Is it too easy for tourists to come here and kill people?

[Robbo]

I know this!

stopping is optional at both.

Where's my chocolate fish!???!?!?

Here ya go Tim

Cheers

[Scuba_Steve]

Do you know the difference between a Give Way sign and a Stop sign?

Yes, but please do tell the price of fish... especially the chocolate ones

[Crasherfromwayback]

How are these muppets?

[slofox]

I gave Oscar a greenie for this post but I believe it is in need of more than just a private acclamation ... he has nailed it right there!

I gave him a green too. Nice summary of the reality of it all.

[Swoop]

I believe the gubbinment already has the situation under control and it's working like this:

#1: Do nothing about driver skills and then watch the standards of road usage decline.
#2: (Bonus part here: enjoy the profits from the road-based tax collectors)
#3: Once the roads are so dangerous to use, tourists will not choose to drive or ride here, but will employ locals to chauffeur them around.
#4: (Bonus part here: additional jobs created for locals)

Hey, it works fine in Thailand! I'm shit scared to hire anything up there! Get a local to drive for you instead!

[Paul in NZ]

Back when I were a lad I used to drive that area daily as a part of my job...

Its flat as a pancake there and the roads look like they were laid out by a OCD ancient Roman roading engineer with a pathalogical hatred of curves. ie they are about the straightest roads you will ever find in NZ and yet there are hazards.

Shelter belts and sun strike are the most obvious hazards but the biggest one is that these roads are rare here and your view down the road disappears to 'vanishing point' and some folks fail to see the stop signs or register that other similar roads cross them. The stop signs are well situated and from memory its marked on the road clearly.

I have had a couple of close ones down there and used to slow and cover the brake at every intersection right of way or not.

I was stopped at a similar one there waiting for a car when the vehicle opposite didn't. The crash was spectacular and right in front of my bonnet. The usual cloud of glass fragments ended up all over my vehicle - bloody scary. There is always a moment of scilence before the screaming starts... No cell phones then but we had an RT in the vehicle and called it in. No casualties but I cut my hand pretty bad getting people out on the innocent car...

[Katman]

Have the signs at that intersection been changed to Stop signs since the Google street view pictures were taken?

[Motu]

Back when I was hireing out cars (and motorcycles) to tourists on Waiheke Island, if they could produce a license, any old license, in any language, they got a car ( or GP100) Never had a foreign tourist smack up a car, although we did take off a bike from a guy who had 3 on it. Young Kiwi's used to put cars into the ditch playing rally driver.

[FJRider]

I saw a movie on extreme skiing recently and one of the skiers said you never call yourself an expert doing this because if you do things will turn pear shaped the same applies to riding a motorbike I feel but some on here would rubbish such a claim too I guess.

It's called "Murphy's Law" .. and it's not a law to be rubbished or ignored.

And I am surprised your attention span allowed you to watch the whole movie ..

[FJRider]

I would hardly call them a crowd more like 3 or 4 posters who ...

Two's company ... three's a crowd.

Don't you know anything ... ???

[HenryDorsetCase]

Young Kiwi's used to put cars into the ditch playing rally driver.

I wish I had thought of that instead of using my own cars (or ones that belonged to the gubblemunt... oh, the paperwork)

[blue rider]

a couple of years ago Iwent to the local AA Branch determined to find out how to go about getting a NZ driver license.

I got one within 15 minutes of entering their office. They took my German driver license (after giving me a copy of it) and i received a provisional driver license for NZ (the plastic one arrived 10 days later by post). And that was that.

Do you feel safe now?

[george formby]

I would hardly call them a crowd more like 3 or 4 posters who have never crashed in their life or if they had have, learnt so much from it they are certain they will never crash again whether though an action of themselves or another road user.

I saw a movie on extreme skiing recently and one of the skiers said you never call yourself an expert doing this because if you do things will turn pear shaped the same applies to riding a motorbike I feel but some on here would rubbish such a claim too I guess.

This, from somebody who's reaction to an accident they were involved in was to buy an Urban Assault Vehicle.
The concept of self improvement might be worth investigating Cassina. Not saying you should do it, just try to understand it.

I fail to see the link between extreme skiing which involves throwing yourself down a snow covered mountain at the whim of nature & gravity with sticks on your feet & riding a motorcycle on public roads.

[Berries]

a couple of years ago Iwent to the local AA Branch determined to find out how to go about getting a NZ driver license.

I got one within 15 minutes of entering their office. They took my German driver license (after giving me a copy of it) and i received a provisional driver license for NZ (the plastic one arrived 10 days later by post). And that was that.

Do you feel safe now?

Of course, if you had caused a crash in those first few months it would have been blamed on the fact that you were from overseas rather than the fact you made a mistake that caused a crash. Would doing a 30 minute practical driving test have made any difference? I didn't think so. It won't stop people from driving on the wrong side of the road occasionally and it seems to me they are the only crashes where being from overseas is actually an issue (apart from shitty third world countries like China and India). Failing to see a sign is failing to see a sign, failing to stop at a red light is failing to stop at a red light and losing it when cornering in the wet is losing it when cornering in the wet.

Tourism is a big part of NZ. If 5% of drivers are overseas tourists then it stands to reason that 5% of crashes will involve them and they will be at fault in some of them. It is not the fact that they are a tourist, it is the fact that they are human and make the same mistakes.

Statistically you are more likely to be killed by a local. Those crashes drop from the headlines quickly though and don't get the frothing at the mouth caused by those dirty fucking foreigners.

[george formby]

Of course, if you had caused a crash in those first few months it would have been blamed on the fact that you were from overseas rather than the fact you made a mistake that caused a crash. Would doing a 30 minute practical driving test have made any difference? I didn't think so. It won't stop people from driving on the wrong side of the road occasionally and it seems to me they are the only crashes where being from overseas is actually an issue (apart from shitty third world countries like China and India). Failing to see a sign is failing to see a sign, failing to stop at a red light is failing to stop at a red light and losing it when cornering in the wet is losing it when cornering in the wet.

Tourism is a big part of NZ. If 5% of drivers are overseas tourists then it stands to reason that 5% of crashes will involve them and they will be at fault in some of them. It is not the fact that they are a tourist, it is the fact that they are human and make the same mistakes.

Statistically you are more likely to be killed by a local. Those crashes drop from the headlines quickly though and don't get the frothing at the mouth caused by those dirty fucking foreigners.

That sounds way to logical.

I guess this thread came about more from media coverage than an actual issue.