What's the worst type of driver?

[Snorri1234]

im 17 and learning to drive, and its gonna cost so dam much with all the lessons, paying for the test even if i pass first timei will be lucky to keep it under£1000. And then ontop of all that once you pass and buy a car, the insurance if your driving a polo costs a little less than a bugati veron. I think that the car insurance companies should be sued, their sexist and age-ist if it were the other way round some women would have already made it 'equal' Can you imagine if they done this with race? Its pretty much the same thing they are doing here charging people differnet amounts for totally stereotypical reasons, surely this isnt legal!

Why do other countries make you wait so long until you start driving? I started legally driving at age 15, as do most American teens. Always has baffled me.

At least we've got a few years of drinking experience before we can drive so we can better understand the consequences of it. Besides other countries are small so don't need cars that much.

[Neoteny]

im 17 and learning to drive, and its gonna cost so dam much with all the lessons, paying for the test even if i pass first timei will be lucky to keep it under£1000. And then ontop of all that once you pass and buy a car, the insurance if your driving a polo costs a little less than a bugati veron. I think that the car insurance companies should be sued, their sexist and age-ist if it were the other way round some women would have already made it 'equal' Can you imagine if they done this with race? Its pretty much the same thing they are doing here charging people differnet amounts for totally stereotypical reasons, surely this isnt legal!

Why do other countries make you wait so long until you start driving? I started legally driving at age 15, as do most American teens. Always has baffled me.

At least we've got a few years of drinking experience before we can drive so we can better understand the consequences of it. Besides other countries are small so don't need cars that much.

Psh, cars are for pussies. My truck is lifted 6 feet with 47 inch tires to compensate for my small penis. And alcohol only makes the ride that much smoother...

[tzor]

The car reflects the driver and the driver reflects the car. You can spot the worst driver by the type of car they drive. One can also say that the type of car you drive can make you a good or bad driver. Strange but true!

Let’s take your typical SUV / Mini Van driver. I’m assuming, for the moment, that the driver is not a professional driver who normally drives large trucks and that the SUV is in fact a smaller vehicle than he normally drives and has gotten a license for. Let’s take the SUV for the moment. Studies have shown that the higher you are from the roadway the slower you think you are going. So drivers in an SUV are more likely to go way beyond the speed limit than drivers of cars closer to the roads. The advent of 6 and 8 lane highways where the sides of the road are farther and farther apart also gives an impression you are going slower. And the glories of a 4 wheel drive is actually next to useless when you need to stop on a snow covered frozen road. The whole design of the SUV is an accident waiting to happen.

Given the superman attitude one gets in an SUV, such cars only bring out the stupid in people. After all, once you realize that everyone goes 75 MPH on the 55 MPH interstate who cares about any other rule of the road? Signal to change lanes? Passing on the right side? Crossing the HOV lane divider? Driving with a cell phone glued to your ear? Yes it is true that traditionally unsafe driving was the domain of the youth because they did not fully appreciate the potential dangers that can happen in cars, but today people of all ages seem to fail to think when they get behind the wheel.

[reminisco]

but today people of all ages seem to fail to think when they get behind the wheel.

"seem" being the operative word.

while agree with you about SUVs, (Hummers in particular), the fact remains -- teenage boys are the most dangerous drivers. regardless of vehicle or the colour it has been painted.

the actuaries have this shit down to a science. there really is no arguing with their conclusions, even in this age of more SUVs (it's been at LEAST a decade now in which they've been such popular vehicles. more than enough time for the actuaries to form conclusions about them)

[Snorri1234]

The car reflects the driver and the driver reflects the car. You can spot the worst driver by the type of car they drive. One can also say that the type of car you drive can make you a good or bad driver. Strange but true!

