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| Thread ID: 53359 | 2005-01-15 05:49:00 | Kiwi Drivers... | manicminer (4219) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 314425 | 2005-03-01 18:26:00 | Aucklanders are the worst, and most Ive seen are middle-aged (Say, 25 - 40ish) Men/Women... Usually on a Cellphone and cant be stuffed indicating or looking over their shoulder. 25 is middle aged? hehehe... I must be a fossil then being over 40. Agree on the cellphone issue, these drivers do the most stupid stings while driving. You think being older they would have some sense. Ditto for the women drivers doing their war paint while driving. Even saw a male driver in an Urban Assault Vehicle (big 4x4) reading the Herald one morning while moving at around 20kph. |
BoboTheClown (5652) | ||
| 314426 | 2005-03-01 19:08:00 | I always been puzzled by why some people drive without their lights on in semi darkness and even when it's also raining - what cost do they imagine they are saving. Is it wear and tear on headlight bulbs? I know that doing this is actually law in Canada. You can not turn the lights off, and they actually do help other drivers see each other more. Wear and tear? LOL. Turn your monintor off... it's wear and tear. I drive with my headlights on at lunch time through the summer.... habits from Canada, and they are good habits. |
mister harbies (5607) | ||
| 314427 | 2005-03-01 20:25:00 | its a good habit to drive with headlights on at all times. unforunatly a couple of muppet media includeing the AA was stupid enough to promote driveing in daytime with headlights on FULL so everyone else gets blinded by their lights. typical, drivers only think about themselves :( |
tweak'e (69) | ||
| 314428 | 2005-04-10 00:09:00 | www.nzherald.co.nz "The deaths, ironically, came on the same day as National pledged it would boost the number of police officers dealing with serious crime by moving resources away from traffic policing. " "Meanwhile, Police Minister George Hawkins said the only thing National was pledging to do by taking police off roads was to return New Zealand to the "bloody carnage" of pre-1999 road tolls. Police should be applauded for lower rates of crime, greater percentages of crimes being solved and safer roads, he said. Land Transport New Zealand chief executive Wayne Donnelly said any change in resources would have a dramatic impact as road safety enforcement was an important part of the safety programme." Well I'm caught in 2 minds about National's proposal to move resources away from traffic policing (that said, the current govt are not doing much about road safety either). The problem I see is that at the moment the police have a reputation for "revenue gathering" - just look at the number of speeding tickets that have been issued in the last couple of years. To me, simply focusing on speed and dishing out tickets willy nilly is not effective road safety enforcement. So taking a few police off the roads may not make a huge difference to the road toll as it stands. But then we need police on the roads to deal with all the bloody idiots. The problem is what they are doing currently doesn't go far enough (in my opinion). As much as I hate them as every other Joe Bloggs does, I'm surprised NZ doesn't have more visible fixed speed cameras. They're absolutely everywhere in the UK (and they are an eyesore). Unfortunately, in the UK, they seem to have replaced the cops on the roads. Maybe if we had a few more fixed cameras here then they can redirect police resources into dealing with other road safety issues. Unmarked cars do a good job because people often suddenly change their driving habits when they see a marked car. |
manicminer (4219) | ||
| 314429 | 2005-04-10 02:14:00 | Don Brash says driving at 111kph is OK, so why does he not have a policy to raise the speed limit to 120kph then he may think driving at 126kph is OK . So according to Brash breaking the law by only a little bit is excusable . If I steal $5 of someone I shouldn't be punished in any way according to the Brash philosophy because I only broke the law by a small amount. | Dally (6292) | ||
| 314430 | 2005-04-10 03:42:00 | Never mind asians...the worst culprits are boy-racer types. Who are not always boys or young. One thing I noticed: We had always had old english cars for ages, for instance an Austin Cambridge. No take-off power, column change gears you needed muscles to move, no power steering etc. The first "modern" car I drove after that I noticed how incredibly easy it was. Push on the brake with your little toe and if not for seatbelts you'd nearly go through the windscreen. Steer with your fingetip. Lightly breathe on the accelerator and you're off at full speed. And - wind up the windows and you can't hear a sound. Do that in an old english car (well maybe not a top end one) and you can hear all the traffic next to you, road noise etc. Makes you incredibly aware of neighbouring traffic. I think it gives people a false sense of security. They're all tucked up in their nice new quiet modern ABS, airbags, safety designed car so why not go fast, follow close etc etc. I tell you, you need at least a couple of miles between you and the car on front, in an OE car - to be able to stop in time. As for intersections, well theres no such thing as "booting it".You'd come to a bit of embarrassment in the centre if you tried it. Teaches you to be careful in my opinion. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 314431 | 2005-05-27 07:41:00 | It's been a while and I need a vent, so I thought it was about time I resurrected this thread after my experiences of driving over the last few days . Last nite I almost witnessed a head-on as some white van man was attempting an insane overtaking manoeuvre over a blind hill . And tonight I had a tailgater who seemed determined to get as far up my ass as physically possible for about 10k, through 100k, 80k and 50k areas . I ended up crawling along the 50k area at about 30 yet they still didn't get the message . Every time I sped up to 50-55 they closed the gap again . And why is it every other car has their fog-lights on? It seem that either cars have fog-lights on, just their side-lights on, no lights at all, or just very badly adjusted headlights . It's particularly irritating at this time of year driving home from work in the dark (and quite often wet) . Must be the time of year but do Kiwi drivers get worse over the winter or do the hazardous road conditions just expose them as the bad drivers they really are? For God's sake, people's lives are at stake yet what is being done to educate/punish people to drive sensibly? I know they had a blitz in Lower Hutt the other day on signalling, running stop signs etc, but generally it seems speed is all we hear about being targeted . |
