Road toll - Police stupid obsession blaming speed

**Graystone** · 14th October 2017, 19:07

Originally Posted by HenryDorsetCase

wait, whut? have you never ridden on a gravel road? (hint - ride in the wheeltracks not the loose shit in the middle - its surprising how fast you can go on a CB750....)

I'm confused, why would you think I have not ridden on gravel? It's good fun, nothing like spinning up the rear at a hundy to enhance that attention and awareness!

**rastuscat** · 14th October 2017, 19:07

I went on a fund raising ride today. Some thoughts from that.

The Police aren't accountable for the shocking riding I witnessed, and it confirmed for me why I don't do group rides.

Speed wasn't the issue. Shocking cornering lines, lack of awareness and grossly abused following distances will see me further avoiding group rides.

**rastuscat** · 14th October 2017, 19:22

And for the record. Celebrate the current road toll.

After today I wonder why it's not four times what it is.

**eldog** · 14th October 2017, 19:46

Originally Posted by rastuscat

I went on a fund raising ride today. Some thoughts from that.

The Police aren't accountable for the shocking riding I witnessed, and it confirmed for me why I don't do group rides.

Speed wasn't the issue. Shocking cornering lines, lack of awareness and grossly abused following distances will see me further avoiding group rides.

Ride at the back, enjoy the view and the ride.

yep watching otherroad users can be really eye opening

not just motor bike riders

even I made a big mistake the last ride. But it was a good wake up call.
kicked myself for the rest of the ride.

talking about group rides, I did one last weekend, heaps of us, I didn't see any poor drive/riding, which surprised me.
probably because it was mostly wet, those aucklanders/city slickers stayed at home?

**Drew** · 14th October 2017, 19:47

I wanna argue the bike position thong.

The right hand tyre track of your lane is the safest place to be. Period.

It offers the largest range of escape for any situation. There simply isn't a spot you are most likely to miss something unexpected.

**Scuba_Steve** · 14th October 2017, 19:53

Originally Posted by Laava

How is handsfree any different to having a conversation with your passenger? With the exception of having to take one hand off the wheel to answer said phone initially. I use mine all the time, mainly cos it is so friggen easy to just push a button on the steering wheel...as opposed to when I used to juggle an actual phone which I agree is a distraction, esp if you are wanting to read or reply to a text. To be honest, the texting thing is prob the worst aspect of the whole cellphone/driving thing. I just dont answer or make them in the car anymore. There is a lady at the end of our road often in the morning with her ph to her ear with one hand and applying makeup with the other, fucken shits me!

It's massively different for one the person in the car can see what's going on & shut up/react to the situations allowing you attention to road when needed (kids an exception to this)
Then there's also the lower sound quality the brain spends more time deciphering etc & how talking to someone in person always takes less CPU power than talking on a phone

There's a few studies into this go search some out but general gist is talking talking remotely is more dangerous than locally & some go as far as to find handsfree more dangerous than physically holding a phone (when used with the automagic kind of vehicle)

**Taxythingy** · 14th October 2017, 19:53

Originally Posted by Laava

How is handsfree any different to having a conversation with your passenger?

Having used handsfree a little bit and talked to passengers a lot, I find that the passenger is also looking at the road, knows when to shut up and understands when I stop talking mid-sentence. A person on the other end of the phone doesn't get the visual cues.

Bottom line: I find handsfree to be very distracting but passengers less so. YMMV.

Edit: Ninja'd. Wot he said.

**rastuscat** · 14th October 2017, 20:06

Anyone else on here honest enough to admit driving past a destination due to being on the legally used Bluetooth hands free phone?

It's worse than R/Ts too. I'm not sure why. But it's worse by far.

**Scuba_Steve** · 14th October 2017, 20:12

Originally Posted by rastuscat

I went on a fund raising ride today. Some thoughts from that.

The Police aren't accountable for the shocking riding I witnessed, and it confirmed for me why I don't do group rides.

Speed wasn't the issue. Shocking cornering lines, lack of awareness and grossly abused following distances will see me further avoiding group rides.

You could blame the police in that they don't police bad driving & only police speeding* so the problem is left to compound... Fuck just look at comments on "who has to give way" posts to see why the roads are so fucked

**AllanB** · 14th October 2017, 21:05

Originally Posted by cassina

The quickest way to end up dead if you believe that especially on a bend. I saw a FB video recently when a guy would have ended up dead if he had not been to the far left of the centre line.

I saw a video of two attractive 25 year old Swedish girls kissing each other then inviting a older man to enjoy a evening of passion with them.

Highly unlikely my life will follow that path though.

You need to get out more.

**FJRider** · 14th October 2017, 21:21

Originally Posted by AllanB

I saw a video of two attractive 25 year old Swedish girls kissing each other then inviting a older man to enjoy a evening of passion with them.

Highly unlikely my life will follow that path though.

You wouldn't age much if your wife found out either ...

**caspernz** · 14th October 2017, 22:42

Originally Posted by rastuscat

Anyone else on here honest enough to admit driving past a destination due to being on the legally used Bluetooth hands free phone?

It's worse than R/Ts too. I'm not sure why. But it's worse by far.

Maybe...

...it was a long time ago, now I simply don't use phone at all when rolling along.

Hands free or not makes no difference, the brain is distracted from driving task.

RT and CB not as bad, but can still be distracting.

Maybe women do better, with their mythical multi tasking ability

**veldthui** · 15th October 2017, 01:43

They need to actually look at the road condition as well. Just done the NI1600 and the State Highways are in shocking condition. We had rain most of the time and the tar bleed is pathetic and we are still in winter conditions. Their idea of fixing the road is to put a stupid bloody sign that says "slippery when wet".

Get the roads up to a decent standard and maybe 50% of road accidents wouldn't happen.

**eldog** · 15th October 2017, 05:55

Originally Posted by Scuba_Steve

You could blame the police in that they don't police bad driving & only police speeding* so the problem is left to compound... Fuck just look at comments on "who has to give way" posts to see why the roads are so fucked

Recently I have noticed the number of red light and stop sign runners has increased a lot. Committed usually by vans, completely blacked out windowed cars, and SUVs. They don't even slow down. They are such good drivers.....

**eldog** · 15th October 2017, 05:58

Originally Posted by Drew

I wanna argue the bike position thong.

The right hand tyre track of your lane is the safest place to be. Period.

It offers the largest range of escape for any situation. There simply isn't a spot you are most likely to miss something unexpected.

Cant argue with that, but there are exceptions to every rule if you want to remain safe on the road.