Women Giant SUV Drivers w Cell Phones

[126coupe]

Do women SUV drivers on cell phones drive you friggin nuts??

[84porsche]

Its not so much the women drivers but more the cell phones and SUVs. My main two problems is that I can't see around them or over them and if they hit me, I am in deep ****.

[RickM]

Originally posted by Minkoff
Do women SUV drivers on cell phones drive you friggin nuts??

Just the tilte of this thread made me wince.

[cowtown]

Blood...pressure...rising...

[mattdavis11]

I'm about to come all sorts of unglued. Taking 5.

[arcsine]

Not a small reason I stopped riding motorcycles in th city.

I knew some woman with a SUV/cell phone/latte/screaming kid/makeup bag/no common sense (or any combination of three) was going to make pate out of me and not even know it.

But I think cell phones should be banned in cars except when parked and I find no supportable argument for the existence of SUV's so I am obviously a nut-bag.

[kumma]

Not really, but a while back a woman turned left in front of me while talking on her phone and drinking a big gulp soda. It really left me wondering what she was turning the steering wheel with.

[KevinP73]

I had a customer a short while back had a woman back out of a parking space while talking on the phone (didn't even turn her head to look behind her) backed into him as he waited. Destroyed his H1, bent the fender then proceeded to blast him for driving a "stupid little car"
that she couldn't see!!
Nothing is worse than a soccer b!itch in a SUV talking on the phone, doing her make-up, raising "his" kids while sucking down a Starbucks. NOTHING!!

[DByers]

Multi-tasking should not be done by anyone, regardless of sex or race or whatever, in a moving vehicle when that said peron is in control of that vehicle. Driving the vehicle, no matter what type (SUV of otherwise), should be the only thing that driver is doing.
Im in sales and spend alot of time in my car. I also spend alot of time on my cell. I am only doing one or the other though, never both.
My wife has the SUV (burb). We have 3 kids and a dog that we haul around alot. We have a rule, the driver drives and the other person is in charge of everything else in the car.
I have seen way to many drivers with other things going on other then driving, including dogs and/or cats on their laps or dash. WTF!
And to this day, at least once a week, I will see someone driving with kids not strapped in car seats. Familys where the wife is HOLDING a 3-6 month old in her arms rather then in the car seat that is righ next to her!

Okay, end of rant.

[bryanthompson]

I use my cell in the car sometimes, but 99% of my driving is out in the boonies with nobody around at all. Voice dialing + hands free + auto-answer helps keep the distraction to a minimum. When I do get into town, I shut it off whilst driving.

In total, I probably spend all of 15 minutes a month on my phone.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by KevinP73
Nothing is worse than a soccer b!itch in a SUV talking on the phone, doing her make-up, raising "his" kids while sucking down a Starbucks. NOTHING!!

Really, how about the drunk driver we encountered one sunny Sunday afternoon on the I-78 who swerved off the road and hit & killed a landscaper who was adjusting a ladder on his truck. My kids got a front row seat to that one. Or what about the guys in sports cars who race on the roads and endanger everyone around them? I HATE THEM.

What if I worded your quote like this -

Nothing is worse than a soccer b!itch in a car talking on the phone, doing her make-up, raising "his" kids while sucking down a Starbucks. NOTHING!!

Do you feel as strongly about that, or is it the SUV part, as the title of thread suggests?

[KevinP73]

David, In all fairness I didn't experience having my kids witness the tragic event your kids did. I'll be the first to agree with you that NO child should be witness to such an event. And your right, some idiot racing thru traffic endangering others IS equally undesirable as the idiot I describe in the SUV.
If I were trying to be completely P/C in my statement I should have said "Nothing is worse in my personal experiences as.........".
It just seems that in my eperiences that the greater number of assaults has been from women in SUV's who are not focusing on driving the behemoths that they are in.
And I'm truely Sorry your children had to witness that tragedy. My heart goes out to them and you.

[Jeff Higgins]

As an avid motorcyclist, these do rate pretty high on my list of things to watch for. Certainly not the only thing on that list, but well up towards the top. My last close encounter with the classic stereotype had her in a Suburban, holding the phone between her left shoulder and ear, two occupied child seats in the back, and juggling a cup of Starbucks between the cup holder and her right hand. I had lots of time to observe all of this, as I was right outside her driver's window. I was riding sweep on a club ride with about 20 some odd bikes in front of me that had just passed her; we were in the carpool lane and she was in the fast lane. Thank God those things have the blinkers in the mirrors now; I saw it come on, and also saw she never looked outside, in her mirror, or anywhere else but straight out the windshield. There was a car on my butt and the rest of the club in front of me, with the jersy barrier right on the fog line on my left. Nowhere to go. I laid on the horn, kicked her door, and screamed at the top of my lungs. She damn near jumped through her sunroof as she dropped the phone, spilled the coffee, grabbed the wheel (finally! - how the hell was she steering!??) and swerved two lanes right, again without even looking. It's a miracle no one else was over there to hit. Her reaction when she gathered herself up? She honked and flipped me off. Kinda hurt my feelings.

