in their ear staring straight ahead doing 40 miles per hour or more. My street is a residential street. Kids ride their bikes on my street. Kids play kickball on my street. I have taken to setting up traffic cones on the road in an effort to get the cars to slow down. One day as I sat at the side of the road watching the kids play kickball....just as I did as a kid,  a woman drives up the road. As I said I am a people watcher. I am already watching her car as it slows down. I continue to watch as her car door opens. The phone planted in her ear. She gets out of the car and then walks up to the traffic cone I had placed and picks it up. She then proceeds to toss the cone to the side of the road. I had placed it right in the middle. Plenty of room to go around on either side. As she turned to go back to her car I can hear her say "some moron put a cone in the middle of the road". That's when I yelled "That moron was me lady". "I put that cone their in an effort to make people like you slow down on this street with lots of children". She looked at me with daggers. I know...I had interrupted her phone call. How dare I? I know it's illegal to put the traffic cones in the street. Have Danno come book me for trying to protect the kids in my neighborhood from the likes of the cell phone lady.

I know this Hub will probably generate lots of angry comments. All I can say is keep your eyes open. Watch how many women are driving with the cell phone in their ear. I see the cell phone attached to almost every female driver's ear I see lately.

I also have 3 sisters. Each one of them has totalled cars. Even my ex wife drove up the street we live on too fast. She would be upset as well when she would see the speeding cars on our street. "Maybe you could lead by example" I would say. Slow down on this street. Set the pace for other cars. Nope. Sometimes she'd take the turn into our driveway on almost two wheels. I would sit in the passenger side on occasion and watch as she would approach a red light. The light was red. Her foot never left the gas pedal though. Not until it had to. Then she'd have to apply the brakes hard. Waste of gas and a wear on the brakes. I knew not to bother telling her what I observed though. If I did I would be interrupting her phone call. The phone call with her friend who was driving somewhere else in a huge rush.