Men Are Stupid
By Jeremy Gulley
Tailgaters are a major frustration for drivers. Tailgating makes us nervous and irritated, and is the cause of many traffic accidents on our roads. According to a 2009 study on aggressive driving produced by AAA, many traffic issues are caused by (among other factors) people “. . . tailgating and pressuring other drivers to speed up, illustrating the AAA Foundation’s “Do as I say, not as I do” critique of the prevailing driving culture.”
While being tailgated is frustrating, being tailgated on a motorcycle is a completely different situation.
Last week, while driving what I thought was a reasonable speed on the highway, a driver behind me, apparently trying to test the law of physics that states two objects can not occupy the same space at the same time, tried to ride through me rather than around me. He drove what seemed like inches behind me for a few miles until I was able to change lanes and let him pass.
As he passed, I, of course, gave him a sign of my displeasure with his driving. This did not set well with him, and when we reached the next stoplight he got out of his car and started to come toward me, assumingly to fight.
What an unusual decision for him to make. For one, he was probably 65 and not in the best shape of his life – he took longer than the average person to get out of his car. But what really had me scratching my head was this: I was wearing a padded bike jacket and a helmet.
A helmet.
Thankfully he didn’t shoot me – because other than that, what was he going to do. I was wearing a helmet. “Dude,” I thought, “what are you going to do, ask me to remove my helmet so you can hit me?” I wouldn’t have done that.
Luckily, he had the same thought, and quickly got back in his car and we drove off. The incident ended peacefully, before things escalated and no one did anything they would later regret.
What did I learn from this incident? Easy – men are stupid.
A woman would never engage in such an action. A woman would never get out of her car on a highway to confront someone who insulted her. A woman would never take time away from her commute to fight someone she doesn’t know.
No, a woman would never do this.
She is much too logical and even tempered. Granted, if she knew the person, she would certainly take her time to systematically destroy the person by passive aggressively undercutting everything the person does and thinks for weeks or years until the person is removed of all dignity and self-respect – but she would never, ever, get out her car to fight the person on a highway.
According to the AAA study, the percentage of men who were involved in deliberately unsafe traffic related incidents were significantly higher than women. More interesting and less obvious than that, however, is that, among men, the age groups most likely to be involved in aggressive driving incidents were young men (teenage to early 20’s) and older men (over age 60). The incidents of aggressive driving related incidents decrease steadily with increasing age, but then rose again at around age 60.
No reason or explanation was given for this phenomenon, and a discourse on why men over a certain age become more aggressive while driving is beyond my expertise, and certainly a topic for another column, but it is interesting none-the-less.
Men are stupid, that’s for sure. Though I try to remain calm most of the time, I still have my moments of stupidity – more frequently than I would like to admit. I would like to think there is hope, but according to the AAA study, and my experience on the road last week, it’s only going to get worse.
Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=423
Posted by admin
on Oct 13 2010. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry