Carattitude

[MSTRS:Me]

Unfortunately, Mr YellowSuzuki will not have learned a thing, and his potential to contribute to the genepool remains undiminished.
Scary, eh?

[KoroJ]

I believe part of this problem stems from the fact, there are not enough people in NZ and we therefore consider 'our personal space' to be way bigger than it should be. This applies to walking a busy street as well as driving.

Overseas, if your in the wrong lane you'll end up in the wrong place and people realise this so they welcome you across, In NZ, indicating your intention to change lanes is considered and agressive attack into anothers 'space' and the gap is quickly shored-up.

Our 'personal space' is so expansive, we can't see or allow for anyone else on the road, so we are also good at picking gaps in traffic, taking the gap, then taking our time.

I loved driving overseas where the fast lane was only for overtaking...you got out there, did the job, then got back in. I hate the way we Kiwis sit in the fast lane leading to undertaking and agravation to those around us. Or ariving at a passing lane and speeding up in case some other dickhead wants to get past.

NZ'er are generally a bunch of ignorant pricks when it comes to the road.

[Grahameeboy]

Pommie digs aside (I married one), I do have to go along with Grahmee about the driving over there. They drive fast, safe and courteous on the motorways in the UK as they also do in Germany and most of europe really. It is an attitude thing here.

Who are the bad guys here?

Driving to work a couple of days ago in my "looser cruiser" (It happens when you have kids) I got stuck in a long line of slow traffic doing about 70Kays on average. Way up ahead there is someone who has the cognitive function of a three toed sloth combined with the attitude of a rhinocerous. 'Its my goddam right to go as slow as I like' is the loud and clear message as his brake lights come on at every hint of a bend... On a shortish straight, a hotshot in his newish bright yellow Suzuki Swift two cars behind me, spots an opportunity that the rest of us dopey morons seemed to have missed. He's in a new car, she's got a bit of wick up front and he's a better driver than the rest of us. He makes his move 'Fuck this, I'm gonna take the lot of them'. With the veins on his red fleshy neck bulging, he accelerates past a whole bunch of us and soon runs into the old profile drag issue (thrust=drag), she won't go much faster while he's still got quite a few to overtake and a rapidly looming corner. Murphy enters and according to his law, Joe Bloggs who is tootling along in the other direction minding his own business, exits a bend and is presented head on with a 180 KPH bright yellow missile. I observe a quick flash of brakelights on the rear of the swift indicating Mr (not so now) Hotshots state of panic as he attempts to shift left back into the left lane. Unfortunatly for him, the overtakees who have been blissfully perfecting the art of tailgating, are not amused and no-one gives him a gap. In fact there are those that close it up just to make him pay for his folly!
Joe to the rescue...! What else could he do? Bloggs takes his Mitsy to the shoulder, does a bit of drifting and lives to tootle another day. I get to see his terrified expression as he goes by and fortunatly for Hotshot there are no other cars following.

In UK we learnt that we should let the first car in the queue..behind the tootler....overtake first and so on because we understand the potential hazards of overtaking a queue of cars following a tootler..ie some muggin will also decide to overtake, in particular the first car in the queue.

Ain't rocket science is it so why do drivers here do the kinda of common stuff that you have just illustrated.............

How many times have you had car driver try to undertake you on your bike on a single carriageway when you are positioned closer to the centre line......what I wonder makes them do this when you are following a car......

Sometimes drivers here are as thick as 2 planks.

[Bass]

Right!! A bit of perspective.
Firstly, I think the driving standards in NZ are: -
1. Similar to Australia
2. Better than Paris
3. Better than Rome
4. Way, way, way better than Buenos Aires
5. Worse than London.
6. Not even on the same page as Tokyo.
7. Actually slowly improving in Auckland - probably through necessity

IMHO we tend to drive competitively rather than co-operatively.
Japan and SOME of Europe, the drivers try and help each other to get where they are going. Consideration for each other results in higher skill levels and also general awareness levels.
On the rest of the list, their competitive driving engenders a "who cares" attitude to the needs of other drivers.

[Karma]

Here's what it breaks down to...

The majority of New Zealand drivers are arrogant self-centred pricks.

I've seen all to often the people that speed up and block you outta traffic for no reason other than spite, the people that just pull u-turns all over the shop, and the worst one I know of... slamming on the brakes for no reason and then indicating for a turn, like I'm supposed to be some fucken psychic.

And don't get me started on those that drive at night with no lights on.

Apparently the average kiwi motorist doesn't have a sufficient IQ to see things from someone elses position, and realise that they'd be hard to see without their lights on.

Oh... and the bit about how this doesn't tally with NZ's image? That's because NZs image is a load of bullshit, grass is always greener over there. I'm sure there are some in NZ that would love to go and live in London, with it's towers and castles and such, but nobody thinks about the illegal immigrants and other shit that ain't on the adverts... NZ's image, it's all PR.

