My favourite story for a long time has just come along .....
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| Beijing Police With Advice For The Ladies |
.... I say 'favourite' for a number of reasons, but principally because it allowed me to pun horrendously in the post title. Still the story has some merits, as it concerns a part of the world where political correctness has yet to get even a fingernail, and as its a very ancient culture, it may never do so.
Anyway 'Auntie' as the BBC is sometimes known, has got her drawers in a fluster (along with tweeters and micro bloggers, in fact everywhere where humour extractions via a backside has occurred). And the reason for all these knickers in a twist? Well the Chinese police in Beijing, in what is seemingly meant to be a bit of good friendly advice for their lady driver readers, used their micro blog site to identify what they regard as common driving mistakes among women.
First mistake, the title:
"Female drivers, please pay attention and avoid driving mistakes" .... Snappy.
Then straight to the heart of the matter:
"The handbrake is normally used to keep the car stationary. A lot of new female drivers often start to drive in a hurry without releasing the handbrake. This increases resistance to the car and results in consuming more fuel." .... Good Advice, I have done it myself!
"Some female drivers lack a sense of direction and are often hesitant as to which roads to take.
"This is particularly so when [they] drive on roads such as elevated bridges. They often can't find the entrance or the exit. They can't remember how to find places which they have been to several times."
"Female drivers, please pay attention and avoid driving mistakes" .... Snappy.
Then straight to the heart of the matter:
"The handbrake is normally used to keep the car stationary. A lot of new female drivers often start to drive in a hurry without releasing the handbrake. This increases resistance to the car and results in consuming more fuel." .... Good Advice, I have done it myself!
"Some female drivers lack a sense of direction and are often hesitant as to which roads to take.
"This is particularly so when [they] drive on roads such as elevated bridges. They often can't find the entrance or the exit. They can't remember how to find places which they have been to several times."
.... Obviously Tom Tom and Garmin haven't made it yet, and in any event there must be swathes of China where road maps are banned ... let alone GPS, for 'security' reasons.
Advice was also forthcoming on women's braking abilities, and their 'jerky' acceleration techniques ..... the Chinese responses on the website have been largely negative .... Quelle Surprise!!
I'll add only one further observation, which is that tonight, I drove 6 miles behind a woman in the dark - she had no lights on, and was oblivious to other drivers flashing her. Quelle Surprise indeed!
PC was responsible for increasing women's insurance premiums not so long ago, a ruling which goes against the whole discipline of mathematics! Unfortunately I still find the stereotypical female-driver funny, perhaps it would be more unfortunate if I didn't?
ReplyDeleteMind you, the the stereotypical male-driver can just be simply frightening .....
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