manicminer (4219) | ||
| 314432 | 2005-05-27 08:09:00 | Bringing the criticism of a driver's ethnicity into the driving discussion reminds me of when I was in Germany a couple of years ago. Another driver made a dangerous move that caused some minor chaos. The Austrian, who was with me, made the comment....."look at that, it's a Belgian registered car, and obviously being driven by a Belgian driver. What else would you expect"!! We do have some really stupid drivers here, of all nationalities, ages and in both the male and female category. I don't know why they don't rigidly enforce the tailgating problem. Possibly a lack of police on the roads to do so. We frequently drive to Auckland and never see one police car. But last time we drove to Wellington, once we were past the Mangaweka area, they were very visible. Locally, I've seen some crazy driving with more of the concentration being on the driver's cellphone than the road. :( |
Marnie (4574) | ||
| 314433 | 2005-05-27 08:35:00 | I spend a lot of my day driving around auckland (call me a masochist if you want). I'm having a laugh at the moment watching people at roundabouts trying to comply with the indicating rule... you can see the looks of concentration and panic on their faces as they indicate one way, turn the wheel, then try franticly to flick the indicator the other way while steering the car... and yes- talking on the cellphone at the same time. The other option for those who seem to have become too frustrated is not trying to indicate at all. The supposed reason for the introduction of this rule is 'to make roundabouts safer', my thinking is that any additional requirement to make the driver indicate detracts from their concentration and therefore is unsafe. This has to be THE dumbest road rule foisted in the New Zealand driving public, I would much rather people got ticketed for not indicating when going into a roundabout... then deal with the exit strategy when they've got the hang of the first part. But then, we do live in New Zealand :-) |
Shortcircuit (1666) | ||
| 314434 | 2005-05-27 08:54:00 | In my experience, I'd say it's hard to pin the majority of the blame for bad driving on a particular ethnic group, nationality, age goup or sex . It's just about everyone from all backgrounds and trades . Contrary to opinion, motorcyclists, truck drivers, bus drivers and taxi drivers (ie people who drive professionally) are just as much to blame . But, if I were to make generalisations from experience . . . TAILGATERS well I'd say about 25% of all drivers follow to closely, maybe more . A seemingly disproportionate number of Maori/Pacific Islanders seem to like the boot of my car, but generally it's everyone, male, female, young, old (I've even had old grannies tailgate me through 50k areas when I've been doing just over 50) . White van men seem to think they save petrol by slipstreaming . I have a special 'insane' category for the tailgater, which includes the ones daring enough to get within inches of my bumper at high speed . This quite often occurs when driving to Auckland on the motorway, but especially occurs when road conditions are hazardous, and on twisty, hilly stretches of road when there are few opportunities to overtake . One can often spot a potential insane tailgater in the rear view mirror from a mile away . They are the ones who approach your bumper at high speed, look as though they are going to hit you, then apply the brakes at the last second . They will then hover between tailgating, dropping back and rushing abruptly towards your bumper again . I wish I knew how these people's minds ticked . SLOW DRIVERS Quite often Asian or people in their 70s (male and female) . PEOPLE NOT INDICATING Can't generalise . Although alot of older drivers seem to indicate right at roundabouts before continuing straight on . Women have a habit of not using their mirrors before turning, changing lane . Quite often arrogant people in a hurry - apparently the hassle of indicating will slow them down . In fact it slows everyone else down . INSANE OVERTAKERS (ie around blind corners): Nearly always men . Young to middle aged, and not always driving the fastest cars . Tend to be scruffy looking people who don't seem to care if there's no tomorrow . SERIAL SPEEDERS (ie people who insist on doing 20k above the speed limit, whatever the speed limit) Nearly always men (but then the majority of drivers on the road are men) . Often arrogant corporate-tpyes, white van men in a hurry . Subaru Legacy drivers . CELL PHONE USERS Difficult to generalise, but fair to say corporate-types and commercial vehicles are mainly responsible . Women on social calls . I've even spotted coppers driving around yakking on the phone . BAD PARKING It seems that very very few people attempt to reverse park in NZ . That includes driveways (isn't it illegal to back out of a driveway onto a main road? I'll have to check the roadcode on that one), in car parks around shopping malls (it's much easier and quicker getting out of a parking space when you don't have to reverse), and parallel parking . The times I've tried reverse parking in a shopping mall the car behind me has come up and stolen my space . Now I just block the space and wait until the coast is clear behind me . Similar thing when parallel parking too - the car behind me hasn't anticipated that I want to reverse park and he/she ends up having to reverse back down the street to give me room! In terms of regional variations, I'd say the closer you get to Auckland, the worse it gets . But then perhaps that's because there's alot more traffic . The worst bits of road I've experienced are Waikato rural roads, Coromandel at the weekend (probably Aucklanders), the Rimatukas (probably Wellingtonians) and the Desert Road around Ruapehu . |
manicminer (4219) | ||
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