Average speeds dropping, yet road toll increasing

[gwigs]

I reckon people are slowing down, the police presence on the roads & advertising are taking effect. Unfortunately bad driving is on the increase, those already licensed are having their ranks increased every week as yoofs get licensed & suffer peer pressure to be a bad boy racer. IMHO..
Open road speeds up here feel as if they have dropped, most traffic seems to sit below 100kmh. I wonder if this caution is causing frustration & therefore more bad decisions. I know it frustrates the hell out of me being forced to travel between 60 & 90k's only to be told that "speed kills you know!" I also begin to loose concentration & make poor decisions when forced to creep along in a queue. Bloody propaganda for the mouth breathers.

Bloody good post mate,I think sometimes going a bit quicker keeps you focused and not bored into stupid moves.

[MotoKuzzi]

I reckon people are slowing down, the police presence on the roads & advertising are taking effect.....

I drive into Manukau every week day morning from the South, at about 5.30am. It used to be normal to see traffic travelling, 120-130kph. Over the last year i reckon this has dropped to about 110-115 in the fast lane. Not uncommon to see an unmarked car with someone pulled over along the way now.

[Brian d marge]

Hopefully the government has taken note of the protest put up by the bikers to the ACC levies and think real hard before doing to much to effect the motorcycling fraternity.

Unfortunately , two words in the sentence , that I never thought would go together

government and Think

They have been told to save money and will look at ways to reduce costs esp in health care ,,,

Now if car drivers were more environmentally friendly and crammed more into those tin boxes , THEN drove like a Rabid Romany ,

the health budget for broken Stupids would be through the roof , Government would have a fit ! Cars would be legislated of the road

and I would have a clear run over the port hills !!!

Make me Minister of Transport !!!

Car free Days ....... got a sort of ring to it !

Stephen

[SMOKEU]

So, speed doesn't kill.

I never thought it did.

Accidents kill. And accidents happen at any speed.

If you have too much speed you might trip out and die.

[shrub]

Speed will always be the mechanism by which Our Masters work on road safety because it's easy to police and easy to monitor. I read a report put out by the LTSA on accidents in the Waikato recently, and in it the comment was made that speed is not the biggest problem - driver inattention is the single biggest cause of road accidents. But how the hell do you police driver inattention? Do you pull people over for looking half asleep, driving too slowly, eating while they drive, talking to passengers, playing with their stereos or staring out the side window?

Maybe if the constabulary did that, some people would start taking driving seriously and maybe less people would say "sorry mate, I didn't see you". But you can't issue a quick and dirty ticket for staring out the side window or making eye contact with your passenger while you chat to them - all you can do is careless driving, and that means a courtcase, paperwork, time, bad PR and more. That's why you'll never see the biggest cause of crashes dealt with.

Speed however, is easy. If I'm doing 101 kmh, I am breaking the law and the constable behind the radar gun can prove to a court of law that "Shrub was being particularly wicked that day your honour, he was doing over 100 kmh and putting the lives of widows and children at risk and it was lucky we caught him before he killed someone". It's measurable, which means when Superintendant Plod presents his report to Our Masters at the end of the year, he can say "Minister, we issued 6785 tickets for speeding which proves how busy we are in our fearless fight to make the highways safe for widows and children". And he gets his Christmas bonus while Our Masters congratulate each other for having the second lowest road toll since 1960.

In the meantime Mary Pajero is lumbering and weaving all over the road in her mighty truck ("we bought it because it was safe for the children) as she tries to stop little Tarquin from gouging out Jacinta's eyes, completely unaware of Shrub using every ounce of brakes as his sphincter tightens so hard it leaves a crease in his seat because she was too busy to look properly at the give way sign. But she wasn't speeding, she never speeds because she's a careful driver. Unlike those terrible bikers screaming madly down empty country roads at 120 kmh - they deserve to PAY! And Our Masters fund all kinds of clever ads that convince us that any speed over 100 kmh is terribly dangerous so nobody will argue as to why there is so much focus on speed because "the faster you go, the bigger the mess" and "that's where a lot of the accidents are happening these days sir".

[gwigs]

[QUOTE=Brian d'marge;1129594788]Unfortunately , two words in the sentence , that I never thought would go together

government and Think

They have been told to save money and will look at ways to reduce costs esp in health care ,,,

Now if car drivers were more environmentally friendly and crammed more into those tin boxes , THEN drove like a Rabid Romany ,

the health budget for broken Stupids would be through the roof , Government would have a fit ! Cars would be legislated of the road

and I would have a clear run over the port hills !!!

Make me Minister of Transport !!!

I hereby appoint you.. MINISTER OF TRANSPORT....go for it..

Car free Days ....... got a sort of ring to it !

Stephen[/QUO

[Swoop]

is the expensive "Speed Kills" campaign where so much money should be focused? Or is this just a indication that they have no friggin idea what is the man cause of ppl having accidents, and speed is a easy target?

