The hammer of the gods/Will drive our ship to new lands

[jrandom]

Thought we needed a more obscure title for the next rant about immigrant drivers.

I had another not-quite-a-run-in with the noodle-eating variety on the weekend. Was in the cage carrying the wife and kids, about to turn right from one minor road onto another. Saw a car moving rather quickly toward me from the opposite direction with its left indicator on. Would normally have simply turned in as per my right of way, but a little voice in the back of my head urged caution, so I sat and waited for him to slow down.

Naturally, he didn't. He just bowled through, turning left in front of me. If I'd relied on correct behaviour from him, he would have neatly T-boned me on my passenger side. You can imagine my utter non-surprise on noticing the Asian male driver with Asian female passenger, who failed to even look in my direction during a vigourous horn tootle from me as he turned.

He pulled over for some reason within 100m of turning into the street. I *really really really* wanted to stop and give him a piece of my mind, but SWMBO got quite upset at the idea of all that unpleasant conflict and insisted that I drive on. Not wanting to cause familial strife, I complied.

My wonderings are thusly...

- Would it have achieved anything had I stopped and let 'em have it? Verbally only of course, me not having my riding boots on...

- How the hell do I educate the missus about the finer points of dispute resolution, namely how *good* it feels to loudly berate people who richly deserve it?

[James Deuce]

Steady mate, steady!



Jim2

[Jackrat]

What you do is go buy an old holden or ford from way out west were they still drive them things,Change the plates with something that was last rego,ed ten years back,in somebody elses name,Take a big gun an LOTS of amo.Tell the Mrs ya, going to buy some smokes,Then drive into Howick an go Bloody troppo.
Don,t forget to post us all from prison an give us your version cause I,m sure the press will blow it all out of proposion an twist
the facts Thus making you look like the bad guy.Hey you should even be able to make a nice coin selling the movie rights.
Go get em, Tiger.

PS,,Choise title.

[Marmoot]

Originally posted by jrandom
Thought we needed a more obscure title for the next rant about immigrant drivers.

I had another blah blah blah

Funny, I had experienced it too, too many times. Only, the roles were reversed with some old 60-ish white trash, black women with arabic dress, stupid white boyracers, coconuts, or other noodle-eating type. I'm a noodle-eating variety by the way.

At least in noodle-eating countries, the minimum drivers license age is more than 15....

[SPman]

The age may be 15, but most of us old farts were drivin well before then - hell. at 15, we had more experience on the (crappy) roads, than the average 20 yr old has now...

[What?]

Originally posted by jrandom
Thought we needed a more obscure title for the next rant about immigrant drivers.

Shit, I didn't think a line from The Immigrant Song the least little bit obscure. But then, I am getting old(ish). So just watch out for me when a get a bowling club uniform and drive a Volvo

[What?]

Interesting that there are now quite a few threads here about Asian drivers and their (percieved) abilities. My experience put the scariest people on the roads as being white women, 30's, blonde (bottle most likely) driving expensive things like Merc's, BMW's or Lexus's (Lexi?). Maybe the problem in Auckland is different to other cities, but I have personally seen no real evidence of it.

The next biggest mobile hazard is the travelling salesman.

Then old farts wearing bowling hats driving Volvos.

And... Everyone but me.

[Motu]

I thinks it's just that they have appeared rather sudenly and their poor driving skills makes us notice them.30 years ago it was an influx of Pacific Islanders - outa grass huts and onto Auckland streets...but now we are used to them,they still can't drive for shit...but it's easy to spot the Bongo van crawling over the Onehunga bridge and be prepared.At least they are predictable,living in their own slow world,the Asians are being noticed because of the unpredicablity.

[James Deuce]

Motu makes a good point.

Personally, I'm still more afraid of my own Dad when it comes drivers I'd rather avoid. He's an aggressive redneck who opens his door on lane splitting bikes and treats every drive like he has to get there first.

He embodies all the aggressive traits I really loathe in late middle age white NZ males.

I've spent a bit of time driving in the UK and I swear that it is easier to get from point A to point B in heavy traffic purely because of the courtesy road users show for each other. Despite NZs lower population density levels it seems to take longer to commute 10kms in NZ than it did in the UK in the late '90s.

As Motu says, at least you can spot the avoidable stereotypes and take avoiding action or plan your escape. Blokes like my Dad may be hatching a nasty plan without any warning just because bikes appear to be having an easier time of it in raffic.


Jim2

[MikeL]

Originally posted by What?
Maybe the problem in Auckland is different to other cities, but I have personally seen no real evidence of it.

