Police getting tougher on speed tolerance

[Berries]

Making sure foreign visiters prove they can drive would be another.

Making sure locals can drive would make far more sense and save far more lives.

Friend of mine talked to a pair of aussies that were waiting to rent a vehicle in queenstown airport when an Asian got the keys to her rental and went out side only to come in 5 minutes later waving the keys in the attendants face saying - you show how drive me not drive car like this before.
Two rounds of the carpark showing where the controls were and they were good to go so who's safer?

Hmmm, someone who may be less confident about driving in a foreign country compared to someone over confident because they are only over the ditch? Must be a trick question given the number of crashes caused by Australians when on holiday here.

[Swoop]

Public servant a vocational job

You're welcome

After spending some time last week, in Wellytown, at a gubbinment ministry...

Do you remember back at school? There were those kids who were regarded as "spastic"? Odd sort of individuals who we wondered "what will they do when they leave school"?

Last week I found the answer. They become "public servant's" and are employed in Wellington.



I now see the reason to rent out wellington to the French, for nuclear testing purposes.

[kiwi cowboy]

Making sure locals can drive would make far more sense and save far more lives.

So its ok for the tourists to come over here and get in a car and straight onto 100km zone when they probably haven't had a car over 30 ever as all there driving has been in city?.

Hmmm, someone who may be less confident about driving in a foreign country compared to someone over confident because they are only over the ditch? Must be a trick question given the number of crashes caused by Australians when on holiday here.

I haven't heard of any aussies taking out motor cyclists.

Last year major accident just out of Geraldine caused by and aisan driver on the wrong side of the road.
Another just the other day down here involving a Chinese driver killed a motor cyclist and seriously hurt another.
Major crash when a van of Asian persons pulled out in front of a truck 3 killed.

[roogazza]

When I started it was as a county mountie with the Auckland City Traffic Dept.

The hard thing is to get cops themselves to enforce it. It'll take a long time to become common practice for cops across the board to be writing tickets at 5 over. Some buy into it straight away, others will never, but it will become accepted over time.

Ahhhhh ! a traffic cop, I knew you had to be.
I hope General Police don't start that.

[caspernz]

Ticketing speeders for 4k over is fine but there's more dangerous shit on the roads than 4 k over that doesn't get attention.

Following too close for one- when I tow a small trailer to ch ch sometimes I travel at times close to just over the speed limit on my speedo which may be reading over but would still be slightly over 90.
I feel im safer doing this as even though im tecknicly speeding im staying with the flow of traffic so im not pissing others off holding them up BUT I make sure I have a great gap in front of me for manuvering should I need to.

The stuff not receiving attention (or at least that's the perception) as opposed to the single minded focus on speed...is my bugbear as well. The whole pioneer spirit is alive and well in this country, tailgating and aggro driving are just the norm, yet because it's harder to police than just speed...it doesn't really receive the attention it deserves.

[Berries]

So its ok for the tourists to come over here and get in a car and straight onto 100km zone when they probably haven't had a car over 30 ever as all there driving has been in city?.

No it isn't, but what do you think can be done about it, realistically?

Chinese excluded. They should have to jump through the same hoops that a westerner has to to drive over there. Reciprocal arrangements my arse.

I haven't heard of any Aussies taking out motor cyclists.

That wasn't the question.

Last year major accident just out of Geraldine caused by and aisan driver on the wrong side of the road.
Another just the other day down here involving a Chinese driver killed a motor cyclist and seriously hurt another.
Major crash when a van of Asian persons pulled out in front of a truck 3 killed.

Asia covers a large part of the world and a lot of people, many of whom drive on the same side of the road that we do. The big high profile crashes are often head on crashes which inevitably mean that someone crossed the centre line. In by far the majority of crashes the driver who crossed the centreline is a tired or distracted local. Tourist drivers however make good headlines and if the second crash you refer to is the one near Kingston that is an absolute classic example of biased reporting. Being a shit driver or making a mistake is a human thing, and we all make mistakes whatever country we were born in.

My point I guess is that if we have 20 percent of people driving being from overseas you should expect that 20 percent of drivers who cause crashes are from overseas. Some people however can't accept that.

[neels]

That's why your car/motorcycle reads xx% lower in speed, but still manages to record the correct mileage... given they both work from the same sensor, the only answer is that the manufacturer has specifically modified the speedo to read under.

