Wellington's "killer highway"

[James Deuce]

Secondly, put back the passing bays they removed last year and release the frustration from slow cars.

Why? The slow people never move into them anyway.

[rodgerd]

I'm not familiar with the bit of road in question, but I voted anyway, for proper median barriers and warning signs. ("Warning - stupid driving may kill you", perhaps?)

Those cheesecutter barriers are a motorcyclist's death waiting to happen.

Also, it's pretty poor if we can't build a main route, SH1 in this case, to be safe at 100kph. If it really *isn't* driveable at that speed (which I doubt) then a new road should be built. Funded by reductions in welfare payments.

Given a choice between hitting the cheese cutters at 100, and going under an oncoming truck... is there any difference?

[rodgerd]

Well said, the main factor is of course costs. Motorcyclists are seen as a minority, so the majority, ie vehicle drivers, win out.
That road itself is quite driveable, its the Kiwi tendancey to not stay on the left hand side that does the damage.
My tuppence worth

Yeah - what's in the paper today? A piece on some fuckstick passing on the double yellows along the stretch, and narrowly avoiding a head-on.

People with that level of judgement don't belong on the roads. A license is a privelege, and not a right. Time we got a little more aggro about taking the damn things away; if you can't make good decisions behind the wheel, take a bus.

[James Deuce]

Given a choice between hitting the cheese cutters at 100, and going under an oncoming truck... is there any difference?

Yes. Once you get tangled in the wire you are F__ked. Ground level armco and concrete allow you to slide along the barrier. You will stop abruptly when you hit the cheese cutter.

If you can see an oncoming truck, even sliding on your arse, you still have a chance to avoid it.

[riffer]

Yes. Once you get tangled in the wire you are F__ked. Ground level armco and concrete allow you to slide along the barrier. You will stop abruptly when you hit the cheese cutter.

If you can see an oncoming truck, even sliding on your arse, you still have a chance to avoid it.

Yeah it's amazing how much you can avoid when you're sliding on the road.

Haven't hit armco or wire rope though, so I can't comment on either. Most armco seems to be about a couple of feet above the ground. I would have though there was a possibility of going under it and getting stuck too...

I've noticed also (on the Porirua motorway) there's a tendency to leave a bit of a gap about half a metre wide between the inside edge of the road and the barrier which is not sealed as high as the road.

You'd have a very interesting time trying to get back on the road if you swerved to avoid someone and got stuck in the "ditch".

I guess the onus is on all riders to avoid trouble as much as possible. It seems bad drivers will always be there. All these solutions to the problem seem to me to be like the America answer to traffic safety - if people won't use seat belts, we'll give them airbags so they don't hurt themselves.

Eventually we'll have a situation where you have your entire car computer controlled and actual driving will be taken away from the equation.

And the only people left with any type of motoring freedom will be us

[FROSTY:Me]

guys you just don't gettit. The goverment wants all us "fringe groups" to shut up and piss off. Why would they care if a couple of horrible smelly bikie types ended up dead--instead of just hurt and filling up the countrys hospitals.

[sedge]

For some reason every Friday night traffic stops and backs up on this road, one of the perks of being on a bike is that I can generally ride between the stopped traffic and just inside the yellow lines coz no traffic is going the other way. If they put up the wires they generally have a banked section towards the middle which isn't that nice to ride on ... how will I get home quickly now... The paekak hill isn't that nice on the behemoth I'm riding at the moment, maybe I'll have to make the GSXR my Friday rider ?

Sedge.

[merv]

Wellington was a stupid place to build a capital city. You people should come to your senses before more money gets poured down the gurgler. When the big earthquake comes both roads will be completely destroyed and you'll be back to square one. Emigrate now while it's not too late. Only don't all come to Auckland at once. We wouldn't want the value of our houses to keep going up... the rates are getting out of hand already. Your bikes are welcome but leave the cages behind...

That's why it handy to keep a dirt bike on hand so you can leap over the chasms when the time comes and the roads are blocked.

[Ms Piggy]

Lowering the speed & putting up signs is not gonna stop the impatient idiots that cause us all danger by tail gaiting & trying to pass as soon as they can no matter what the road or traffic conditions.

They need to sort this out!

[Blakamin]

My lovely other half just wondered "where is all the traffic going to go while they erect this cheesecutter?".... Valid point! Over haywards the road was a tad wider.... what, peak hour over paekak hill???

[Skyryder]

Waht's with these cheesecutter things. Never heard of them.

Skyryder

[Mongoose]

We can ask but I don't think we'll get a reply.

Opps, how un PC of me.

Hmmmmmm, un PC from PC Spud

[scumdog]

I've riden a MTB from Porirua to Pukerua Bay and back as well as driving over that stretch and except for the narrow bit at Pukerua the road seemed fine to me, obviously the drivers that caused the c rashes in that area weren't fine though!

[riffer]

Waht's with these cheesecutter things. Never heard of them.

Skyryder

In keeping with this thread's original intentions, you may be interested in reading the following report I found on the internet regarding the FEMA Motorcyclists and Crash Barriers Project.

http://fema001.kaalium.com/crashbarrier/

It also has pictures of cheesecutters in it.

[BugSplat]

The way I see it, there’s two ways to make it safer:

1) An 8 foot high wall blocking the lovely view that all the cagers are killing themselves to gaze at.

2) Close Wellington airport & force all our elected leaches to travel to PP to fly in & out of the Capital, Transmission Gully would be built before you can say, High speed prime ministerial convoy!