Italy or NZ?

[Lou Girardin]

What absolute rubbish. After driving 5000 km through most of Italy, I'm sure I'd rather drive there than in NZ. Italians know how to drive and know what's happening around them, two things completely foreign to most Kiwi drivers.
They kill fewer people than we do proportionally, despite driving at speeds that our cops and LTNZ consider to be certain death.
The basic rules are, give way to cars when you need to, give way to pedestrians when they walk onto the road. This works great, but you do have to be awake to practice it.
Seeing three minor accidents, (only one on the autostradas) in 6 weeks is less than you'll see in Auckland in a week.

[Mekk]

This works great, but you do have to be awake to practice it.

I like that notion. I guess it'd be akin to a filter of bad drivers (in a sick and twisted kind of way).

The Harold seems to have portrayed them all as bad drivers though.

I struggle to see the point of the article actually, is it to lull as back into a quiet acceptance that our system is best?

[popelli]

had a holiday in italy in june, rented a car an spend a week driving around the alps

the standard of driving there is a lot higher than that in nz

no amount of leglislation is going to ever compenstate for basically what is on average an appalling standard of driving in NZ

[Max Preload]

Also,most Italians LOVE motor vehicles, including bikes.......

Hit the nail on the head. Over there they keep the children off the roads so the cars can play...

[Max Preload]

no amount of leglislation is going to ever compenstate for basically what is on average an appalling standard of driving in NZ

Perhaps not legislation in itself... but far more strict levels of skill before you're let loose on the rest of the population and regular retesting would certainly go a long way. It's unbelievable that once you've got a license you can go over half a century as a menace to other road users and ignorant of changes to regulations. Most people here don't even seem to get what flush medians are for and only ever find out in casual conversation with people who do know. NZ'ers are so unobservant.

[90s]

Perhaps not legislation in itself... but far more strict levels of skill before you're let loose on the rest of the population and regular retesting would certainly go a long way.

Agree. Level of driver training - for 15-yr olds and 'new arrivals' alike is appalling. And to accept, for example, and overseas UK licence on the same level as certain other international licences is a joke.
And how many people do you know who have bought the licence tests and learned them by rote, taken their scratch&win test and have no basic understanding of the road rules at all?

Up the age limit, add compulsory insurance, teach people how to drive properly and test them adequately. And maybe 10 yrs down the line we'll see some change.

And for those who think change can't happen, in Belgium, where I got my first full, there was no driving test until relatively recently. But although Belgian drivers are fast and furious, they understand and enforce decent driving such as lane discipline and what has emerged is a strong driving culture, like Italy, that uses the law as a guide and 'common sense' and a shared expectation to make things work.

Driving culture is key thing.
In Italy a previous post was right - people drive to a set of unwritten rules.
All over Europe its the same. For example, in Italy to cross on a zebra crossing you start to cross, and the cars do not stop, but drive around you. In the UK pedestrians just step out - cars will all stop. In Belgium you are careful. Even if you are walking on a zebra crossing and are hit by a car you can be liable for the accident as the pedestrian. But its OK becuase everyone knows that.

Here no-one has any idea about what they are up to. Govt ideas to create a culture such as speed-kills etc are deluded and self-defeating because first they have not focussed on basic skills, agreed values and rules for drivers.