Different Sort of Speed

[terbang]

Driving along the road between Waiuku and Drury in my cage, well hardly a cage its really a "looser Cruiser" 8 seater, (Yeah I know). Anyway its a 100K speed limit with few passing lanes on a nice sunny day and some fucken moron has decided that 75-80 KPH is the order of the day and he also believes that moving over towards the shoulder is out of the question. Very shortly me an looser Cruiser are in the middle of a conger line behind Mr "the rest of the world doesnt exist" afore mentioned moron.. I am musing over this guys attitude and realise Im there for the duration (looser cruiser is a diesel) when in the mirror, overtaking into on coming traffiic, is Mr "I need to extend my penis with this HSV" followed by Mr "My patience has run out and I'm gonna take risks with everyone elses lives as well" and not too far behind is Miss "I think I'll just tag along" in my boyfriends skyline. They are overtaking in areas that I wouldnt do on beloved Bandit. The remainder of my journey is spent thinking about me, coming the other way, facing one of these dicks on a motorcycle or even worse my family coming the other way in the looser cruiser. So who are the biggest villains here?
I am sure the Rozzers will pick up on the dangerous passing but do they have the lateral thought (doesn't take much) to see that the guy holding up the traffic, whilst far from speeding, is travelling at an inappropriate speed.

[ducatilover]

scary shit aint it.... i hate people that over estimate their cages ability:angry2:

[froggyfrenchman]

or the ones that underestimate their cage's size and aceleration

[cowboyz]

I get extremely frustrated when in a line of traffic in the car travelling less than 90k/hr. Yesterday I had to do a trip to Taranaki and back in the car and it just seemed like someone had lowered the speed limit to 80k for some unknown reason. I have already had one headon in my lifetime and one is more than enough for anyone so I was patient but their ears would have been burning and I just about made enough money in the swear jar to buy my new ZX10.

The other thing that buggers the crap outta me ( now you got me reved up) is when you get into a decent line of traffic doing 110k and everyone is all happy and the world is good and a cop comes the other way and everyone slams on the brakes.

The ammount of times I wished I took the bike yesterday was staggering.

[nadroj]

Good roads up here huh?

[cowboyz]

dunno. the only time i got off the main road was going from egmont villiage over to waitara down egmont road. That would be a fun road on the bike. In 2 or 3 weeks I am back up there but this time I don't have to take large shipgo (because of course, when you transprt something by ship is is a cargo so when you transport something by car it has to be.....) Where the hell was I???

Oh yeah, In a couple of 3 weeks I will fine the longest possible way to New Plymouth from PN. Looking forward to it.

[ducatilover]

or the ones that underestimate their cage's size and aceleration
ahh yes them too:spudwhat:

[Jackrat]

Driving along the road between Waiuku and Drury in my cage, well hardly a cage its really a "looser Cruiser" 8 seater........

Well one of those fools made the big an last mistake he's ever going to today.
Coming home from work this avo' I got turned around by the law at the kingseat cross roads.Had to to go back via Patty,glenbrook railway to Waiuku to avoid all the bits of car an body spread all over the road.100 meters visable in all direction an the buggers still kill them selfs with stunning regularity,shit:oi-grr:

[Lou Girardin]

Don't you guys understand?
Mr 75km/h is doing nothing wrong, he is well under the speed limit. All is right with the world.

[Krayy]

Driving along the road between Waiuku and Drury in my cage, well hardly a cage its really a "looser Cruiser" 8 seater, (Yeah I know). Anyway its a 100K speed limit with few passing lanes on a nice sunny day and some fucken moron has decided that 75-80 KPH is the order of the day and he also believes that moving over towards the shoulder is out of the question. ...
Almost every time I drive or ride that road I get some numb-nuts doing the same thing. A bit of a pain with no passing lanes and I don't think Franklin Council will be pushing for any along that stretch, even if it does cause people to do drastic overtaking manouvers due to frustration. My strategy is to wait until we come up to Kingseat/Patumahoe x-roads then go whichever way they don't.

If I'm on the bike, no probs, just pass when I've got ~200m clear in front.

[Kjell]

What gets me is the plod along at 80~90k, but come a passing lane they find a faster gear or heavy foot suddenly they are going 120k+.

My last trip up north I saw this regularily, and on the hills and corners I caught up and usually had a chance to leapfrog, pissing off a few V8Supercar wannabes.

Managed to pass a few when the cops were stationed on the Waipu straights, and all the penil extender lads braked when their radar detectors went off. :motu:

Only car that actually seemed to respect and helped me play leapfrog until Waiwera was a Maserati BG. :niceone:

[Damon]

I hate people that think they can travel at 20kms under the limit and it'll be ok, it has to be the biggest cause of road rage and it winds me up really quick, but as usual the authorities are not concerned with the cause of the problem only the result because thats where the fines are.

