Speed Speed Speed- has it now become "Target Fixation"

[bgd]

I recently drove from Chch to Auckland via Wanganui and Tauranga. Compared to what I put up with in Asia, Kiwis, on the whole, are good drivers.

[RDJ]

I recently drove from Chch to Auckland via Wanganui and Tauranga. Compared to what I put up with in Asia, Kiwis, on the whole, are good drivers.

Yes. And Africa... shudder.

[trustme]

I recently drove from Chch to Auckland via Wanganui and Tauranga. Compared to what I put up with in Asia, Kiwis, on the whole, are good drivers.

I recently drove AK to Invercargil & back . The standard of driving went down when I hit the SI. More drivers going well over the speed limit, passing on yellow lines, passing on double yellow lines, slow drivers who would not keep left. a fatal between a truck & car on a flat straight passing lane just north of Timaru, how the hell did that happen.
Also dare I say it less cops on the road, the bad driving I saw was not tourists ,I'm picking it was locals.

[caspernz]

I recently drove from Chch to Auckland via Wanganui and Tauranga. Compared to what I put up with in Asia, Kiwis, on the whole, are good drivers.

WTF? So using that approach we should count ourselves lucky we have a more humanitarian regime than say...Iran?

I recently drove AK to Invercargil & back . The standard of driving went down when I hit the SI. More drivers going well over the speed limit, passing on yellow lines, passing on double yellow lines, slow drivers who would not keep left. a fatal between a truck & car on a flat straight passing lane just north of Timaru, how the hell did that happen.
Also dare I say it less cops on the road, the bad driving I saw was not tourists ,I'm picking it was locals.

Yep, see it all the time. If each individual started to obey most road rules most of the time, imagine the improvement...

[Swoop]

But it did not require a knee-jerk statement blaming speed.
If no one dies next weekend will the same person be on TV proclaiming everyone was sticking to the speed limits? I think not.

I would certainly not rule it out, in fact I would go as far as saying "yes, the retarded wanker would say it".
Remember what the cunts came out with when there were no fatalities on a weekend that was shockingly bad weather over most of the country? Claiming it was their "4k over" propaganda that did the trick?

Maybe I'm just thinking of the disparity of what's required to obtain a licence in NZ vs what I had to go through to get one in my home country in Europe. The main distinction being that to hold a drivers' licence in Europe felt more like a privilege whereas in NZ it's seen as more of a right.

True story. This happened within the last two months.

A workmate has international students living with his family for short periods of time. A Korean one told him that he was going to go and get a NZ driving licence "as a souvenir" of his time here.
My mate says the chap then left the house.

TWO HOURS later he was back... WITH A NZ LICENCE.

The Korean chap stated that he had no intention of driving here as it was "too scary". Thank fuck for that!

[Reckless]

True story. This happened within the last two months.
A workmate has international students living with his family for short periods of time. A Korean one told him that he was going to go and get a NZ driving licence "as a souvenir" of his time here.
My mate says the chap then left the house.

TWO HOURS later he was back... WITH A NZ LICENCE.
The Korean chap stated that he had no intention of driving here as it was "too scary". Thank fuck for that!

Same and I've posted it before on here.
My missus has the occasional Japanese home-stay. Her home-stay went into get a NZ licence with what she called a "paper" Japanese licence.
She walked out with a full NZ licence. I don't know the system in Japan but we discovered a "paper" Japanese means she also had never driven a car before.

So there's this timid, shy Japanese girl standing there, who had never driven anything ever, issued with a FULL NZ Licence.
Thank goodness she didn't have the go forward to actually give it a go due to her nice nature, but how many others are out there from many different countries getting through with no driving experience????

[Swoop]

So there's this timid, shy Japanese girl standing there, who had never driven anything ever, issued with a FULL NZ Licence.

Well at least she won't get done for speeding...
As for sitting in the right hand lane, doing 45kph, she'll fit right in!

[trustme]

10 people were killed in the weekend, can anyone tell me how many were asian ???

[swbarnett]

But just the ones that don't speed....

Why just those that don't speed? A bad driver is a bad driver no matter what speed they're travelling at. You seem to think that just because someone is driving above the posted speed limit they're a bad driver.

[Tazz]

Managing fatigue isn't a skill required to obtain a licence though. Maybe I'm just thinking of the disparity of what's required to obtain a licence in NZ vs what I had to go through to get one in my home country in Europe. The main distinction being that to hold a drivers' licence in Europe felt more like a privilege whereas in NZ it's seen as more of a right. But that also leads to a social education lecture which could last for a week...so I'll stop there.

Ahh yep, I'm with where you're coming from.
It's almost a common sense sort of thing but personally I think it wouldn't hurt to be something covered a bit better during the license process. Hypothermia and fatigue are mentioned in passing somewhere in the road code from memory but that's it.
Arguably much more important things to be conscious of than whether you're absolutely no more than 5k within the speed limit every second of your journey.

[Reckless]

10 people were killed in the weekend, can anyone tell me how many were asian ???

I cant speak for Swoop but I for one was not commenting on her RACE!!
The post was clearly aimed at our licence system.

The description of where she was from was to form a knowledge base for readers on the Japanese "paper" Licence scenario.
The description of her nature was a compliment to her, how else do you interpret the words "nice nature".
I have edited the last line to make it clearer so people like you with racist bias don't get confused

[trustme]

Is this the same licence system that when it started to get hard to pass had people snivelling because when their precious little Johnny or Doris was failing & had to sit it again , it was so unfair.
I ain't the racist here,

I'll add a bit, what's hard about a road rule like ' Stop at a red light '. ' Don't pass on a yellow line ','don't pass on a double yellow line '. Pretty simple concepts really , & yet we seem to struggle with even the basics. Will making a licence harder to get accomplish anything .

We already know what the rules are , we just choose to ignore them.

[Swoop]

I cant speak for Swoop but I for one was not commenting on her RACE!!
The post was clearly aimed at our licence system.

Yes, the pathetic EASE of obtaining an official document that entitles the holder to certain rights.


Or people can choose to drive without a licence - which is what the head pig is going to achieve, if his suggestion of having demerits added to speed cameras is implemented.

[Voltaire]

I'd say speed amplifies the effect of poor driving. Driving around with an instructor does not really prepare you for driving a car with 100 plus HP relying on 4 bits of rubber to maintain contact with the road.
They have a rego/insurance system in Ireland and maybe other countries based on engine size and driving experience...but hey you don't even need third party here.....and no Mr Key the rural roads are not really up to 100 kmph.

[5ive]

It's much easier for them to concentrate on speed because it is a clearly identifiable 'event' that can be seen and identified, and of course the higher the speed, the more damage/death can occur.

It is a lot harder to monitor, and police bad driving before an accident occurs, and prevent it from happening. So they're just going to slow everyone down and cross their fingers, hoping only for serious injuries instead.

There appears to be a complete lack of focus on drivers abilities or attributes, and it seems everything is being thrown at policing driver actions instead.

If they wanted to tackle the road toll, then they'd probably need to spend more time looking at things like the seriousness a driver applies to driving and being on the road, the length of their attention spans, level of intelligence, spatial awareness, motor-skills, confidence and experience behind the wheel (with or without traffic around them).

They wouldn't do any of that though, as they'd have to start revoking licences left and right, which would impact on people's 'rights', and we all know about 'rights' and it's correlation to 'personal responsibility'.