Jan 29 2008
Sometimes You Just Know
Stereotyping is bad, right? The funny thing with stereotypes is that many are actually founded in lot of truth. Seriously, there is real factual data to support many of the most common stereotypes out there. As I was driving into work this morning it dawned on me that with a quick glance of a car’s make, model, and driver I can pretty much judge how they were going to drive. Specifically, will they be conservative, slow, ride my ass, cut people off, use a blinker, be friendly, let you merge in, etc.
I tested my theory out this morning and was 27 for 35 on guesses. Not too bad at all. For those of you doing the math at home that’s 77%. I can’t cover them all in this post, but let me throw out a few that I nailed and a few I whiffed on.
The Hits
Older model Saturn 2-door with male late 30s driver who is smoking and has a mustache: slow as Comcast customer service, didn’t pay attention, on 3 occasions he had to be reminded by a honk of the horn to start moving again.
Newer model BMW X5 with female early/mid 20s driver who is wearing giant sunglasses and drinking a Starbucks: She’s all over the road, cutting people off, riding my ass (well until I jammed on the breaks and made her spill her coffee), and flipping between speeding up and slowing down. You’ve all seen this driver, she speeds up to cut someone off, but then has to jam on the brakes because she didn’t leave herself enough room after she cut you off.
Newer model Toyota Camry (color was beige) with female early 30s driver who has hands at ten and 2 and very basic hair style: I offer you our safe and conservative drive. The beige color, the hands at ten and 2, and the Toyota brand give it away. Could you have picked a more bland combination. Guess what lane she drove in? The middle; because the slow lane would be too slow, and the fast lane too fast…so she took the middle; shocker!
The Misses
Bright yellow Hummer H3 with midget mom driving the kids: Assumed she’d be the classic Hummer driver who thinks they own the road because of all the steel they have between them and somone else. Also, guessed that given the fact she has kids in the car she wouldn’t be paying any attention at all to the road which would compound her poor driving skills. I was completely wrong. She hugged the slow lane; wasn’t crazy, used her blinker (I think that’s the frst hummer driver to do that), and even let someone merge in front of her.
Black newer model Lexus with grandpa driving alone: Assumed he’d be a putz on the road, moving gingerly through traffic, and your classic patient driver. Woah! Could not have been more off the mark. This guy was like one of those crazy drivers they shown on Cops. Seriously, you’d have thunk he was being chased or was about to have a heart attack.
So why the hell am I writing all of this? I have no freaking idea; but it was on my mind. I’m going to run my theories again on the drive home. Maybe our cars and looks tell people more about us than we thought. Or maybe, as my wife thinks, the car has a way of transforming the driver. She claims I’ve become a much more “entitled” driver since I get my new BMW. Not sure I agree with her…but let me ask you this, what would expect from the following driver:
4 Year Old BMW 530i in Titanium Silver
Driver is early 30s, no sunglasses, hands at 10 and 2
Let me know and I’ll tell you if you’re right.
