Speed tolerance reduced for December and January

[Ulsterkiwi]

Why not, its more useful than what you pricks are usually doing, giving out bullshit tickets for highly dangerous activities like not having rego (I had a WOF), not wearing a seatbelt, or doing 58 in a 50 at 3am on a Tuesday.

you are lucky they didnt take you away in the meat wagon and lock you up, how can you live with yourself????

[Ender EnZed]

So, the 4km/h limit will apply for all of December and January according to this report.

I'm much more bothered by the different coloured Police cars. They're probably going to be harder to identify at a distance.

[Zedder]

It does have a sniff of BS around it. It would seem that speed by itself is rarely if ever the direct cause of an accident. What we do have firm evidence of is the correlation between the level of carnage resulting from road traffic incident (not an accident because that implies noone was at fault, spot the movie quote) and the speed the vehicle or vehicles were moving at when the incident occurred.
What CAUSED the incident in the first place is usually either inattention or bad decision making or a combination of both.

Heres a classic example. We were riding home. On SH1 sitting behind a ute+trailer for several kms whose speed was fluctuating between 60-80kph. Get to a two lane section of road and we mirror, signal, headcheck, manoevre to pass this guy whose legal speed should be not more than 90kph when road conditions allow. At 115kph we begin to get past him. I was paying attention to the road when we resumed the left hand lane but I would say we were clipping 120kph at that point and just about keeping in front of this guy. Who is more in the wrong? What was his decision making like? What was ours like?

Another. Proceeding south on SH1. Approaching a built up area on 2 lane road. Lead rider is in front of me 95-100kph, passing vehicles travelling much slower. He is in the left wheel track of the right hand lane. I am 2 seconds behind in the right wheel track of the right hand lane. My bike is about .95m wide. Group of riders approaching from behind. Still at 95-100kph. The rider immediately behind me disappears from my mirror. I hear, then see him coming along side me on my right hand side between me and the crash barrier on his american made large cruiser style motorcycle with exhausts producing lots of dB and hard luggage further widening his machine. I made an evasive manoevre in response (I dont mind admitting I was scared) He was moving past about 10kph faster than me. This group is immediately in front of us for the next several kms so clearly his manoevre has gained much in terms of progress and time.
What possible difference would it have made should this muppet have been travelling at 104 not 110kph?

Shit decisions cause people to die or be injured. Speed merely determines the details.

In fact, Professor Mike Regan of the University of New South Wales and a 20 year veteran of studies into Transportation Human Factors, believes inattention is the biggest contributing factor in crashes but speed is often wrongly coded as the causal factor.

[Gremlin]

Yawn. Told ya this would happen.

So what? It's still totally optional to get ticketed.

Don't want to? Don't speed.

I'll fairly admit my general policy is speed limit +10kph. Take into account speedo inaccuracy, how worn my tyres are and which tyres they are etc, and it's good for 5kph over-read, so real speed, I'm not much over the limit. I can pretty much do that up hill down dale all day as I've got used to it. Last long weekend with the tolerance change, I'm reminding everyone about the change. I go out on the 2nd day, first few kilometres down the road... completely forgot the change, just settled into my usual rhythm. Fortunately there were no cops, and I did my best to adjust. It's annoying though as everything is a little bit different, the gear and speed aren't quite the same etc.

My ute, with cruise control, a bit easier, set and forget, but curiously, it's the first vehicle I've come across to actually under-read for some odd reason, roundabout 3kph.

Boss has been in Europe for 6 months... says the NZ cops are some of the strictest he's experienced.

Oh... and I wish the cops would enforce reduced speed limits, even a van would do. NW motorway is full of it at the moment, and even at limit +10, I hold my life in my fucken hands as the morons blast past...

[R650R]

This will be an Epic fail just like the time when they did the hidden camera thing. Back then the crash/offending rates went up as people after awhile just said oh hell just do it anyway and went back to speeding.
I agree we need some level of enforcement to protect us from ourselves but really this is a public relations fail and ineffective use of police time. There's ample rubbish driving out there that people should be pulled up on even though they aint speeding at time. And really the cops aren't going to enforce this 100% of the time as they will get bored and depressed by it too, hardly a 'better work story' pulling someone for 105...
But this is just the thin end of the wedge to get us used to what is next; which will be mandatory GPS tracking bought in with the assistance of phone companies and insurers. Just like how the USAF is replacing F16 pilots and planes with drones, highway cops will be redundant and some AI computer system will auto fine you for every offence and deduct it straight from your bank account.

[swbarnett]

"cars still cross subsidise motorbikes

My answer to this is simple "SO FUCKING WHAT?"