I was disturbed to find out on the weekend that the speed limit on the Thames/Coromandel coast road, Kopu/Hikuai road and Paeroa/Waihi roads are all to dropped to 80km zones, I dont usually keep to the limit on the bike anyway but if i have to drive those roads in the cage i'll be homicidal because some twat will see fit to do them at 60 or 70 :angry: :angry2: :mad:

[MikeL]

It seems to me that not only have average speeds decreased over the last couple of years, but that there are a lot more drivers going unreasonably slowly on the open road. Doing 80 km/hr on a road with no passing lanes and holding up a line of traffic no doubt contributes to reducing average speeds but whether the nett result is an improvement in safety is debateable.

Little incident last weekend: I was on a Ulysses ride, a group of about 15 bikes, on SH 16. We were north of Kaukapakapa, spread out, and I was a bit more than half way back in the group. Suddenly I see in the mirror a cop car, lights flashing. With that sinking feeling I pulled to the left but to my surprise (and relief) he shot past me, and past the bike in front, and disappeared into the distance. About 2 km further on, on a straight stretch of the road, I see the front group of riders stopped, with the cop car, and the cop was flagging everyone in the group down. When we had all stopped he proceeded to inform us that he had had a complaint about dangerous overtaking. Turns out this guy towing a trailer had got upset because some bikers weren't happy about plodding along at 80 km/hr and had passed him in what he thought were inappropriate places or at inappropriate speeds. Of course it hadn't occurred to him that the reasonable and courteous thing to do was to pull over and let us pass.
After a lecture and a warning the cop sent us on our way without further ado, but it made me further realize how dangerous this idea of "dobbing in" is. Not long ago I received a letter from the police with allegations of dangerous driving resulting from a complaint by another motorist. Turns out that the incident happened when my wife was driving the car - she's never had a ticket in her life and is one of the most cautious and safest drivers you could hope to find. Her version of the incident (which I believe) is so completely different from the complainant's that if a prosecution had ensued there is no question but that it would have been laughed out of court. But of course she has no opportunity to defend herself. No doubt the police attitude would be that since there was no prosecution there is nothing to get upset about, yet the episode has left her with a lingering resentment and sense of injustice: she was proud of her driving record and feels it has been tarnished.
Regardless of the possible advantages of this "dob in" initiative (and I can see that in some special cases it could help prevent a tragedy), it is another nail in the coffin of human dignity, self-respect and justice. When I was a kid the accusation of "snitching" on someone was about the worst you could make.
Are the police so desperate that they are willing to turn us into a nation of informers?

[MSTRS]

MikeL - I'd have to say "Yep" to about all of that.
And the 'driving slow - speed up at passing lanes' has always been a problem. Shit, people used to complain about it in the '70s

[Squiggles]

if they couldnt see 100m clear infront after passing then all of the above


gotta love the drivers of merc's and beamers with the 80k's till someone tries to pass me attitude. Me and my dad rode up to waipu and back yesterday, on the way up there we catch up to a merc travelling about 80.... dad was infront of me and goes to pass when we reach a clear bit of road.... merc sees him passing and all of a sudden he's going 95 and trying to prevent dad from pulling back onto left hand side of road.......dad did get infront of him but had to give the throttle a good twist, and now this guy is tailgating him at 105....... bloody prick of a driver :angry: bet he wasnt too happy when i shot past him just after :2thumbsup

[MisterD]

Of course it hadn't occurred to him that the reasonable and courteous thing to do was to pull over and let us pass.


That's what really winds me up about this whole speed campaign thing. It's not about speed (fast or slow), it's about awareness of you and your machine's capabilities, the road, the weather and other road users.

[Indoo]

Regardless of the possible advantages of this "dob in" initiative (and I can see that in some special cases it could help prevent a tragedy), it is another nail in the coffin of human dignity, self-respect and justice. When I was a kid the accusation of "snitching" on someone was about the worst you could make.
Are the police so desperate that they are willing to turn us into a nation of informers?

Theres no human dignity, self-respect or justice dying on the side of the road to a drunk or dangerous driver because people didn't want to be 'snitches' and turned a blind eye instead.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10363054

[Ixion]

I'm opposed to the whole dobbing in thing. In my experience the most self-righteous drivers (and riders ?) are the most incompetant.The validity of a complaint must surely be directly determined by the competance and experience of the complainant? How do the police assess that. Or do they just take Mr Doddery Plonker's opinion of speed, safety etc as gospel?

And the drink driver issue is a red herring. "Dobbing in" a drunk driver is pointless. The written/web site dob in takes days to action, and in my experience (and I have tried it) the *555 is a complete waste of time. I have been told (on what i believe to be reliable authority) that it is pure window dressing, nothing is ever done about the calls.

One could try calling 111 , but what use is a taxi going to be to deal with a drunk driver ? And it hardly qualifies as an emergency , and anyway, how is the complainant to know whether the driver is drunk or not ?

[WRT]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10363054

I notice there was no mention of the driver having sped in that article - I'm not intending to make light of a serious situation, but would he have been pulled over by an officer if he had been speeding for 360k's?

