Think safe?

[myvice]

Think safe? What about just think?
ACC ad on the radio this morning "Some times the speed limit is too fast for the conditions, such as, concealed driveways..."
Ok I'm not a brain surgeon but if its a concealed driveway, doesn’t that mean we cant see it? As they don’t sign post "Caution! Concealed things everywhere!" we have a slight problem.
We cant see it, so how do we know its going to be there to slow down for?
Crap like this winds me up, they use our money to place these stupid ads everywhere to lessen the road toll but wont do any driver/rider training.
The defensive driving courses you can take are a joke, sit through a bunch of theory and have your time halved?
So if I get told that steering into a slide is the thing to do, without actually practise it, I am a better driver?
Driving and riding are a hands on activity, I couldn’t care less that you got Grand Turismo/Moto GP totally clocked! Unless you do it you won’t learn.
And listening to an ad that tells you to slow down for wet roads is ludicrous!
If you need to be told then maybe you should walk.
If they want to get serious about road safety then why are cell phones still able to be used in cars?
And why is it so easy to get a licence? In other countries you actually need to know that one and a half tons of metal moving at anything over 70 kph will kill whatever it hits.
If licences become harder to get then more people would use public transport making it a viable option for more commuters as the service grows.
If they want to make cars safer then they need to address the WoF standeds.
Your vehicles noise level and that the numberplate light not working has no affect on the safety of it.
But 1.5 mm of tread is ok?
I still can’t believe you can now have a TV in your car and it will now get a WoF, it wouldn’t have as little as 6 months ago.
The roads we travel on have caused more than there fare share of deaths as well, its easy to say “Well, they where going too fast” But I’ve come out of gentle sweepers sideways because of the road surface, and that’s not at speed, luckily for me.
Its good to see that they are re-doing the southern motorway again, pity they are neglecting all of the other roads.
Maybe we should go back to gravel secondary roads, at least they will remain in fairly constant condition.
Knobblys on an R1?
Just a rant, long week…
Look after yourselves out there, no one else is going to!

[Fordy]

Look after yourselves out there, no one else is going to!

Yada yada yada

..and then a blinding finale.

Read the road, raise your observation levels, realise a licence is a minimum measure of competence on the road, strive to improve your skills and stay alive

[Waylander]

Knobblys on an R1?

Hell why not? they put some on a Duc in MI2.

[Drum]

Its good to see that they are re-doing the southern motorway again, pity they are neglecting all of the other roads.

Some of your points are valid, however what about neglecting "all of the other roads"????

At around $60 a sqm to reseal motorways, how often would you like them resealed? You want to double/ treble your contributions to the consolidated fund?

When roads are resealed they have a design life (around 6 to 8 years for Aucklands Motorways) and then they are friction tested every year and resealed early if the results warrant it. Theres a lot of K's of seal out there, and some bad patches slip through.

Stop blaming other people for your sideways exit! "They" are doing the best they can with the funds available.

[Lou Girardin]

Good rant, completely agree.

[SuperDave]

Yeah completely agree with you there. I laughed when I first heard the slogan 'Think safe' and everytime I hear it I can't help but think of it as 'Safethink' newspeak.

[myvice]

Some of your points are valid, however what about neglecting "all of the other roads"????

At around $60 a sqm to reseal motorways, how often would you like them resealed? You want to double/ treble your contributions to the consolidated fund?

When roads are resealed they have a design life (around 6 to 8 years for Aucklands Motorways) and then they are friction tested every year and resealed early if the results warrant it. Theres a lot of K's of seal out there, and some bad patches slip through.

Stop blaming other people for your sideways exit! "They" are doing the best they can with the funds available.

The incident I was thinking of was in a car at about 70kph exiting an unmarked (not sign posted) on an open road where the seal changed from one type to another.
Not a big deal but it gave me a fright.
Odd that they re-seal some roads every few years that look ok to my untrained eye but leave others that desperately need work.
Maybe if our road taxes went to the roads?
I can see where you are coming from tho, fare comment and points taken.

[Coyote]

Maybe if our road taxes went to the roads?

What if our speeding fines went into our roads? We could have Transmission Gulley and the Coastal Route!

[myvice]

What if our speeding fines went into our roads? We could have Transmission Gulley and the Coastal Route!

If our fines went to roads I'd own the fuckin Harbour Bridge!

[Indiana_Jones]

what do you expect? this is a Labour NZ, the core of social engineering.

-Indy

[Sniper]

Good rant mate.

[cowboyz]

The roads we travel on have caused more than there fare share of deaths as well, its easy to say “Well, they where going too fast” But I’ve come out of gentle sweepers sideways because of the road surface, and that’s not at speed, luckily for me.
Its good to see that they are re-doing the southern motorway again, pity they are neglecting all of the other roads.
Maybe we should go back to gravel secondary roads, at least they will remain in fairly constant condition.
Knobblys on an R1?
Just a rant, long week…
Look after yourselves out there, no one else is going to!

You will get me started on road works now.

On the road from Palmerston North to Ashhurst (a road I commute every day) there is really rough "ripples" on the first stretch of road, then a smooth bit, then really rough ripples on the next bit. Recently they decided to do some road works there. You guessed it. They picked the smoothest part of the road to reseal and left the crap road as it is. Who decides which part of the road to fix? It is a little bit more than silly.

[Drum]

The incident I was thinking of was in a car at about 70kph exiting an unmarked (not sign posted) on an open road where the seal changed from one type to another.

Ah yes, this is a cost saving practice that should be banned. The seal wears more quickly on the corner due to the higher friction demand so they reseal the corner only - leading to a join/ change in seal near the tangent point.

In regards to the apparent lack of logic in resealing some roads while others deteriorate - this may be because those roads are managed by different roading authorities. I.e. Transit has one policy for state highways, but the adjoining roads are administered by local councils who may have different priorities. Not ideal.

When I worked in the industry we could have spent our annual reseal budget several times over, but you can only spend what they give you.