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

[AllanB]

I'm just starting to teach my daughter how to drive - in Mrs B's manual Galant (my insurer would not cover a learner in my XR6).

Now I am having to explain the entire driving process what to be working what to be looking for etc etc it is complicated and the possibilities of it going tits up are very high.

I do wonder though - we I was learning in old clappers the car rattled, vibrated and roared so much that you were really quite in touch with what was mechanically happening - modern motoring is like sitting on a sofa in your living room.

Maybe, just maybe modern drivers are increasingly being fooled into a false sense of security.

[5ive]

That might be part of it, but I've seen older, more experienced drivers driving like crap in beat up old cars as well.

[Swoop]

What do you call two single lines that you cannot pass on?

Yellow centre lines mean "do not cross".
You can still overtake another vehicle, so long as you do not cross those yellow lines.

Rather challenging for a car, but on a bike...

[caspernz]

I'm just starting to teach my daughter how to drive - in Mrs B's manual Galant (my insurer would not cover a learner in my XR6).

Now I am having to explain the entire driving process what to be working what to be looking for etc etc it is complicated and the possibilities of it going tits up are very high.

I do wonder though - we I was learning in old clappers the car rattled, vibrated and roared so much that you were really quite in touch with what was mechanically happening - modern motoring is like sitting on a sofa in your living room.

Maybe, just maybe modern drivers are increasingly being fooled into a false sense of security.

For starters, good luck with the process. You holding onto your hair that is...

Must admit that when I learned to drive it was indeed in an older car, manual, no power steering and comfort wasn't part of the equation. Compared to a car today, the disparity is like Model T and sitting on a sofa like you mentioned.

So perhaps learning to drive should be in an older manual car that leaves one feeling "connected" with the outside world? Or just learn to ride a bike first...

[TheDemonLord]

My first car that I learnt to Drive in was an old Honda Civic, with no power steering etc.

The first car I owned was a Mini Clubman....

[Moi]

Speed is the reason… Is it really? I doubt it, but will we find out? I doubt that too.

Over the weekend there were two serious crashes - one in the Marton area and the other near Tauranga. Both were reported in the media and comments were made by a senior police officer.

My question for him is: “Where’s your evidence?” I doubt that it is possible to have gathered enough evidence to draw a sound evidence-based conclusion within such a short time between the crashes and the said senior police officer appearing on television and in the print media with his statement.

This, some call it knee-jerk reaction, drawing conclusions with inadequate evidence and/or data is prevalent in many of the media and other persons who need to comment. Yes, report that there has been a crash, but leave it there. Do not speculate as to the causes. There are likely to be a number of factors which have contributed to the crash and to emphasise, for whatever reason, one over the others is unworthy of a senior police officer.

Let the serious crash unit do their job and present their findings to the coroner. Then the police need to publish a summary of those findings and of the coroner’s report and discuss in an unbiased manner the factors which probably lead to the crash. Following that, the police can then make recommendations which, based on the findings, are likely to lessen the chance of a similar crash occurring again.

As I said above, I doubt if this is likely to happen, as the media and the public have moved onto some newer and more interesting news item…

Put simply: report crash in an non-emotive manner; allow time for evidence/data to be gathered and collated and reported; report on that report and the coroner’s report with recommendations highlighted. Then informed decisions can take place which may well lead to improved road safety and driving skills.

[Gadget1]

Or just learn to ride a bike first...

That makes me wonder about the time, before all the cheap imported cars arrived, when motorcycles were more common and the riders who then became car drivers.

[trustme]

Our accident statistics tend to suggest that we are as bad at riding bikes as we are at driving cars so starting off on bikes will simply cull the idiots out quicker.
Without going into detail I get the impression from the age of the victims that in general these accidents did not involve learner or inexperienced drivers . Will making the license harder to get make any difference to experienced drivers.
There is no simple answer , it's our mindset that has to change.

[spanner spinner]

In one of my jobs in Auckland I use to get the police bikes coming in for work. There boss use to come in as he would give them his car to keep working and bring the bikes in himself as he could sit in the corner of the workshop and do paperwork. I got talking to him one day as how do you stop NZ drivers from killing each other. His answer was that in a perfect word you train people to drive, compulsory driver training, retesting every ten years and if you are a numpty and can't drive well you don't get a licence. But the powers above him who write the rules are to scared to implement any of these. So there solution is to force people into safer vehicles, and this has been going on over the last few years look at the frontal impact rules and bring down the average speed by blitzing anyone going over the speed limit and reducing speed limits where there is a "black spot". As the police boss said this would not stop people crashing in to each other but when they did they would be going slower and be in safer cars so they should have a better survival rate. He was not real impressed with the tools he had been given to fix the road toll, and this doesn't bode real well for motorcycles as they had been tagged as high risk vehicles.

[ellipsis]

...it's all just physics and calculated luck out on the highroads and byroads...anything more is just words...

[swbarnett]

Nevermind, I re-read his post again. Your post didn't contain his full quote, hence I thought you were denying the existence or naming convention of double painted lines on the road surface.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I think it was Scumdog that pointed out a while back that the double-yellow lines are in fact, from a legal standpoint, two single lines and not a related pair. Hence the assertion that there's no such thing, legally, as a double yellow line. I didn't mean to imply that there were never two yellow lines running close together and parallel .

[Scuba_Steve]

Maybe, just maybe modern drivers are increasingly being fooled into a false sense of security.

I have noticed the disconnect in modern cars... it's kinda scary
Sound dampening to remove wind/road noise
Shock dampening to remove road feel
Drive-by-wire to remove any input sensation
"safety" pillars, airbags & intrusion bars that help to remove vision
Safety features to remove any feeling of fucking up
Cruise control & auto transmission to remove any conscious thought
But hey they have a pretty coloured dashboard to stare at... & according to Police that's all they need to be safe

[swbarnett]

this would not stop people crashing in to each other but when they did they would be going slower

This is like giving chefs nearly blunt knives and no means to sharpen them.

With this line of thinking, eventually we'll all be going so slow we may as well walk.

[TheDemonLord]

This describes the NZ police atm....

[Gremlin]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I think it was Scumdog that pointed out a while back that the double-yellow lines are in fact, from a legal standpoint, two single lines and not a related pair. Hence the assertion that there's no such thing, legally, as a double yellow line. I didn't mean to imply that there were never two yellow lines running close together and parallel .

I don't know if he did, but I know I did?