Name any two groups and I can guarentee that one subsidises the other. Let's, for example, split people up into those that regularly have accidents and those that hardly ever do. Obvious cross-subsidising there. Should someone that has never made an ACC claim in their life be awarded their entire life's levies back on their death bed? Of course not.

[swbarnett]

Yawn. Told ya this would happen.

So what? It's still totally optional to get ticketed.

Don't want to? Don't speed.

One won't have a motor accident if one doesn't leave the house either.


When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson.

[Scuba_Steve]

highway cops will be redundant and some AI computer system will auto fine you for every offence and deduct it straight from your bank account.

It's only a matter of time...

[Zedder]

My answer to this is simple "SO FUCKING WHAT?"


Name any two groups and I can guarentee that one subsidises the other. Let's, for example, split people up into those that regularly have accidents and those that hardly ever do. Obvious cross-subsidising there. Should someone that has never made an ACC claim in their life be awarded their entire life's levies back on their death bed? Of course not.

Yep, it doesn't just apply to ACC though. There's probably a large amount of people who have never had to use a hospital's medical/surgical system fully and they certainly don't get a payout.

[awa355]

15 vehicles in file, the front one is doing 100kph, I 'll bet the last one is doing barely 80kph. And no one's going to get pissed off??

Ants might keep a single file without the concertina effect but humans can't.

[swbarnett]

Yep, it doesn't just apply to ACC though. There's probably a large amount of people who have never had to use a hospital's medical/surgical system fully and they certainly don't get a payout.

Exactly.

What we need is a nation-wide appreciation of the meaning of "public good" spending.

[chasio]

Yawn. Told ya this would happen.

So what? It's still totally optional to get ticketed.

Don't want to? Don't speed.

Like I said, I'm not a speed merchant and I do cross reference my speedo versus my bar-mounted GPS every now and then, when I find a suitable piece of quiet road. So I have a fair idea of how fast I am going, but I have no cruise control and no warning of exceeding a given limit. Yet if you saw me riding while you were working, I doubt very much you'd bother stopping me for a chat, even.

And of course getting a ticket is optional, I said as much, but that is deliberately missing the point. Unless I aim to do 90 in 100 zones (and thereby get (a) frustrated and (b) rogered up the behind every third day), I will need to be be uber-vigilant on every downhill. And if I am looking at my speedo four times as often, I am paying that much less attention to the real dangers around me.

Surely the whole point of the 10kmh tolerance (which I'd be happy to see at 10% e.g. 55 in a 50) is that it allows us to spend our attention dollars more fruitfully than ogling the speedo?

[willytheekid]

Yawn. Told ya this would happen.

So what? It's still totally optional to get ticketed.

Don't want to? Don't speed.

Actually its not always optional!...With the NZ mechanical standards LAWS relating to speedo accuracy and manufacturers allowable tollerances (10% either way!), it's still easy to get a ticket for no personal fault of the driver...but you guys knew that already aye, So you set it up so it cost's the driver Aprox $300 for a speedo accuracy check (Which can ONLY be done at approved testing facilities...which there are bugger all of), so the system goes against current mechanical law's, offers no affordable options to the majority of the public in regards to disbutes, and basically ensures maximum - un-questioned revenue collecting for extremely minor infractions of the out of date speed limits within NZ.

...But please, keep hiding behind the system, ya little work sayings and your manipulated figures-(The ones you now refuse to release to the media and public because they PROVE the current "war on speed" has nothing at all to do with actual Roadsafety, it is purely focused on revenue and profit!).

So I certainly hope you guys are happy selling out to the Gov'ts demands for more $$!..because its at the cost of the publics respect, tolerance, understanding and co-operation...thats what its actually costing YOU!! (Works both ways...but fuck the public aye, there just a pain in the arse!..but a great source of $$revenue$$...aye!)

And The Transport Ministry's very own annual speed survey showed the average speed on the open road fell to 96.3kmh!!, the lowest since the survey began in 1995.

...nuff said!, your blatantly ripping your fellow Kiwis off and using road-safety as a guise to do so...for shame!







PS...if you don't wanna be disrespected by the public?...then don't disrespect the public and there understanding of clear-cut Bullshit!

[Zedder]

Exactly.

What we need is a nation-wide appreciation of the meaning of "public good" spending.

I got my appreciation of public good spending by going overseas. However, I still think ACC has a way to go yet.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Yeah, that'll work. A whole pile of uniformed cops out filling potholes on the state highways.

as if!. I would be in favour of this if they were in a line, singing spiritually uplifting songs, and swinging their implements in time. COOL HAND LUKE or O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?, take your pick.

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