Not entirely true, the odometer is a gear driven device, whereas a mechanical speedo (why do cars still have these?) use a magnetic drag cup to drive the needle against spring pressure. It's surprising they are as accurate as 10% really. Odometers are quite often out as well, it really grated my brother paying 7% more than he needed to of the already inflated RUC on his diesel.

Anyway, expect to see more speed camera vans at the bottom of slight downhills on straight roads, that's where the money is to be made and where in recent times I've seen them parked.

The speed camera fine that really pissed me off was one of these, downhill out of town just before the 100k sign, with a fucking big truck about 6ft from my back bumper. One would hope if there was a real cop around he would have pulled the truck for following too close, instead of me for the extremely dangerous action of not braking for 200m before accelerating at the change of speed limit

[kiwi cowboy]

No it isn't, but what do you think can be done about it, realistically?

more than is now but in the two hard basket cos the gubbermint looks at all the revenue it collects from tourists and doesn't want to lose that by making it harder or impossible for some to drive when they come here.
Much better to let them take the odd kiwi out A.

Chinese excluded. They should have to jump through the same hoops that a westerner has to to drive over there. Reciprocal arrangements my arse.


That wasn't the question.

Ok I haven't heard of any accidents caused by aussies this way-- Is that better?.


Asia covers a large part of the world and a lot of people, many of whom drive on the same side of the road that we do. The big high profile crashes are often head on crashes which inevitably mean that someone crossed the centre line. In by far the majority of crashes the driver who crossed the centreline is a tired or distracted local. Tourist drivers however make good headlines and if the second crash you refer to is the one near Kingston that is an absolute classic example of biased reporting. Being a shit driver or making a mistake is a human thing, and we all make mistakes whatever country we were born in.

My point I guess is that if we have 20 percent of people driving being from overseas you should expect that 20 percent of drivers who cause crashes are from overseas. Some people however can't accept that.

In a lot of cases the driver that crosses the centre line has no concept of speed and corners as they have been only in city driving all there lives at 30km max and never over that but gets in a car and crosses the centre going too fast.

[Ocean1]

Not entirely true, the odometer is a gear driven device, whereas a mechanical speedo (why do cars still have these?) use a magnetic drag cup to drive the needle against spring pressure. It's surprising they are as accurate as 10% really.

How accurate they can be isn't really relevant, what's relevant is the change in rules from a nominal instrumentation tolerance of +/- 5% to some technically incompetent transport authority required "industry standard" of +0/-10%. This, on the basis that while science is a very fine thing and all, it would be insanely dangerous to mislead a motorist into traveling over the legal speed limit.

Fucking bureaucratic wankers, no fucking idea.

[Big Dog]

When I started it was as a county mountie with the Auckland City Traffic Dept. We have a 20 kmh tolerance then, well, 19 actually. 20 over got you a ticket, less didn't even get stopped. Peoiple learned quickly that you could do 65 past a traffic car and not get pinged, so 65 it was. Over 700 died that year.

At the same time, in Invercargill the locals all drove at 52, as they knew that much more and they'd get nailed by the local countie mounties. I drove at the Auckland tolerance in Invercargill once, and the locals all looked at me like I was Evel Kneivel.

See, the tolerance sets what people drive at. If we have a high tolerance, we allow traffic in general (the 85 percentile) to creep up to it. After we standardized it at 10, it took a while, but mostly it caused people to drive up to thew tolerance. Especially in the lower speed areas, 50 kmh areas. We can drive around with the death ray reading general traffic around 50, and mostly less than 58.

It's taken us a very long time to wind things down to closer to the actual limit. From what I have seen, the 4 km/h thing might be the permanent thing. Over time, it'll become accepted. Not liked, just accepted.

The hard thing is to get cops themselves to enforce it. It'll take a long time to become common practice for cops across the board to be writing tickets at 5 over. Some buy into it straight away, others will never, but it will become accepted over time.

Tonight we had a classic example of "if only the police were there to see that."

Irony being the genius was only doing about 110 on the motorway. He was doing about 30km faster than the prevailing traffic. The smoke pouring out the back of gtr skyline as all four wheels lit up trying to not hit then people mover that pulled into the space he was trying to invade made it clear his driving ability was not what it should to be on the road. Let alone in a beast like that.

Yes, I am in support of the actions of the people mover. When he pulled out there was plenty of room and no one in the lane all the way back to a ute that flashed to indicate he was leaving him room. Me rocket scientist was to busy driving beyond his means to see this exchange even though e was closer than us.

