NZ vs rest of world: Toughness and enforcement of traffic laws

[SPman]

Seriously, NZ has some of the worst drivers I have ever observed in first world countries.

You've obviously never driven in Perth!

W.A. - 5k over and you get a ticket! Open road limit 110kph, but they seem to be intent on lowering this by stealth, because of the country road toll. Drivers, normally by themselves, in the early hours of the morning are killing themselves at a steady pace, in the country. So,they immediately target speeding drivers during the day - not bothering to note, tiredness, errant wildlife, 3m wide sealed lane widths with a 1m gravel edging, normally lined by trees, that give you no margin for error if you make a mistake! ie - Pollies here are as much obsessed with speed and "hoonish" behaviour as NZ. Spin your tyres around a cop - lose your car for 28 days!
40k over the limit - $1000 fine plus (currently) 48hrs immediate l.o.l and probably a "hoon law" charge of some sort - dangerous driving or whatever. Radar detectors are currently legal, but there are moves to come into line with the rest of Aus, and make you an Arch-criminal if you dare "cheat" (the cops out of their money, I suppose)
The good thing is cops are spread thinner over the ground and, outside the cities, away from the main freeways, you don't see many.......

[vamr]

Here in Taipei it's fairly tame as far as inforcement of traffic offences go. It's best not to stop for anything, especially a downed scooter.

Saying that my gf did get a ticket the other day for being 2km over the limit on the freeway... go figure.

[alanzs]

Speeds are slower here and the fines are much less than Lost Angeles.

In a bad week, I got three tickets in L.A. Each ticket had multiple infractions. One had five infractions; passing too fast, going too fast, riding on sidewalk, tires too low, muffler too loud (the last three were thrown out). The cop was in a bad mood. I had to go to traffic school for 24 hours (Six nights @ four hours a night, spread over a month and a half) and it cost about $400. Insurance also went up about 50%.

But, I had a couple times over the years where I was going 130-150 mph on the freeway and got stopped and the cops (both were CHP's) didn't give me a ticket and just wanted to talk about my Busa and motorcycles in general. Assuming they could have caught me, they could have impounded my bike and thrown me in jail for reckless driving. These were motorcycle cops though.

Got a red light ticket once (I was 6/10 of a second in the intersection on Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills). It cost $300, plus court costs. Ouch!

Generally, when being pulled over by the LAPD, they draw their guns and point them at you. Not a fun experience. I never say thank you after getting the ticket, needless to say.

[Lord Zod]

I live in Perth, Western Australia at the moment and start shaking whenever I see a cop because they will nearly always pull you over and try to ping you for something

[CookMySock]

Here in Taipei it's fairly tame as far as inforcement of traffic offences go. It's best not to stop for anything, especially a downed scooter.

This sounds interesting.. do tell us more !

I think we do ok in NZ. I haven't driven in any other country so I have no comparison. I haven't had a ticket of any sort for probably 15 years. I get stopped ALL the time. Today it was like this ;

"yes officer?"
"just a License check"
"my license is in my motorcycle jacket sir"
"in your motorcyle jacket?"
"yes sir. I have a class 1 full and a class 6 learners and exemption for my 650 blah di blah, so I leave it all in my jacket pocket."
"oh, ok. But you do have a license? "
"Yes sir."
Officer checks rego, wof, and ruc.
"I suppose I should take the Learners plates down - I just dropped my learner son at soccer"
"yes, well there is only one person int he car. hrm you don't look like a criminal, or a learner!" (officer grins)

I volunteered my personal details, but he refused and sent me on my way. $200 fine evaded. Three times now. Did I even have a class 6 learners ? yes, I do.

Many many times I get let off stuff - I moan like hell when I don't, but there is lots I get away with. Usually I can offer a reeeeeel good explanation, and they are like "oh, I see. Ok well carry on then." Usually the explanation is kosher lol.