I would hazard a speculation that it would be difficult to travel more than 300k's at excessive speeds without getting pulled over, but apparently you can travel 300k's driving excessively badly, and not get noticed by the law, only by other motorists.

[madboy]

WRT, it's luck that allows you to speed for 300k without getting pinged... some days it's on your side, other days it's not. Ah... the good ole days of Wgtn-Auck midnight runs.

Ixion, from what I've heard listening to the scanner over the years, *555 calls if deemed appropriate are passed on to the troops. Unfortunately mostly the cops either don't have time to react, are in the wrong place to react, or the informant provides too little information or doesn't follow the car, meaning it's location is unknown by the time the cops catch up.

I've been pulled years ago as a result of some slow-moving prat in a Rav4 taking exception to the fact that I passed him in my bright red sportscar. When he called it in, it was a car full of hoons passing on a blind corner. How two guys with a girl in the back fill a car I'm not sure, and I am not the sort of car driver who passes on blind corners. Needless to say the cops waiting down the road were dead keen to have a chat. My passenger, no shrinking violet, was about ready to punch out the middle-aged guy in the Rav4 by the time he pulled up for the horseshit he told. Cops saw it for what it was and no further action was taken. I'm just glad he wasn't more forceful on checking my ID at the time :devil2:

[Indoo]

And the drink driver issue is a red herring. "Dobbing in" a drunk driver is pointless. The written/web site dob in takes days to action, and in my experience (and I have tried it) the *555 is a complete waste of time. I have been told (on what i believe to be reliable authority) that it is pure window dressing, nothing is ever done about the calls.

One could try calling 111 , but what use is a taxi going to be to deal with a drunk driver ? And it hardly qualifies as an emergency , and anyway, how is the complainant to know whether the driver is drunk or not ?

Its funny that if dobbing in a drunk driver is so pointless that so many drunk drivers actually get caught as a direct result of someone reporting them or following them until a patrol car can catch up. All reports of drunk drivers get dispatched over the main radio channel and when the caller is following the driver a patrol car will be dispatched to try and catch the idiot, whether they are reported via 555 or 111.

Might wanna check your sources in future.

[Swoop]

Of course it hadn't occurred to him that the reasonable and courteous thing to do was to pull over and let us pass.


That's what really winds me up about this whole speed campaign thing. It's not about speed (fast or slow), it's about awareness of you and your machine's capabilities, the road, the weather and other road users.

Exactly!!! Spot on!!! SOMEONE HERE GETS IT!!!
The common (99,99%) fuckwit kiwi driver, does NOT think of anyone else on the road but him/her...

Doing 70kmh on the open road IS FINE!!! So long as that person is AWARE of others on the road...

OK. Rant over. Bling on its way!

[cowboyz]

I saw an awesome display of driving. I passed a POS 80s somthing mitz just out of town and that must have upset him. I was cruising at 110 and all of a sudden he came past me like a bat outta hell. Then he carried on passing everything he could. It wasn't like he was going fast because I stayed at 110 and never lost sight of him but he would come up behind cars very quickly and slam on the brakes. Then when there was a gap in the trafficc (which there was a bit of) he would pull out in such a fashion that the body roll on the car was incredibly obvious. I think he was using the full lock to full lock passing technique. Then you could hear him "gunning" it although his car didn't seem to want to go as fast as he wanted it to go. Double yellow lines didn't mean much to this guy either.

[ManDownUnder]

Just thank God they're not the Army... they'd be allowed to play with guns...

[Pixie]

Driving along the road between Waiuku and Drury in my cage, well hardly a cage its really a "looser Cruiser" 8 seater, (Yeah I know). Anyway its a 100K speed limit with few passing lanes on a nice sunny day and some fucken moron has decided that 75-80 KPH is the order of the day and he also believes that moving over towards the shoulder is out of the question. Very shortly me an looser Cruiser are in the middle of a conger line behind Mr "the rest of the world doesnt exist" afore mentioned moron.. I am musing over this guys attitude and realise Im there for the duration (looser cruiser is a diesel) when in the mirror, overtaking into on coming traffiic, is Mr "I need to extend my penis with this HSV" followed by Mr "My patience has run out and I'm gonna take risks with everyone elses lives as well" and not too far behind is Miss "I think I'll just tag along" in my boyfriends skyline. They are overtaking in areas that I wouldnt do on beloved Bandit. The remainder of my journey is spent thinking about me, coming the other way, facing one of these dicks on a motorcycle or even worse my family coming the other way in the looser cruiser. So who are the biggest villains here?
I am sure the Rozzers will pick up on the dangerous passing but do they have the lateral thought (doesn't take much) to see that the guy holding up the traffic, whilst far from speeding, is travelling at an inappropriate speed.
You think that's bad.Last week I looked out of my lounge window to see a cop passing a line of a dozen cars doing 80 kmh.
Highway 16,in the wet, poor visiblity,on a blind corner with a blind crest and potential fast oncoming traffic he couldn't see.
If he did have a head on,I wonder how they would white wash that one?