[SPman]

Unfortunately, Mr YellowSuzuki will not have learned a thing, and his potential to contribute to the genepool remains undiminished.
Scary, eh?

Unfortunately, none of those in the queue, because of their stupid, pigheaded arrogance, seem to have learnt a thing, either, except to needlessly put peoples lives at risk ,(including their own - do you think a 180k head on alongside a queue of traffic won't impact on both sides of the road?)
Whats wrong with leaving a bit of a gap, reading a potentially serious situation, whatever the cause and doing your bit to make allowances for it - do what you can to help prevent it?
Basically, most peoples vision of their environment stops about 2 feet from their vehicle!
The fuckheads are exactly the same here in WA as well - worse, if anything.

[Pwalo]

You are right, I experience just as much bad driving when I am in my car but I guess my question is "Why" when you consider the perception the World has of NZ.

I don't think the rest of the World has a view about NZ drivers. I'm sure most of them think that we're something like 'Middle Earth'.

Some of them might know that we play rugby and cricket as well, but that's probably it.

The truth is that we are a wee strip of land at the end of the world that spends far too much time navel gazing.

[slinky]

Pommie digs aside (I married one), I do have to go along with Grahmee about the driving over there. They drive fast, safe and courteous on the motorways in the UK as they also do in Germany and most of europe really. It is an attitude thing here.

Who are the bad guys here?

Driving to work a couple of days ago in my "looser cruiser" (It happens when you have kids) I got stuck in a long line of slow traffic doing about 70Kays on average. Way up ahead there is someone who has the cognitive function of a three toed sloth combined with the attitude of a rhinocerous. 'Its my goddam right to go as slow as I like' is the loud and clear message as his brake lights come on at every hint of a bend... On a shortish straight, a hotshot in his newish bright yellow Suzuki Swift two cars behind me, spots an opportunity that the rest of us dopey morons seemed to have missed. He's in a new car, she's got a bit of wick up front and he's a better driver than the rest of us. He makes his move 'Fuck this, I'm gonna take the lot of them'. With the veins on his red fleshy neck bulging, he accelerates past a whole bunch of us and soon runs into the old profile drag issue (thrust=drag), she won't go much faster while he's still got quite a few to overtake and a rapidly looming corner. Murphy enters and according to his law, Joe Bloggs who is tootling along in the other direction minding his own business, exits a bend and is presented head on with a 180 KPH bright yellow missile. I observe a quick flash of brakelights on the rear of the swift indicating Mr (not so now) Hotshots state of panic as he attempts to shift left back into the left lane. Unfortunatly for him, the overtakees who have been blissfully perfecting the art of tailgating, are not amused and no-one gives him a gap. In fact there are those that close it up just to make him pay for his folly!
Joe to the rescue...! What else could he do? Bloggs takes his Mitsy to the shoulder, does a bit of drifting and lives to tootle another day. I get to see his terrified expression as he goes by and fortunatly for Hotshot there are no other cars following.

Maybe thats why i; ride a bike, enjoy riding my bike and enjoy riding it 2 and from work.
Cus if im sitting in a car, its already using up some of my space so i decide to extend the radius of my space, where as the bike is part of me n we don't demand so much space.
And we can move into someone elses space, and back out again before they even get the chance to think about slaming on the breaks or putting the gas on

there are so many shit drivers here, it brings out the arrogant 'get the F%k outta my space' attitude out of all of us.

We worry that if you let that person in, its gona bite you in the arse cus they MIGHT drive real slow, or MAY break a rediculous amount for every corner (cus last time you did that, thats what happened)... bla bla.
Theres a Viscious cycle here that most are too stuborn to break.

I got told that in Europe(German taxi driver said this) its not easy to get your licence. It costs a few thou. because of all the lessons that are compulsory to have, to pass a dificult test.
so they don't have any incompetent drivers out there.

[peasea]

Unfortunately, Mr YellowSuzuki will not have learned a thing, and his potential to contribute to the genepool remains undiminished.
Scary, eh?

You're probably right but neither will the bozo who was doing 70kph (or whatever) on an open road. Slow drivers need to be ticketed just as 'speedsters' do, and I know there have been a few instances of that recently, but it happens far too rarely. People get impatient behind slow drivers and do silly things, often not realizing the limitations of themselves and their vehicles. In the young there is, most likely, a Playstation mentality; "I'll just push restart if I crash".

I think that kiwis are competitive by nature and we have a hard-contact ball sport (rugby/league) thrown down our throats on a daily basis; it's on the radio, it's on TV, it's in the papers, it's over the coffee cups, it's everywehere; it's like been told, subliminally, that a bit of biffo every day is quite the norm. (Sporting heroes often 'walk' from violence charges as well, so biffo is seen as ok and it trickles down to the driving attitudes.)

