ANOTHER speeding clamp down

[Scuba_Steve]

Wouldn't it be nice if they just clamped down on bad driving instead?
They could start with Holden drivers, here's a prime example

[FJRider]

Travelling at 110km/h on a clear piece of road with 2km of visibility does not cause an accident, but will see you with a fine.

At 110 km/hr ... that 2 km clear visibility will last about a minute and a half. Less if a vehicle is coming towards you. You wont know it's coming ... or ... if its a threat to you ... until it is within a few hundred meters of you.THEN .. it's just a couple of seconds away from you.

Up that initial speed a bit ... and the timings (and your potential lifespan) shorten considerably.

Speed is seldom the only cause of accidents ... just one factor. Speed is the easiest to police ... so they do. High traffic areas are well policed (usually) with holiday weekends more so ...

[Berries]

At 110 km/hr ... that 2 km clear visibility will last about a minute and a half. Less if a vehicle is coming towards you. You wont know it's coming ... or ... if its a threat to you ... until it is within a few hundred meters of you.THEN .. it's just a couple of seconds away from you.

Which is all just basic physics. The poster said that 110km/h on a clear road with 2km visibility does not cause an accident. This is correct. There is no magic Newtonian switch between one speed and another, even though the rigid enforcement and promotion of a tolerance would suggest that there is.

[BoristheBiter]

Which is all just basic physics. The poster said that 110km/h on a clear road with 2km visibility does not cause an accident. This is correct. There is no magic Newtonian switch between one speed and another, even though the rigid enforcement and promotion of a tolerance would suggest that there is.

110km/h on a clear road with 2km visibility and you cant see the cop? you deserve the ticket.

[Ulsterkiwi]

I agree with your sentiment about the risk of hiking premiums but I think making insurance compulsory would lead to better driving/riding outcomes and improve vehicle road worthiness. On the latter, from memory you can't get a vehicle WOF (MOT) disc in the UK without an insurance policy cover note.

there is a scientific term for that theory........bollocks

making something compulsory does not automatically change the mindset of those who do not voluntarily do the thing that you have made a requirement. How many armed robbers use a firearm they have obtained with a licence? And no, its not that different.

Making insurance compulsory is giving insurance companies a licence to print money. Interesting that the UK has its insurance tax as well, so make you have something and tax you for being compliant.

[TheDemonLord]

Seen how hard it is to get a licence over there? You actually need some level of competence, and hours behind the wheel in different conditions.
Apparently, driver training is good, because (this is a fucking long shot here) it trains drivers.
But, what the fuck would I know? Dah gummint knows wotz best for all youse guys and I follow them.

I watched a docu about driving in germany - and I do agree, the driver training over there is more rigid - however I believe my post still has relevance:

The national mindset in germany is very structured, with a clear 'this is the right way to do things' and 'this is not the right way to do things' - Why do they have the degree of professional driver training as compulsory - because (and feel free to read this is in a faux german accent):

"Das ist das rvight wvay, Jah"

Compare to NZ - our national mindset is very much 'She'll be right', so people that can't drive, teach people to drive and She'll be right, we have no formal driver training, but that's okay, She'll be right (you see where I am going with this)....

[oneofsix]

At 110 km/hr ... that 2 km clear visibility will last about a minute and a half. Less if a vehicle is coming towards you. You wont know it's coming ... or ... if its a threat to you ... until it is within a few hundred meters of you.THEN .. it's just a couple of seconds away from you.

Up that initial speed a bit ... and the timings (and your potential lifespan) shorten considerably.

Speed is seldom the only cause of accidents ... just one factor. Speed is the easiest to police ... so they do. High traffic areas are well policed (usually) with holiday weekends more so ...

That sounds like a sucker that has swallowed the propaganda, do you swallow? 110km/hr driving to the conditions, and to the limit of your visibility and you start braking sooner than the person driving at 100km/hr and constantly checking their speedo because the is comfortable at higher speed but artificially limited.

I reckon a prime example is coming up in Wellington if the WCC reduce the CBD limit to 30k, we have an issue with the wore jaywalkers in the country all ready, roads limit below the natural speed and the drivers wont be looking out, jaywalkers will feel more confident due to the lower traffic speed. The WCC has been warned by the AA but the WCC too have swallowed as have all those who think they only do 30k through there anyhow. I hope I and the AA are wrong but international research, which the AA quoted, says otherwise.

[oneofsix]

there is a scientific term for that theory........bollocks

making something compulsory does not automatically change the mindset of those who do not voluntarily do the thing that you have made a requirement. How many armed robbers use a firearm they have obtained with a licence? And no, its not that different.

Making insurance compulsory is giving insurance companies a licence to print money. Interesting that the UK has its insurance tax as well, so make you have something and tax you for being compliant.

Agreed, he also misses the point NZ has compulsory insurance with several collection methods, nearly every one pays the petrol portion but not everyone pays the rego portion, rumour has it that motorcyclists are especially bad at this. Of course in NZ this insurance only covers the person injury portion of the UKs 3rd party insurance and is not meant ot be an insurance at all but a group sharing of costs, but there has been enough threads about that,

[Ulsterkiwi]

but there has been enough threads about that,

no there hasnt! lets really flog this horse to death....oh wait....

[oneofsix]

no there hasnt! lets really flog this horse to death....oh wait....

think you meant deaf, as in none so deaf as those that don't want to hear.

[DamianW]

Thanks UIsterkiwi - I was taught to be always gracious:

Good manners cost-eth nothing

[swbarnett]

110km/h on a clear road with 2km visibility and you cant see the cop? you deserve the ticket.

