^^^^^ yep, whoever said US roads are crap has never taken the back roads!! I do agree about speed limits though, ridiculously low!!!!

When I lived in Fremont (before the Internet), I thought it would be interesting to drive up the hills behind Mission San Jose on the very winding roads and eventually end up in Livermore. Along the way there were only one or two houses per mile and when I finally got to the top of the mountain, it was a dead end. I assumed that what goes up must come down which is true but only the way you go up.

Another time I thought I could get to Highway 17 by driving the back roads above Stevens Creek Reservoir only to find it ended about a mile from the Freeway.

I'm noticing the fact that all these people responding to this thread saying "I like driving" are men! Wonder if there's a pattern there?

Anyways, as a token American female, I'll be brave enough to speak up here. I hate driving. It's nothing more than a chore and a way to get from Point A to Point B. I want the easiest way possible to get to my destination - it takes enough concentration to make sure I pay attention to where I'm going and stay the hell out of the way of the idiots driving. That means nothing but automatics for me. I will never see (or understand) the need to have/drive a manual trans.

As a person who gets car sick, I'd never want to be in a car with any of you that like to speed through those twisty roads.

There was a stretch in PA that was a 45 limit and it wasn't construction...that was a chore, that and having exit/entry ramps on the fast lane :/

There was a stretch like that in Indianapolis too. 50 through Louisville. I was ****ed if I was going to take a bypass and listen to my wife bitching about 'where are you going', though. Or worse, have to pay a toll.

Nope, I said 'point south on 65 until you hit Cave City' and that's what we did

I do, I love it!

Three vehicles, all manuals, and though very different I enjoy driving them all.

We have some semi-rural back roads that I take fairly regularly, including ones on the way to drop little Miss P off at school, with some track-line kinks, bends and curves that require odd patterns of braking and shifting to take quickly and smoothly. I usually aim to take bends around 10-15mph over the "recommended" speed, and even in my truck there are several fast curves that I can take in fourth with my foot on the gas that drivers of autos take with their foot on the brake. I am surprised that no one has ever tried to tell me that my brake lights don't work!

So a woman shows up, an American one at that, and hey! Guess what? She doesn't like driving. Who'd a thunk it?

Aww take it easy! Varied opinions can only be a good thing, right?

I love driving, and I'm a woman and an American. So now we have guys who like and dislike driving, and girls who like and dislike driving. Sounds pretty well-rounded to me.

One of my favourite stories to tell was the time in mid-winter when I took my husband (my boyfriend at the time) for a drive on the back roads, neglecting to check beforehand if they'd been plowed. I ended up sledging over the drifts in that tiny old Civic, keeping my wheels in the pickup tracks to steer, and made it through a 2-mile minimum maintenance road. Poor hubby was clutching the seat for dear life, while I thought it was a great adventure!

Kristi

Next time I'm up at Crail circuit (nr St Andrews) I'll take you out as passenger for a leisurely drive around
Not had anyone throw up in my car for months.

That is the typical female response though.
I do know a fair few women who like driving though, we used to get a few to most trackdays and we have a couple who race with us.

And I've found out that this week my gf has been using my old $2k Honda manual to go the 80 miles to work instead of her rather nice Acura.
She actually enjoys driving it. Weird.

Now, now..not all women feel the way I do obviously. My SIL actually did some racing when she was younger, and her and my brother are always doing something with a car or 3. I just don't like feeling sh!t-scared, like I probably would on a twisty/hilly road in a manual. We drove back across the country from Seattle to KY in a moving truck through all the Western mountains, and that was extremely scary for me as it was, and that was with an automatic trans..I simply could not imagine doing that in a manual. That would be one of my worst nightmares!

I'm not sure where the difference is between a manual and automatic in that respect
A manual gives you far more direct control of the vehicle than any auto can.
So it must(?) be down to the ability/confidence of the driver that makes the difference.

Well, neither of us had ever driven a 16ft truck, plus we were towing our car behind it. Going through some of those steep grades (up & down) were very difficult to control. There were several instances where we thought the trans was going to blow up, it was being pushed so hard to go up the mountains. Maybe it's just because I can't drive a manual, but I think having the additional worry of having to shift gears as well as steer through the turns and watch speeds, would be too much for me.

But in my defence, I do have a neuro condition that affects my reflexes and whatnot, so I have lost some of my confidence in my ability to drive.

A lot of it is down to just being a chore.

I like driving, but find it just a chore and a pain here, even on the backroads, because they're shit, other drivers make it scary and plenty of cops etc.

Worse in winter or after a bit of rain.

That sounds quite stressful, and I can sympathize as the only time I recall being scared while driving was when I drove a 25' truck from New York to Virginia, and the main reason it was scary was because it was an automatic. The thing was big - in the UK would have been a Class 3 HGV, so driving it was very different from anything I had driven, but not knowing how it would respond to the gas peddle, combined with having little control over what gear it was in (the kick-down response was abysmal), made the whole experience stressful, and at times the transmission did indeed sound like it was going to blow up.

Me!

I suspect it comes down to the roads you drive, most of my driving is on country roads with a 55mph limit, but everyone, including cops, go along at 70mph+.

I just like being in my car to be honest, it's my own space.

I used to drive from Tampa to Clearwater, taking I-4, I-75 and I-275 and I hated it. Though, that might have had something to do with the AC in that car not working as well as the stop and go traffic for an hour and a half.