I was pondering this recently. Remember when the adverts used to have useful information, rather than bland propaganda? I refer to the Peter Brock adverts that were shown here "Brake on the straight - before it's too late" "Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule" kind of stuff.

People are turned off the "speed kills" approach because it is not only wrong, but also crap advertising.

Education of motorists' is something that politicians, and their ministries, are very bad at.

[MarkH]

Speed however, is easy. If I'm doing 101 kmh, I am breaking the law and the constable behind the radar gun can prove to a court of law that "Shrub was being particularly wicked that day your honour, he was doing over 100 kmh and putting the lives of widows and children at risk and it was lucky we caught him before he killed someone".

Your post made a lot of sense - you haven't wondered onto the wrong forum by any chance?

I suspect that the problem with policing is indeed that they choose the easiest to police infringements to enforce. What they can measure easily is what the majority of tickets are for. Speeding and blood alcohol level are easily measured and the details can be explained in court if needed. Bad driving is harder and educating motorists takes more work, easier to threaten people with a fine & demerit points if they don't drive slower than to educate them so they will drive BETTER!

[red mermaid]

So many experts with so many great ideas...makes me wonder why you aren't all in Traffic policing. MoT, or NZ Transport Agency.

[Monkeynz]

So many experts with so many great ideas...makes me wonder why you aren't all in Traffic policing. MoT, or NZ Transport Agency.

I wouldn't say that cops, traffic cops or NZTA are experts either, may like to think they are, they are enforcers and thats why I couldn't be any of them.

[Brian d marge]

done

As of now all cars are band from the bottom of..... ah sod it , everywhere on Bank peninsula except count down car park on sat afternoons

Done

Hey this jobs real easy !

Stephen

[red mermaid]

I wouldn't say that cops, traffic cops or NZTA are experts either, may like to think they are, they are enforcers and thats why I couldn't be any of them.

You are wrong, so very wrong, as so many of the posts on this subject are.
MoT are a policy advisory ministry.
NZTA are predominantly policy and educative.
Police are predominantly enforcement.

You answer also shows the lack of knowledge of the systems in place on crash analysis (not the anecdotal rubbish you get on KB), and other objective analysis by all these agencies that leads to police targetting there enforcement on behaviours that have been proven to cause crashes, and increase fatalities and injuries.

[shrub]

You answer also shows the lack of knowledge of the systems in place on crash analysis (not the anecdotal rubbish you get on KB), and other objective analysis by all these agencies that leads to police targetting there enforcement on behaviours that have been proven to cause crashes, and increase fatalities and injuries.

I've looked at a lot of the crash analysis statistics from 2008 for motorcycle accidents in Auck and ChCh, and I'd have to say that the quality of the data can be very poor - around 40% didn't record the size of the motorcycle and an incidence where a motorcyclist hit and killed a child who shot out of a driveway on a go cart was listed as a motorcyle fatality.

I was recently involved in a motorcycle fatality that the Police attributed to speed. I was leading a small group at around 100 - 110 kmh and was braking for a one lane bridge (and I know I was travelling at that speed because just before the accident I looked at my speedo). One of the riders following me was not paying attention - the rider behind him said he was looking over his shoulder, and when he saw the bikes in front of him stopping he grabbed a big handful of brakes and flew over the bars, tumbled and suffered internal injuries.

One of the factors the police used to identify his speed was the distance his bike had slid, which was erroneous because it was a Moto Guzzi with cylinders poking out the side. It slid further than my Triumph would have slid because it was sliding on a small area of metal on the front and the carriers for panniers on the back. He came off because of rider inattention, but it is recorded as a speed fatality.

[McJim]

You are wrong, so very wrong, as so many of the posts on this subject are.
MoT are a policy advisory ministry.
NZTA are predominantly policy and educative.
Police are predominantly enforcement.

You answer also shows the lack of knowledge of the systems in place on crash analysis (not the anecdotal rubbish you get on KB), and other objective analysis by all these agencies that leads to police targetting there enforcement on behaviours that have been proven to cause crashes, and increase fatalities and injuries.

Simply saying "you're wrong" doesn't constitute an argument. Please advise us where our errors lie o' knowledgeable one. If the government departments responsible are so all- knowing how come speeds are down and injuries are up?

(the real reason we are not MoT, NZTA or Police is the WE actually know what we are talking about )

[red mermaid]

Shall we start with speed, whereby it seems to be accepted on this site, as per the post by Shrub above, that if you are not exceeding the speed limit then it can not be a factor.

This is wrong, speed is driving to the conditions, and from the information given by shrub it was excessive. A person, or persons, in that group was travelling at a speed above there experience, the conditions at the time, and that associated with inattention has been a contributing factor to the crash.

For a proper analysis of crashes, ALL factors have to be considered and recorded, not just the ones you may like to include.