Let’s take your typical SUV / Mini Van driver. I’m assuming, for the moment, that the driver is not a professional driver who normally drives large trucks and that the SUV is in fact a smaller vehicle than he normally drives and has gotten a license for. Let’s take the SUV for the moment. Studies have shown that the higher you are from the roadway the slower you think you are going. So drivers in an SUV are more likely to go way beyond the speed limit than drivers of cars closer to the roads. The advent of 6 and 8 lane highways where the sides of the road are farther and farther apart also gives an impression you are going slower. And the glories of a 4 wheel drive is actually next to useless when you need to stop on a snow covered frozen road. The whole design of the SUV is an accident waiting to happen.

Given the superman attitude one gets in an SUV, such cars only bring out the stupid in people. After all, once you realize that everyone goes 75 MPH on the 55 MPH interstate who cares about any other rule of the road? Signal to change lanes? Passing on the right side? Crossing the HOV lane divider? Driving with a cell phone glued to your ear? Yes it is true that traditionally unsafe driving was the domain of the youth because they did not fully appreciate the potential dangers that can happen in cars, but today people of all ages seem to fail to think when they get behind the wheel.

Maybe it's possible people are horrible drivers because they didn't learn to drive well enough?

Seriously, people drive faster than the maximum speed here all the time but they generally do mind all the other rules.

(Also, the 55 MPH speed-limit is just plain fucking stupid. The speed-limit on highways over here is 75 miles an hour and that's one of the lowest in europe, and people frequently drive 85 or faster if they can. Most accidents however don't occur on the highway but rather in the cities.)

[muy_thaiguy]

Actually, 55mph is the minimum on the highway, not the maximum. It generally is 75 mph.

[tzor]

Some information I quickly googled on the subject. On the whole it looks bad for the teenaged male but not really. It is difficult to tell because information on length of time (first year drivers) are folded into the numbers and the odds are that a 45 year old person has had more than one year behind the wheel.

Car Crash Stats:
There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes.

Teenage Driver Facts:
Deaths. Each Year over 5,000 teens ages 16 to 20 Die due to Fatal injuries caused Car accidents. About 400,000 drivers age 16 to 20 will be seriously injured.

Risks. The risk of being involved in a car accident the highest for drivers aged 16- to 19-year-olds than it is for any other age group. For each mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are about four times more likely than other drivers to crash.

Stats. Teenagers are about 10 percent of the US Population but account for 12 percent all Fatal Car Crashes.

Costs. Drivers (both male and female) under age 24 account for 30% - $26 billion Dollars of the total costs of Car accidents in the US.

Male Versus Female. The car accident death rate for teen male drivers and passengers is more than one and a half times female teen driver (19.4 killed per 100,000 male drivers compared with 11.1 killed per 100,000 female drivers.

New Drivers. The risk of a Crash risk is much higher during the first year teenagers are able to drive.

[btownmeggy]

Definitely teenagers and old people. The former drive too fast and the latter too slow. Both swerve all around, don't use turn signals, and merge haphazardly.

[muy_thaiguy]

Definitely teenagers and old people. The former drive too fast and the latter too slow. Both swerve all around, don't use turn signals, and merge haphazardly.

Actually, I criticize others for driving to fast or slow, swerving (I've seen it done, but I don't do it myself), and I usually get anal about others not using their turning signals and merging.

[btownmeggy]

Actually, 55mph is the minimum on the highway, not the maximum. It generally is 75 mph.

Ermmm... in WYOMING. Not the case in most urban areas for sure.

[Snorri1234]

Actually, 55mph is the minimum on the highway, not the maximum. It generally is 75 mph.

Seems to fluctuate between 65 and 70 with the inland west having 75. But this is the limit for interstate roads it seems.

Still it's midly ridiculous that it used to be 55.

[Neoteny]

It sucked that Oahu's speed limit was as low as it was. There were some of the most scenic highways out there. Perfect for driving fast...

And I find it humorous that noone has voted for men yet.

I feel the urge to dredge up my old people thread...

