WOMEN MOTORISTS'

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 80, 6 April 1926, Page 3

WOMEN MOTORISTS'

MORE CAREFUL THAN MEN. BUT NOT SO SKILFUL.

"If the men motorists gave as little trouble as the women, we would not have half the bother we do," declared a traffic inspector to-day. It is remarkable that with the greatly increased number of women drivers, who must now number many hundreds in this city, there are so few prosecutions against them. When women first began to drive cars there were all manner of dire prophecies made as to what would happen. They would smash their machines and themselves, and smash other people, too. They had no sense of control; they lacked judgment; they were always liable to lose their heads in a crisis. In fact, they "were not cut out for that sort of thing." When Women proved Their Worth. But during the war, when thousands of women drove cars, both in the army and out, they demonstrated that they were quite capable of this apd many other things they "were not cut out for" when the necessity arose—and they have helped in driving ears and doinj; those other things which were formerly regarded as being solely within the province of men. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." The fact that so few women are found to be responsible in cases of collisions and that they are so rarely charged with offences against the bylaws demonstrates both their capability and their carefulness. True, there are exceptions. There are representatives of the harum-scarum flapper variety who take a delight in speeding, and dash over crossings with the utmost reeklnessncss, but fortunately they are few, and their luck is marvellous.

Respect for the Pedestrian. i It was stated recently by the traffic j ' police of New South Wales that although ; there are thousands of women piloting ears throughout the State, they can- j. not recollect when a woman motorist' was before the Court on any charge arising out of her driving. They we're [ more careful than the male motorist, ■ and it was obvious that they had a ' higher estimation of the value of thy!' life of a pedestrian. i . With this testimonial to the merit of j the woman motorist the Auckland traffic j inspector agreed. Generally speaking, women were much more careful than men, though as a rule, he added, they ' were not nearly so skilful in the management of their ears. They were more nervous, less ready in an emergency and : drove with lesser confident generally, but this was more than compensated '■ for, particularly in the eyes of the traffic !

management, by the groat care they J took, their patience, and the admirable ' manner in which they observed the regu- i lations and obeyed the commands of ■

those who directed the traffic

The Impatience of Men. Men, on the other hand, were mi

patient, often reckless, obeyed the traffic directions very often with bad grace— and broke the regulations when they thought they could safely do so. They had much less regard for the rights of the pedestrian than women, and many of them made a point of giving as much trouble as possible—'"solely for the purpose of annoying us," declared another traffic inspector, who fully corroborated the statements of his brother oflicer regarding women drivers. '"I wish they were all women," he added. "They wouldn't always be trying to play tricks on us like the men do."