Not only is Auckland different but within Auckland there are different areas of traffic behaviour depending on the ethnic and socio-economic mix. Where you get a concentration of one particular group (whether age, race, social class) the behaviour patterns will tend to reflect that predominance. Riding through Mt Roskill with its roundabouts I rarely encounter the failure to give way problems that I get in Royal Oak. It's not too difficult to recognize these differences and adjust to them, but however skilful we are, unpredictability on the part of others will always increase the risk of accidents. It's all very well to pontificate about defensive driving, but if everyone drove or rode at the sort of speeds necessary to prevent all accidents caused by any act of negligence or stupidity on the part of any other road user, the city would come to a standstill. If we have to ride on the assumption that everyone else on the road is ignorant of the road code, we may well succeed in staying alive (and reducing our insurance premiums) but at the cost of efficient and pleasurable transportation.
I have done my share of stupid things on the road (and still do, from time to time). But at least I know how to calculate risk, and how to react to unexpected situations. It's called experience. How to allow inexperienced and incompetent motorists to build up their skills and experience without posing an unacceptable risk to other road users must be a difficult balancing act for licensing authorities. I don't have all the answers, but I would have thought that more resources put into driver education combined with more restrictive licence requirements such as are common in most European countries would be a suitable starting point. Along with more appropriate targetting of offenses. But of course, we all know that speed kills...

[aff-man]

I apologize to any women who i might offend .But going home from tech at about 3:10ish and having to pass 3 schools. The problems encountered are mother drivers who only go to school and back are concentrating on thier kids not the road and are driving a vehicle way to big for thier own good (suv,5 litre merc ect ect ect). The nationality does come into it to some exent but that is just based on numbers of incidents i have had. Some of the worste/scariest situations i have had have admitidly been with asian drivers but there have been a few doozies from middle age, wealthy european housewives   (or old people of any nationality can we or should we report these drivers??)

[James Deuce]

Originally posted by MikeL
.........I don't have all the answers, but I would have thought that more resources put into driver education combined with more restrictive licence requirements such as are common in most European countries would be a suitable starting point. Along with more appropriate targetting of offenses. But of course, we all know that speed kills...

More excellent points!

However in regard to your last point the Traffic Superintendent has been quoted as saying that he doesn't believe in higher education standards for drivers in NZ as it leads to over-confidence and worse accidents will ensue due to driving everywhere at higher speeds.

I think compulsory re-testing (especially as we no longer have a lifetime license.) and constant reviews of road rules to adapt them to the changing driving environment would go a long way to improving standards. This would actually make drivers accountable for their own knowledge base (or lack of) in regard to the road rules.

We have an "accident" culture in NZ that is unproductive when analysing road use issues. There are very few accidents on the road. Most multi-vehicle (i.e. 2 or more involved) incidents involve guilt to a lesser or greater extent for the participants. This by definition means that is wasn't an accident. Every "accident" I have had or been involved in has been settled to my Insurance company's satisfaction as no fault on my part. I think I could have avoided all of them if I'd been more attentive.

Jim2

[MikeL]

Originally posted by Jim2
the Traffic Superintendent has been quoted as saying that he doesn't believe in higher education standards for drivers in NZ as it leads to over-confidence and worse accidents will ensue due to driving everywhere at higher speeds.

I must have missed that pronouncement. What a gem!! Imagine if that philosophy was applied in other areas...

No, I don't want my heart surgeon to be too highly educated - it might make him over-confident!!

No, my Air NZ pilot shouldn't have to pass a rigorous test: he might think he's qualified to fly twice as fast!

I still find it hard to believe that a supposedly intelligent, responsible public official could come out with something as inane as that.

But the sad thing is that I shouldn't really be surprised...

[James Deuce]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MikeL
[B]

Originally posted by Jim2
the Traffic Superintendent has been quoted as saying that he doesn't believe in higher education standards for drivers in NZ as it leads to over-confidence and worse accidents will ensue due to driving everywhere at higher speeds.

I must have missed that pronouncement. What a gem!! Imagine if that philosophy was applied in other areas...

No, I don't want my heart surgeon to be too highly educated - it might make him over-confident!!

No, my Air NZ pilot shouldn't have to pass a rigorous test: he might think he's qualified to fly twice as fast!

I still find it hard to believe that a supposedly intelligent, responsible public official could come out with something as inane as that.

But the sad thing is that I shouldn't really be surprised...

I watched the B__tard say it on a telly interview and have been desparately searching for a copy of either the transcript or the video itself. As soon as I get my grubby, indignant little hands on it I'll post it.

Jim2

[Coldkiwi]

that has got to be worth making a ruckus about. no wonder aussies laugh at us!

 

oh yeah, and articles like this can't help (from NZOOM this morning) Supervision for man caught having sex with sheep

02 December 2003

A man convicted of bestiality with a sheep admitted his crime because he

knew he needed help, Dunedin District Court was told yesterday.

The 19-year-old sickness beneficiary was sentenced to two years supervision.

The man was arrested after he was found unlawfully in a yard at night on

September 25.

When interviewed by police he admitted the offence because he realised he

needed help, his counsel John Westgate said.

The defendant was embarrassed and was highly motivated to change, hetold

Judge Stephen O'Driscoll.

Mr Westgate said a psychiatrist well-suited for treating the defendant's

condition had recently arrived in Dunedin and was prepared to work with him.

Crown counsel Bill Wright said the defendant was convicted of indecency with

an animal just over a year ago. This year's offending was committed while he

was subject to a sentence of supervision for that offence.

Imposing two years supervision Judge O'Driscoll said the defendant was to

undergo psychological assessment and individual counselling to address his

offending and behaviour, and any other treatment as directed.

While granted final name suppression last year and on this occasion, it was

highly unlikely he would again receive suppression, the judge said.

 

BUT DON'T LET ME HIJACK THIS THREAD