Re: Kiwi drivers
 

OK when someone is driving a motor vehicle how do you tell their Nationality....:blink: "They" maybe from any country in the World but some on here seem to have the ability to "know" they are Kiwi which will automatically mean they are not as good at driving as the ones complaining....:thumbdown:

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

... and don't forget those muppets who think nothing of getting in their car and driving drunk/stoned :eek:

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

May not always work, my ex was parked in a 400 place car park, and there was only one other car there quite a distance from her.. Still she managed to back into it..:rofl::rofl:

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

The one that scares me is the rules about when a driver is turning left from a minor road onto a highway. I'm quite possibly wrong and confused but did it used to be that highway drivers had to stop to let the other driver out and it's now changed but most drivers don't know it's changed?
When we were over fact finding we were extra careful to keep an eye in case anyone suddenly pulled out into the highway from our left when we were coming down it doing 95.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

The stoopid left turn rule was scrapped ages ago and honestly you would never know that it ever existed - people took to the new and improved way overnight and there was a lot of fuss about nothing.

My biggest bugbear is the car park dodgem games where the use of the laning is purely optional, why the heck can't people stick to driving in the clearly marked lanes and stop cutting across lanes to take a short-cut or hop over to a space closer to the blooming shop. They come at you from all blooming angles. :thumbdown:

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

No, that has never been the rule. That would lead to absolute carnage. Lol.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

the rules changed in around March/April 2012, as I had only a few weeks of having to stop on a main road to let cars turning right, crossing in front of me, turn. bloody stupid and dangerous rule.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

Only if you were turning left.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

if I was on main road and someone in the opposite direction wanted to cross and turn right I had to stop on the main road and let them turn right, across my path if I wanted to turn left - yes.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

You only had to stop and give them right of way if you were turning left into the same road. You didn't have to stop if you were driving along the road and not turning off:p
They probably thought you were exceptionally polite at stopping for them!
It's something I do if I'm in slow moving or stopped traffic as a courtesy [aarrggh reminded me of idiots who are in stopped traffic but block junctions:frown:]but not if I have a clear road.


Ooops should read the post properly! That's what you said you did:o

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

Thank God that stupid rule has gone - even now after it has gone it is still causing confusion! Can't imagine why on earth anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place or where it came from. :confused:

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

If you are turning right off a busy road, you are often caught in a dangerous spot sitting stationary in the middle of the road waiting for a break in traffic. I think the idea was to give those cars the right of way over left turning cars (but not straight through cars) from the opposite direction, in order to get those cars off that dangerous place quicker. Theories dont always work well in practice, I suppose.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

Had a few hairy episodes since I got here!

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

I agree with you to an extent but unfortunately the sheer number of crap drivers undermine that argument in this case. We've been teaching our daughter to drive for the last year or so and it is a sharp reminder of just how utterly shite many, many Kiwi drivers are :thumbdown:

No, this is not quite right.

Exactly. It was actually a rule that works well outside of metropolitan areas - it always felt like good manners to me! Anyway, there has been no problem changing it and it was right to do so as traffic volume is so much higher than when the road rules were devised.

Re: Kiwi drivers
 

You have to become a very defensive driver here. Be very careful on rural roads because folk will try to overtake you at speeds way over 100km/h on blind bends, hidden rises, coming into urban areas, outside schools, etc. On rural roads you will wait a long time for an ambulance and it will be a long trip to hospital, whcih is most the reason for the high road fatalities here. When we were back in the UK for seven months in 2012, despite the massive volume of traffic and battling ice, snow, and flooding, we were rarely faced with the risky situations that are so common here. Does my head in.