Ticket from Police only on word of (an)other motorist(s)....
Discussion
Mario149 said:
Having completed over 5k miles in 7 weeks here in NZ, a few thoughts on driving here:
1) apologies to any resident Kiwis on PH, but the standard here really is quite low. A lot of it is due to foreign tourists ogling things and not paying attention I'm willing to bet, but ref the locals I've never seen so many people
a) completely oblivious to what other vehicles are doing around them (as opposed to say Italy where people seem to be acutely aware of every car on the road but just not actually give a sh*t). Part of me wonders if it's because the speed limits are so strict i.e. people just switch off if they're under the limit as they assume they can do no wrong.
b) being *very* aggressive towards other drivers for little or no reason (forget our incident, we actually saw cars repeatedly sideswiping each other in Whangerei in a built up area when one didn't want the other to merge in front of him and wouldn't let him in despite the other vehicle not having anywhere to go).
2) Policing of roads: there is a complete obsession here with speed limits, and I mean complete, as if it would single handedly cure all the road problems. Apparently it's a real political thing and tickets for speeding are handed out like confetti, with towns like Invercargill actually having quotas of issued tickets that need to be met as the fines are used to help fund the police. If the cops here spent half as much time driving around in unmarked cars stopping people doing daft things as they actually do sitting by the side of a completely straight bit of road in a marked car waiting to catch someone 2.5mph over the posted limit (yup, you'll get a ticket for that), I'm pretty sure things would be a lot safer. I would estimate that based in miles travelled, police cars by the side of the road with cameras are about 5x more prevalent in NZ compared to the UK.
Overall, I've actually found driving in NZ pretty stressful and really quite dangerous (due to other drivers, roads are generally all right) in places. Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to driving in the traffic crammed UK again. We may not be perfect, but at least our driving muppetry (and almost more importantly one's reaction to it) doesn't seem quite so extreme and we appear to have traffic police that do their job more intelligently and dare I say fairly.
Completely agree with the above and I am a resident.1) apologies to any resident Kiwis on PH, but the standard here really is quite low. A lot of it is due to foreign tourists ogling things and not paying attention I'm willing to bet, but ref the locals I've never seen so many people
a) completely oblivious to what other vehicles are doing around them (as opposed to say Italy where people seem to be acutely aware of every car on the road but just not actually give a sh*t). Part of me wonders if it's because the speed limits are so strict i.e. people just switch off if they're under the limit as they assume they can do no wrong.
b) being *very* aggressive towards other drivers for little or no reason (forget our incident, we actually saw cars repeatedly sideswiping each other in Whangerei in a built up area when one didn't want the other to merge in front of him and wouldn't let him in despite the other vehicle not having anywhere to go).
2) Policing of roads: there is a complete obsession here with speed limits, and I mean complete, as if it would single handedly cure all the road problems. Apparently it's a real political thing and tickets for speeding are handed out like confetti, with towns like Invercargill actually having quotas of issued tickets that need to be met as the fines are used to help fund the police. If the cops here spent half as much time driving around in unmarked cars stopping people doing daft things as they actually do sitting by the side of a completely straight bit of road in a marked car waiting to catch someone 2.5mph over the posted limit (yup, you'll get a ticket for that), I'm pretty sure things would be a lot safer. I would estimate that based in miles travelled, police cars by the side of the road with cameras are about 5x more prevalent in NZ compared to the UK.
Overall, I've actually found driving in NZ pretty stressful and really quite dangerous (due to other drivers, roads are generally all right) in places. Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to driving in the traffic crammed UK again. We may not be perfect, but at least our driving muppetry (and almost more importantly one's reaction to it) doesn't seem quite so extreme and we appear to have traffic police that do their job more intelligently and dare I say fairly.
The same drivers that dial *555 to report 'dangerous' driving are often the soporific speedo watchers with little road awareness, driving ability or anticipation - they've been brainwashed by the propaganda that depicts those travelling at 65+mph as murderers.
I don't know anyone who hasn't received an infringement for speeding be they young, old, male or female - they all have points on their licence.
The recent introduction of only a 2.5mph leeway has seen drivers travelling bunched up bumper to bumper at 55mph for fear of getting 'pinged'.
We have an antiquated, narrow minded outlook towards road safety and it's because of this that people are dying on our roads, education is almost non-existent, insurance isn't compulsory and the sheer lack of awareness shown by the average driver is shocking.
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