What about an unmarked car?

[wingnutt]

Yup - that time of year. The police are out in force, tackling the major issues of road safety. By sitting at the side of long, clear stretches of road and pointing a camera at motorists.

There was a police representative on the news this morning, dishing out the same old meaningless diatribe - "Speeding causes accidents... blah, blah, blah..."

What causes accidents is people not paying attention to the road or other road users.
What causes accidents is BAD driving.

Travelling at 110km/h on a clear piece of road with 2km of visibility does not cause an accident, but will see you with a fine.

If accident reduction is the aim, why place the mobile cameras in areas where accidents never happen? Like the one parked on SH1 southbound, about 600m after the dual carriageway finishes coming out of Huntly? There was one there on Thursday morning, in the mist, and a different one there Thursday evening. Let's have someone watching the central hatched area at the start to the dual carriageway as SH1 exits Huntly southbound, to catch the fuckwits who just can't wait and overtake before getting to the overtaking lane.
Or someone watching the dual carriageway as it ends on the approach to Huntly, in either direction, where Mr or Mrs car/van driver wants to just pass one more vehicle before breaking hard into a stream of traffic?
These are the people causing accidents. They may not be exceeding the speed limit, but they are dangerous.

The message the police are giving is "travel under the posted limit and you will be safe". This is utter rubbish.

Travel at a speed appropriate to the conditions, which includes road surface, weather, visibility, rider/driver condition, vehicle specification, prevalent traffic and more, and then you will be safer.

Yesterday afternoon, returning from Raglan, there were huge queues of traffic on SH1. Probably just holiday traffic, but most of it moving at 10-50km/h. If it was moving at all. And police cars parked 'watching' nothing happen.

We got off SH1 and took the long but fun route back. 1B east, then Whitakahu Road, then cross country north to Waerenga Road. Great roads. Lots of long, long straights, some fun corners and combinations. Lots of opportunity for some 'spirited' riding and if ridden without care, lots of opportunity for carnage. But not one police car, speed camera van or any form of traffic speed enforcement, unless you include some unannounced new seal which was a bit interesting... Still, riding appropriately and paying attention ensured there were no problems.

Are Kiwis typically taken in by the drivel spouted about speeding? If they believe that rubbish, why don't so many of them believe the instruction 'keep left unless passing', for instance?


Glad I got that out of the way. I'll go and enjoy a sunny few days off.

I think our roads are fast becoming a banana republic, or a police state.

The ticketing system is a rip off that has become nothing more than another way of filling up, the governments consolidated fund.

The ‘road safety ‘ banner is nothing more than a carrier, to fine motorists using pathetic reasons, that have no bearing on road safety whatsoever.

And the speed fetish, is basically corporate crap, designed to pacate a gullible public, while using the excuse, to make shit loads of easy money.

Let’s be realistic, it is legalized extortion, when fines are issued for meaningless indiscretions, I mean fining for speeds like 105kph, and 111kph on straight dry roads, with light traffic is just bullshit that does nothing but piss motorists off, not that the corporate arseholes care about that, it makes money, and that all there is too it.

Politicians won’t stop the fines because 1. It looks like they doing something about behaviour on our roads, and 2. It makes the fund look real good, justifying huge corporate salaries.

It’s a well known statistic, that most accidents happen below the speed limit, and yet corporate cops ad nauseam, continue to bleat about it, and I agree with you, I’m really sick in tired of some bloody corporate cop continually bleating about it, knowing full well, it’s not the answer to our driving problems.

To some degree, I feel sorry for the cops in cars, their discretion, and common sense, has been replaced with quotas, (they can call it what they like but it’s still quotas) and the decision to issue a fine is made for them, before they even get out of the car.

No, the real reason for our driver problems, is attitude, and behaviour, if corporate cops where serious about improving driving, then this is what needs looking into, but there is no money in it, so they wont.

I see that petrol companies are saying that profits are down, and they are blaming social media, well if other drivers are anything like me, my quess would be people are not travelling as much, because they don’t want to pay a fine, for picking their nose.

I know the last couple of 104kph times, I was on state highway one, I saw six cop cars, but you could shot a bullet down the road, and not hit anyone, the road was that quiet.

Maybe this a sign that folks have had a guts full, of being ripped off.

[swbarnett]

bloody corporate cop continually bleating about it, knowing full well, it’s not the answer to our driving problems.

Unfortunately I think that's only half the story. There are a number of cops and politicians that actually believe their own bullshit.

No, the real reason for our driver problems, is attitude, and behaviour,

I am increasingly of the opinion that actually we don't have a driving problem. Yes, there are those on the road that really shouldn't be driving. However, there is one inalienable fact that everyone seems to be missing - we are HUMAN. And humans are fallible. It's about time we accepted that with the freedom to drive comes a certain level of carnage.

If we do want to improve on the current situation we cannot expect the driving population as a whole to improve. To my mind, if we want to improve things we have to change the makeup of drivers. We have to change the driving test so that only those that actually have the aptitude can get a license and ban the rest from ever setting foot to pedal.

I have seen this in action in Switzerland. Not once in the two years that I lived there did I see one example of bad driver behaviour. Of course the one thing we have to do here before this can work is to get ourselves a fully functional, nationwide public transport system. And accept that it will run at a loss but pay for itself many times over in social terms.

[BoristheBiter]

It's about time we accepted that with the freedom to drive comes a certain level of carnage.

It's about time you accepted the fact that if you go above the posted speed limit you could get a ticket.

bunch of crying pussy's that lot of ya.