If it were me is be pushing for absolute 0 tolerance any time the prevailing traffic was 20% under or if you are already driving like a fuckwit, 15% tolerance for overtaking manoeuvres, 10% any other time. Those are numbers the public can understand the reasoning and most I have discussed simat with IRL would support.

Or has common sense gone forever from our roads?




Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Big Dog]

As to foreign drivers. I know an awful lot of Jaffas who have never cracked the tonne or even the half tonne outside of a motorway. Some have on the motorway instead of saving it for a track day. These same Jaffas think because they drive around Auckland at 20% over the posted speed limit that they can do the same down to Thames while in an overloaded car towing a boat.

I can think of a few that would see driving at or below the speed limit a crime.


I don't know the exact stats but I seem to recall reading that half of all road deaths in Thames / Coromandel were Aucklanders. I'd be curious to know what percentage of the road toll each year the at fault driver was a Jaffa. Are certain areas over represented in the holiday road stats?


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[GrayWolf]

As to foreign drivers. I know an awful lot of Jaffas who have never cracked the tonne or even the half tonne outside of a motorway. Some have on the motorway instead of saving it for a track day. These same Jaffas think because they drive around Auckland at 20% over the posted speed limit that they can do the same down to Thames while in an overloaded car towing a boat.

I can think of a few that would see driving at or below the speed limit a crime.


I don't know the exact stats but I seem to recall reading that half of all road deaths in Thames / Coromandel were Aucklanders. I'd be curious to know what percentage of the road toll each year the at fault driver was a Jaffa. Are certain areas over represented in the holiday road stats?


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

I can only go by the Wellington Drivers, but to b blunt, a high proportion of NZ drivers are downright ignorant and arrogant.
Examples...
the Hutt Motorway.... traffic in the left lane doing 90-95, single car (or a few) in right lane, doing exact same speed, and wont move over, or spped up to 100kph and overtake. Germany? on the AUtobahn, all a car needs to do is come up behind you, put on the overtaking side indicator, and the slower car will pull over as soon as safely possible...
UK Main roads (dual carrigeways etc) people WILL let you in (make gaps) and are polite about it generally.... here? Merge like a zip, means? regardless of the other vehicle, force your way in despite the speed of the car/truck you are pulling in front of. On one occasion while driving a car, a young woman in a subaru tried to 'merge' (read FORCE her way in) from a right hand lane that narrowed to a single lane. At NO TIME was she in front of me (complete car) instead she forced her way to get her 'bonnet in front and tried to force her way into a small distance between me and the car in front. OK I'll admit I decided to not reward her bad behaviour and stood my ground. Which incensed her greatly. I can assure you this type of force in behaviour in London, would result in a driver getting thumped if a male.

NZ drivers like to blame foreign ones, and yes some are 'different' in car handling... but for road courtesy and manners? NZ drivers are severely lacking overall.

And for the Popo etc among us, please note... there is deliberately no reference about speeding behaviour in this post!

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

105 indicated in my own car is 98 true. Toyotas do that.

So imagine how frustrated you would feel, driving 'another' car believing you are doing 100kmh and getting pulled only to be told sorry sir you were doing 101-2 and I'm going to write you up.
See how the picture unfolds, see how people are going to get annoyed, see how what little respect people will have for this type of policing.

I think the vast majority of people can see the benifits of keeping within the set speed limits but the average Joe isnt the guy your aiming this zero tollerance at surley it must be the habitual speeder and they aint going to be driving at a couple of k's over the speed limit, yet who are the ones that are going to get hit with fines and demerits?

To be honest it could be the old double bluff senario; get people jumimg up and down over 1 k them put it back up to 5k remember the proposed ACC hike, the snapper size and catch limit all done before. It wasn't many weeks ago there was talk of 'increasing' speed limits in some areas!

[R650R]

they can do the same down to Thames while in an overloaded car towing a boat.

.

Now there's something that could REALLY save lives, reduce congestion and boost the economy. BAN all private vehicles (and company wagons not on business time) from towing boats caravans and trailers to the tip.
If you can afford a boat you can afford to park it at the Marina and join the boatclub, double win there as you'll get some marine safety training to.
All the holiday parks have cheap cabins now, it makes no economic sense to own a caravan and suffer the fuel use from towing it.
The last three consecutive major holiday periods I've seen caravans and boat trailers with sheared off wheels from stud breakage or nuts come loose. Miracle no one been killed.

[Scuba_Steve]

Or has common sense gone forever from our roads?

Pretty much; it got replaced with rules & signs & pretty coloured lights... why think when the road does that for you