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
As an avid motorcyclist, these do rate pretty high on my list of things to watch for. Certainly not the only thing on that list, but well up towards the top. My last close encounter with the classic stereotype had her in a Suburban, holding the phone between her left shoulder and ear, two occupied child seats in the back, and juggling a cup of Starbucks between the cup holder and her right hand. I had lots of time to observe all of this, as I was right outside her driver's window. I was riding sweep on a club ride with about 20 some odd bikes in front of me that had just passed her; we were in the carpool lane and she was in the fast lane. Thank God those things have the blinkers in the mirrors now; I saw it come on, and also saw she never looked outside, in her mirror, or anywhere else but straight out the windshield. There was a car on my butt and the rest of the club in front of me, with the jersy barrier right on the fog line on my left. Nowhere to go. I laid on the horn, kicked her door, and screamed at the top of my lungs. She damn near jumped through her sunroof as she dropped the phone, spilled the coffee, grabbed the wheel (finally! - how the hell was she steering!??) and swerved two lanes right, again without even looking. It's a miracle no one else was over there to hit. Her reaction when she gathered herself up? She honked and flipped me off. Kinda hurt my feelings.

I rest my case.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
The way it is around here, I often wonder if these drivers even HAVE telephones in their houses any more.

Actually, a lot of them don't; it's becoming very common for people to disconnect the land line and rely solely on the cell phone.

[JavaBrewer]

So is the problem the behemoth SUV or not? How about we put the same soccer b!itch in a nice sedan, have her apply makeup, drink coffee beverage, and talk to her b!itch friends about sales at Pottery Barn, all the while negotiating our roadways. Does that make it better? That was my point.

And FWIW most of my encounters with rude/reckless drivers these days are folks in BMWs and Lexus. The SUV stand outs are the Cadillacs and pimped out Escalades.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
So is the problem the behemoth SUV or not?

Actually, yes, the SUV makes the problem worse because it gives them a sense of power, non-vulnerability and isolation from the rest of the road-world. People do drive differently in an SUV than they would in a smaller vehicle in which the consequences of collision are more dire; much in the same way you don't care about steep driveways, potholes and speed bumps when driving an APC in quite the same way as you would in a lowered 911.

[cowtown]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
So is the problem the behemoth SUV or not?

Around my area at least, the problem is the SUV. Along with the 5000 pound SUV comes that feeling that the driver is in her living room, not an automobile. With this isolation comes the assumption that she doesn't have to drive defensively. Sure it's just psychological, and you can have an accident in any car, but I really believe the massive size relaxes people's belief in physics.

Edit - OK, Thom beat me to that response...let the rant continue...

At least with the women, it's just mindless distraction that causes the behavior. On the other hand, the male drivers will often actually go out of their way to use their imposing vehicles as weapons. Prime offenders in my area are middle-aged males in F-series pickups and Expeditions. A mid-life crisis candidate in an F-250 got within 6 inches of my bumper the other day on the freeway. After I politely used my blinker and got the heck out of his way, he swerved in front of me and gave me the finger. Oh well, at least he wasn't distracted by a cell phone.

[KevinP73]

I think a big factor is the sense of security that some people get when they are in the big SUV's. They feel safe and are less aware or focused on the world around them, perhaps it's safe to say they feel isolated from the world out there.
Also factor in that most of the "onboard distractions" (radio, climate control,gear selector, cup holders, children) are on the right side of the steering wheel. A womans natural ability to talk endlessly means that the device she's using to facilitate this task will most likely end up on her left side, the "free side". Unfortunately the outside world is closest on this side. In order to turn her head to be aware of whats out there she's going to have to take that phone away from her head . There in lies a big part of the problem. She feels safe, talking is the desired activity and therefore not very inclined to stop talking long enough to turn her head.
Also when one is "multi tasking" ones senses are shared and sometimes we just don't think about what we are doing as we do it.
All things considered when I'm next to her in this situation, I'm the one who has the disadvantage. I have every right to be aware and concerned !!

[asphaltgambler]

Too many issues in one thread to address properly.