We don't like being overtaken, being second in line or held up by (perceived or otherwise) imbeciles. This attitude is reflected in our driving; "Get out of my way, can't you drive? Hurry the fuck up! What's this idiot doing?".

It's about getting to the line first, elbowing your way there and to hell with everyone else. "I've got the ball (car) and I'm off like a raped ape", cut and dive through the traffic, indicate when and if you can be bothered, drive your 4WD across footpaths, coz you can, and park wherever you want to when you get to your destination; the "goal line". What a winner!

In my observations during extensive travels throughout NZ the worst area for slow/inattentive drivers is consistently Northland and this area hails as the 'no rear vision mirror' capital of the nation. The most aggressive area is undoubtedly anywhere between the Bombays and the Brynderwyns (greater Auckland) and this area also seems to be infested with vehicles that have no indicators. Sure, there are other areas where things aren't rosey but those two are standouts in their respective shortcomings, to my mind anyway.

Some ad's on TV promoting rear-view mirror usage would be beneficial, I'm sure, along with correct use of roundabouts/indicators etc instead of this constant blathering-on about speed and crashing your mates into bridge abutments. Showing careful/considerate/law-abiding driving practices on TV on a daily basis, ad infinitum, is surely going to be more positive than the negative shite we see now.

Rant over.

[terbang]

I don't think the rest of the World has a view about NZ drivers. I'm sure most of them think that we're something like 'Middle Earth'.

Some of them might know that we play rugby and cricket as well, but that's probably it.

The truth is that we are a wee strip of land at the end of the world that spends far too much time navel gazing.

True, but their perception of us has no bearing on our abysmal road toll. It's our own perception, the kiwi drivers, that should matter.

[Grahameeboy]

I don't think the rest of the World has a view about NZ drivers. I'm sure most of them think that we're something like 'Middle Earth'.

Some of them might know that we play rugby and cricket as well, but that's probably it.

The truth is that we are a wee strip of land at the end of the world that spends far too much time navel gazing.

I was really referring to the World's view of Kiwi's in general, laid back, easy going etc.

[terbang]

I think that kiwis are competitive by nature and we have a hard-contact ball sport (rugby/league) thrown down our throats on a daily basis; it's on the radio, it's on TV, it's in the papers, it's over the coffee cups, it's everywehere; it's like been told, subliminally, that a bit of biffo every day is quite the norm. (Sporting heroes often 'walk' from violence charges as well, so biffo is seen as ok and it trickles down to the driving attitudes.)
Rant over.

Now that is what I was fishing for..Bling Bling

[peasea]

True, but their perception of us has no bearing on our abysmal road toll. It's our own perception, the kiwi drivers, that should matter.

Abysmal road toll? Take a look at the stats and you'll find that in reality the road toll, while the actual figure might remain fairly static every year, the number of deaths per 10,000 drivers, or 100,000 of population, whatever, is actually falling. In fact, the '06 road toll (at a tragic 374) was the lowest in 46 years! Compare that to 1973 (843 killed) and think about the population levels, the driver numbers and the speed capabilities of the vehicles. Crikey, I can recall there being heaps of Morry Minors still puttering around back in 1973, now every second twin-cam, EFI raceabout has a turbo!

Abysmal? I don't quite agree with you mate.

Check out http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/media/2007/070101.html

....and: "As recently as 1990 there were 729 road deaths in New Zealand. Since then annual road deaths have dropped by 47 percent, in spite of a 42 percent increase in the number of vehicles on the road and a 21 percent increase in population."

[Grahameeboy]

Abysmal road toll? Take a look at the stats and you'll find that in reality the road toll, while the actual figure might remain fairly static every year, the number of deaths per 10,000 drivers, or 100,000 of population, whatever, is actually falling. In fact, the '06 road toll (at a tragic 374) was the lowest in 46 years! Compare that to 1973 (843 killed) and think about the population levels, the driver numbers and the speed capabilities of the vehicles. Crikey, I can recall there being heaps of Morry Minors still puttering around back in 1973, now every second twin-cam, EFI raceabout has a turbo!

Abysmal? I don't quite agree with you mate.

Check out http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/media/2007/070101.html

Abysmal is too strong I agree, however, a few years ago NZ had the 2nd worst per capita toll figures in the world

[peasea]

Abysmal is too strong I agree, however, a few years ago NZ had the 2nd worst per capita toll figures in the world

Yup, don't doubt it and we're still right up there BUT, we also have one of the highest (we might be third I think) figures for vehicles per head of population. So, in reality we aren't THAT bad, however I won't refute any postings here (or change anything I've said) in regard to the fact we have a long way to go and much to learn.

I have to admit; I haven't read a Road Code since 2003. Anybody else want to fess up on that?