[reminisco]

Still it's midly ridiculous that it used to be 55.

it was lowered to 55 during the "energy crisis" to make vehicles more gas efficient.

[reminisco]

to be completely fair, the worst drivers are Cats.

as demonstrated by this incisive piece of investigative reporting by the esteemed journalists at Saturday Night Live:

http://www.dorks.com/videos/Toonces-the ... art-1.html

or, even worse, teenage cats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQkL9LpvKl0

[Autotoad]

It would seem that middle-aged, hispanic men are the best drivers..

[muy_thaiguy]

Actually, 55mph is the minimum on the highway, not the maximum. It generally is 75 mph.

Ermmm... in WYOMING. Not the case in most urban areas for sure.

I didn't realize that urban areas stretched from city to city, at times spanding 100 miles.

[btownmeggy]

I didn't realize that urban areas stretched from city to city, at times spanding 100 miles.

Yes. Most major ones do.

[CrabNebula]

Voted the first three because there was no option called 'Babies'.

[brooksieb]

Old people i think are the worst, though women drivers are not too far off my list, one actually hit the armoured jeep i was doing a patrol in in northern ireland (i wern't driving), doing her lipstick believe it or not, i got so pissed i shot her tires and said "not going to driving today, are ya love?!" and told the driver to speed off. Of course i could not do that but i got away with out being punished because there was no evidence.

[sam_levi_11]

when i talked to him, my dad was the worst, forget any of them groups, he was once caught doing 130mph in a 70mph zone and his excuse? i need the toilet.

otherwise italians when they win something at football....driving round central london in brightly coloured fiats hooting and leaning out of the window singing with each other. highfiving while driving in oposite directions....fuking nutters

[static_ice]

The worst type of drivers are people like me, who get their permit and are too lazy to get 50 hours so we wait until we're 18.

I knew some friends like that... Except they just lied on their driving log and got their provisional after 6 months. Probably worse than what you did.

Seriously though, how could you wait till you were 18? Didn't you want to drive places yourself and have that type of freedom? Killer.


ECX

And I actually have gotten maybe an hour or two from driving home from school every once in a while...
I didn't get my permit til I was a junior and there was no chance of me getting my own car so... additionally there's not much to do where I live.

[pmchugh]

just because teenagers are statistically the worst drivers doesnt mean they should be charged the most (for insurance), does that mean that muslims should pay more for plane journey's because statistically there is a greater chance they are going to hijack it?

[Neoteny]

just because teenagers are statistically the worst drivers doesnt mean they should be charged the most (for insurance), does that mean that muslims should pay more for plane journey's because statistically there is a greater chance they are going to hijack it?

Perhaps, were it actually true.

[pmchugh]

just because teenagers are statistically the worst drivers doesnt mean they should be charged the most (for insurance), does that mean that muslims should pay more for plane journey's because statistically there is a greater chance they are going to hijack it?

Perhaps, were it actually true.

i knew someone were likely to say that, assume that statistics showed muslims more likely to bring down planes do you think they would be charged more? same thing different rules, i can gurauntee you that if women statistically caused more accidents they would not be charged more as they would already have been sued.

[reminisco]

just because teenagers are statistically the worst drivers doesnt mean they should be charged the most (for insurance), does that mean that muslims should pay more for plane journey's because statistically there is a greater chance they are going to hijack it?

Perhaps, were it actually true.

i knew someone were likely to say that, assume that statistics showed muslims more likely to bring down planes do you think they would be charged more? same thing different rules, i can gurauntee you that if women statistically caused more accidents they would not be charged more as they would already have been sued.

well, if they were purchasing INSURANCE, i wouldn't be surprised if they were charged more. but i would be surprised if they were charged more for a TICKET. cause, you see, that's where your entire argument breaks down into ridiculous.

it's completely fair that teenagers are charged more for auto insurance. the insurance company is accepting more risk to insure them.

this isn't rocket science.