Catchafire

Good at eating pies apparently.

TommyLuck

To be fair, they do know good pies on these shores.

kiwigeordie

I'm in agreement about zero tolerance for drinking and driving but I'm not sure it will do much to reduce NZ's road accident rate if that's the intention.

On other threads we have (often jokingly) discussed Kiwi drivers bad habits.
Most Kiwi drivers are taught (?) to drive by friends/relatives who already have these bad habits ingrained and simply pass them along.

Another problem, I feel, is that driver testing is aimed at permitting the lowest common denominator to gain a licence.

Until we have a regime that considers a driving licence a privilege rather than a right and makes the test a tougher one which requires the driver to have had lessons from a licensed professional instructor, I doubt we will see much change in the accident rate as a result of this legislation.

Pete

Mark Smith

Pete, agree 100%

Tom1983

And world class in lieing

Although I think a born and bred liar is the number one requirement to becoming an MP for any country

BEVS

Absolutely agree. See enough of it hereabouts.

scrubbedexpat094

I concur also

trafford

Do others in the forum think that Kiwi's speed? Omg, the slow driving does my head in when I am in NZ.

I always thought that people in the UK are quick but considerate and skilled drivers. NZ drivers seem slow and quite rude in comparison. I will readily and shamefacedly admit that I speed - on motorways. I am quick and don't hesitate on other roads either, and make full use of my brakes. My nickname is "the getaway driver". However, I have never, ever been stopped in the UK for speeding. I have lived here for 16 years. I have spent a total of perhaps 4 months in NZ spread over those 16 years and I have had 4 speeding fines, my OH has had 3. So is that just my experience which doesn't reflect reality? Are kiwi drivers faster than those in the UK?

Tom1983

I admit I do 110 kmh in the national speed limit roads when driving out of Christchurch to other places, or on the Northern/Southern motorways and then usually do 5kmh over the suggested speed limit.

I find everyone speeds on Memorial Avenue to and from the airport. One prat in particular did about 120kmh and it's 60kmh. He/she driving probably won't like the letter from the police if they really do something about the bad driving complaints that suggest they do on the NZ police website

Most particular everyone speeds through roadworks. Very rarely do I find anyone going 30kmh through them. That's probably because they're fed up with the excuses

trafford

The roads seem so much wider in NZ too which means it is easy to find yourself speeding. Three out of my four speeding tickets were in the South Island too - and I was only there for two weeks. What is with the police there?

I am always very careful on suburban roads. The advertisement here in the UK which showed the (simulated) distressing image of a little girl lying dead by the side of the road with the message that at 30mph 80% of children hit by cars live, and at 40mph 80% of children hit by cars die, really changed my driving.

pippalonghorn

Maybe a powerful advert here about speeding and drink driving would be a good idea.

TommyLuck

Kiwi drivers aren't faster as such, but I find they're more inclined to take risks on faster roads, such as undertaking for no apparent reason.

I think if most of us are honest we've all broken the speed limit in the past and some still do - as a cyclist also, I do get a good giggle out of drivers who chastise cyclists as being law breakers and challenge them on this point at which they realise their hypocrisy, I digress - when in the UK I regulary used the M40 and M4 to make return trips to Birmingham and Bristol respectively.

So I thought up a test;

One day just out of Bristol I was bombing along towards London and a car with a couple of started flashing their lights right up my bum, so I let them through they gave me the finger as the flew past and beyond the horizon. Charming.

Anyway, at this point I decided to do a test, I was going to drive to the speed limit for the rest of my journey on the chance that the would head to London and see if I catch up with them. And funnily enough I did. Just as the M4 turns in to a fly over at Brentford they appeared in the right hand lane.

Needless to say I gave the finger back.

After pondering this, I realised that they could've stopped on the way so I decided to pick out markers car when making my way back to London on motorway journeys. I thought that head toward London would maybe raise the chance that marker car would last the journey.

Given that sometimes the marker could've been lost by simply turning off sooner than London more than half of the cars I ended up catching up with over the course of doing this ad hoc for two years. Enough for me to stop rushing, all I was doing was wasting fuel and burning money.

In NZ this is a quite a different experiment as you're much more likely to get caught behind an HGV or farm vehicles!!

Tom1983

The only advert that is worth anything is the barman one - that should be played here instead of the bro, monique thinks your dumb adverts!

Speeding ones I find are a complete waste of time. These speeding companies have an agenda which is ridiculous. When one was getting a campaign to reduce the national speed limit to 80kmh instead of 100kmh, I asked why and they mentioned to stop speeders and to allow less overtaking. Further discussions and they openly admitted the campaign was to make 50kmh a national speed limit. It's the same in the UK I believe, they want a national speed limit of 30mph on all roads (including Motorways) to prevent major damage being done and likelihood of serious injury.

I never went over 80mph after being fined for averaging 95mph by a police officer on the M11 once. Not only did I realise it wasn't about time, I realised how much fuel I was saving by sticking to a max of 80mph. It's the same here, I can easily get to Queenstown from Christchurch on a full tank (only just) if I go a constant 110kmh and constant 5kmh over any town I drive through on the way down. I did an experiment on the way and way back, fuel savings were very noticeable

The police do heavily clamp down on speeders and driving here but I see why they do. When you hear on national news about no crashes/deaths on the road during holiday months being the headline, that does say something about the standards of driving in this country. Sadly it won't make a difference

I do take the note about Insurance as well but then again I worry that making it compulsory will push the premiums up by a huge amount. One thing that must be bought in is to stop scams - I know ambulance chasers are banned under ACC rule (thank effin goodness) but scams to get money out of insurers for pants cars need to be bought in. One thing I'm glad to be away from is the insurance industry back in Blgihty for cars - it is borderline pathetic

BEVS

No idea.

What is clear to me is that Kiwi drivers are less considerate to other road users, speed inappropriately, overtake dangerously and simply do not drive to the conditions.

Further, they are far too quick to with the blaming pointy fingers at tourist road users, when the country's own track record is abysmal.

This latest was literally on the road a few minutes ahead of me. The emergency services passed me & I was the first vehicle detoured at the road closure . That could have been me in ICU because of someone taking a reasonably gentle bend too fast in the haste for what?

The rule , in these parts and from my experience, is to drive as fast as you can all the time and under no circumstances are you to allow a vehicle to be in front of you. Overtake at any cost, no matter what road markings, oncoming traffic or impaired vision ahead. Tail gate to bully at all times and do your best to scrape a sample of the other vehicle if you can.

pippalonghorn

Well said