silvermuse

Just want to know what u all think about kiwis being absolutley horrendous on the roads. my aunt is so scared of their driving that she refuses to drive here. they are maniacs and no wonder they have the highest motor deaths in the whole world!!

sky

I'll have to have a word with me son

sky

I seriously think there are some very bad drivers here!

Herm

I don't need to think - I know from experience that kiwis are the worst drivers in the world.

P18PPS

Oh yes they really are bad, but my wife is learning their ways too quickly.

COWBOY_BUILDER

If you have ever driven in Turkey ,India or Central America :scared: ,i think you would be very happy with the standard i NZ....

Dappadee

Indeed, and don't forget Nepal and Pakistan.

lapsed kiwi

I'd agree - if you think NZ is bad, you need to get out more. We drove from Christchurch to Auckland the first week we were here, and my memories of NZ driving weren't spoiled too much. You don't get the idiots who drive at 40 mph no matter what, regardless of the queues behind them, and there is room to overtake when you need to. Also, kiwis use all the lanes available and merge sensibly where required, instead of the ridiculous queuing then bargeing you get in the UK. Having said that, my introduction to the Auckland motorway was getting cut up by some hoon doing about 160kph and using the lanes as a slalom course, and I've seen a few similar examples since. On the whole though, I'd rather commute on the Auckland motorway than the M4, M25 or M27, and if you can avoid AKL, it's even better

the turner family

The standard of driving here is nowhere near as bad as Spain. Apparently the local police have a code when they pull over a bad driver - DBA - Driven By Asian. The few times I have been cut up or seen really bad driving it has been a Asian so maybe it is a matter of adapting to the road system and laws here???

Don't want to be accused of being a racist - I am not. Just saying what I have seen.

Thanks

Matt

Oh yes the turning left / giving way to the right law is absolutely crazy.

babybella

I give up, Kiwi's are the worst drivers in the world, the weather is crap, the houses are crap, everybody is poor, crime is rife, wages are terrrible and you will all have to steal wood to keep warm and probably starve.

SO NOBODY BOTHER TO GO THERE!
KAZ signing off from this depressing site.

Pompey_Paul

Sri Lankan's ......rule of the road is that the biggest vehicle has right of way.....terrifying

Pompey_Paul

You have just described Southampton

NZ Climber

Just out of interest, can you substantiate your statistics? Because this page:

http://www.driveandstayalive.com/inf...apita-2004.htm

Shows NZ to be about twice as bad as the UK (when you do it per capita which is the only reasonably way) but nowhere near as bad as say, Iran (4 times worse than NZ!)...

And just in case you think big countries are safe, think again, the USA is three times as bad as the UK (so half again as bad as NZ)...

And no, the Kiwis aren't the worst drivers in the world, the worst drivers in the world are the Nepalese.

frecka

I came out of retirement to answer this!
When we decided to drive round NZ the scare stories about kiwi drivers terrified me, and I initiatied many threads on this forum to be reassured.
Having driven an unwieldy camper van the length and breadth of NZ i have to say that the drivers are a heck of a lot more polite and appreciative than I could have wished for - we only had one incident of road rage in Rotorura - the guy pretended to phone someone with our number plate ...I wanted to tell him he needed to be a bit more creative to frighten people from Belfast !

Now the roads are a whole new ball game! I still have nightmares about driving that Wellington - Hutt Road in the driving rain....

In fact lots of people were over and above the call of politeness and helpfulness- we found that a lot in NZ.

We decided that NZ wasn't for us, beautiful country, wonderful people though.

silvermuse

i have recently done a documentary on speeding for my media studies class and when i was researching for my information a while back now, NZ had one of the highest rates in the world of crashes due to speed, intoxicated drivers and general poor observation. i have just read in the local newspaper today that canterbury has one of the poorest driving skills.
i only have to get into my car to see how crap the driving is here. and considering i have only lived here for nearly a year and a half, i have lost several friends due to car crashes and many others have barely escaped from crashes.
what does everyone think about the age for obtaining a licence is 15? do you think the restricted level helps in any way or is it just another money making scheme?