Once I had a vehicle with no WOF or rego. I drove around this s-bend and UH OH, nowhere to go! straight into a checkpoint! dammit! So I hauled up short of the area, lept of of the vehicle before he could lift his finger and ran up to him "do you know what the status of the road is with the kids marathon today?" and he was like "wha? don't know nuthin about it sorry". So I said "ok thank you officer" and ran back to my vehicle, lept in, and drove straight past him. I don't know if realised later he got done or what. Was there a kids marathon on that day ? no, there wasn't.


DB

[scumdog]

"Stupid" for not evading the law? or "stupid" for not complying?

Just stupid.

They think stupid, they drive stupid, they are stupid.

[scumdog]

Well I drove from Las Vegas (Nevada) to Arizona, back up to vegas, up to Utah, back down to vegas, to L.A (California) and then up to San Francisco and hardly saw anyone getting tickets. I'd have to disagree on it being less harsh here than the states, we cruised at between 10-15 mph over the limit everywhere, 10 mph is 16 km/h and 15mph is 24 km/h, and here we get pinged at 11km/h over in a passing maneuvere......I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it's way harsher here......

And we're on waay worser roads here too..

[firefighter]

And we're on waay worser roads here too..

Errrrrm, nope actually they aren't......the roads there (not including the interstate) are so terrible it can be very difficult to even see where the lanes are.........the roads here are far superior in condition

[scumdog]

Errrrrm, nope actually they aren't......the roads there (not including the interstate) are so terrible it can be very difficult to even see where the lanes are.........the roads here are far superior in condition

But the roads you mentioned are way better than our SH1, I've driven then several times - and their 'side-roads' (which can be rougher) than ours don't have the same volume of traffic, I've driven them too.

[firefighter]

But the roads you mentioned are way better than our SH1, I've driven then several times - and their 'side-roads' (which can be rougher) than ours don't have the same volume of traffic, I've driven them too.

Yes but your comparing the Interstate with SH1, I already said not including the interstate, which I will definately admit is far superior, (I love the interstate it's brilliant) I'm mainly meaning the city roads (outer city roads) and places like the spaghetti bowl - inner freeways etc...I found them to be really rough, no painted lanes just very old cats-eyes which hrdly showed up at all.did you notice that the traffic never ever gets as bad as here? I found a traffic jam was at least moving at 30mph at the slowest.....

[Ocean1]

Fuck off! There are already too many laws, rules and regulations, and not enough of taking personal responsibilty for your own actions.

Sickening innit.

Let's restrict the number of liqour stores in south orks 'cause that's wot causes murders...

[Ocean1]

I can't see anything wrong with having a target to aim for, And if reached, lower it again.

What's wrong with it is that the effect is not linear wrt the cause.

Check the stat's for fatalities/Km over the last few decades. Large gains slowly reducing to small ones (timing more in line with improved vehicle specifications than anything else) and then for the last decade fuck all improvement in spite of massively increased emphisis on speed enforcement.

We're past the point of deminishing returns and well into the realms of fantasy.

[Ocean1]

You've obviously never driven in Perth!

Was out east of Mandura last year, counted 12 changes in posted speed limit in 9Km. OK, 2 of 'em were on account of roadworks, but that's fuckin' ridiculous. What' smore the one cop on the stretch had 3 cars pulled over, maybe 40 metres after one of the 50Kph roadworks signs...

[Headbanger]

What's wrong with it is that the effect is not linear wrt the cause.

Check the stat's for fatalities/Km over the last few decades. Large gains slowly reducing to small ones (timing more in line with improved vehicle specifications than anything else) and then for the last decade fuck all improvement in spite of massively increased emphisis on speed enforcement.

We're past the point of deminishing returns and well into the realms of fantasy.

Nothing wrong with having a target, There is always room for improvement. The major reductions may have already been done, But you would slightly retarded to say that's good enough, Lets just sit on it.

[Ocean1]

Nothing wrong with having a target,

Couldn’t agree more, as long as it’s a valid one and you’re using your own ammunition. What’s the target in the case of the current focus on speed enforcement? It sure as hell isn’t the reduction of accidents and injuries, the numbers clearly show it doesn’t work.