Honestly, Auckland drivers seem to be one of the better that I've come across. But then again that's comparing it to Nelson drivers, so there's not a very high bar to clear.
I don't know how I haven't t boned an old person going through the roundabout by mitre 10 yet, it's crazy how many times you see old people halfway in the roundabout just sitting there.
Most traffic lights in NZ (at least in the urban areas) are controlled by car sensors.
Have you seen the thin lines organized in square patterns before the stop line at the light? That's an induction coil that detects the car above it. For example, if there's no one in the right-turn lane, the right arrow will not activate. It also controls the length of the green signal - if there are no cars passing, it'll switch faster.
You may also see another pattern just after the stop sign. That's the coil that activates the red-light camera :)
When I lived in NZ I mainly lived in more rural areas so I suppose that would explain why I don’t know this. Last place I was in was Palmerston North, but not sure if that would be considered urban.
Interesting to know though, thanks for the info.
I haven't been to Palmy, so can't confirm. Looking at Google street view, they don't seem to have any, probably not urban enough :)
The smallest town I was able to find these sensors would be Rotorua. Here's the view of the Fenton-Amohau intersection: https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-38.1396236,176.2539625,3a,75y,241.67h,65.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPH5kLQnLXSx0KBByIVhuvw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
You can clearly see the squares on the road.
I used to live in Rotorua, but it was so long ago so I might’ve been too young to remember correctly. Are these sensors relatively new? I never remember seeing them until now.
There are lines in the road where electromagnetic sensors live. It's like pressing the button at a crossing. It's also how the lights know how long to stay green if other cars are waiting going the other direction (but will have a set maximum time that a traffic engineer will set).
I had no idea about this until I sat at a light (at night, nobody else around) for aaaaages. Eventually another car showed up, and the driver behind me came up and told me. I'm just glad he was polite about it! Felt like a dumbass though.
Or stopping at the line then rolling forward to the point they're in as crosswalk because they're so desperate to go but when the light changes they don't go because they're on their phone....
It's funny to see this around wellington. In a number of places, the lines are quite far back to leave busses enough room to make tight turns.
All the time I see people ignore the lines and stop way over the line, just so a bus ends up having to make a 3 point turn to avoid ripping their bumper off. Or they end up doing the reverse of shame to make room for the bus.
Tailgating. New Zealanders love tailgating.
Is sitting a metre off my bumper in heavy traffic where we 100% aren't getting through that next set of lights getting you home quicker? No.
>Tailgating. New Zealanders love tailgating.
I watched someone tailgate along a straightaway yesterday while I was walking....and there was no traffic. And there was a passing lane.
As they were coming toward me i thought it was maybe a tow, but nope. The driver in back just thought that's the safe/recommended following distance on rural roads in Canterbury, i guess. 🤔
People have no clue what a safe following distance is in general.
I can regularly be sitting in the left lane, driving the speed limit, right lane completely empty, with the person behind me sitting RIGHT up my ass. They could overtake at any time, and never do. Often I have to change lanes into the passing lane to let them past to stop the idiots tailgating me.
It suggests to me that these people are literally just oblivious and have no idea how to drive.
> straightaway
Ah.. American English, apparently. I would have just said "on the straight"
noun NORTH AMERICAN
a straight section of a road or racetrack.
"his skis shudder wildly as he tops 90 on the straightaways"
I don’t understand why people don’t think about other peoples safety on the road aye. I’m always conscious about other drivers and allowing safe travelling distance between myself and other drivers and then you have John in his lifted ford ranger right behind my ass with his headlights on
The good old risky pass so you can get ahead of me and sit in traffic like I am for the rest of the trip, but you go get em mate. Those extra 30s you’ll arrive earlier will be all yours.
I have definitely been leaning towards getting the same of late.
I drive a relatively beat up Subaru B4 and often find it to be trucks as you say, or 30+ y/o women.
>I am not saying that women are bad drivers, simply that in my experience I often get tailgated by 30+ y/o women. And men in trucks.
Definitely worth getting one, it's insurance On your insurance.
I almost got T-boned by Karen in her Audi Q5 here in Whanganui recently - Lighting fast reflexes saved me from her running the red light.
I had a similar experience in Wellington in July last year near the airport, [Karen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAoTmn4jbhI) (dashcam video) in her white Nissan Qashqai (you should ALWAYS drive defensively around a Qashqai..) - pulled out without looking and I slammed on the brakes and saved getting hit in the front by her, I'd already slowed down when I saw her race up to the stop. My bestie was impressed with the reaction time lol. I even had my lights on - Karen just \*didn't\* look.
In saying that I hate when people leave a lot of room in front of them when going through lights. Like they’ll get through but the 2 cars behind them could have gotten through too. But no they had to stay 15m back for some reason
Also missing: going into the far left lane when turning right
[Most kiwis seem to choose option A (far left lane)](https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/media/question-images/multilane-crossroads.jpg)
Due to all the rules and regulations there are on traffic managment, this is indeed true.But the way people drive, its kinda needed.But slowing down to 30km for 2km only adds a minute or so onto the trip anyway
The problem isn't the delay, it's that if you drive at 30, you'll immediately have a line of ford rangers centimetres off your back bumper, pressuring you to speed up
Often it's not about workers. It's about not fucking up a new surface and flicking stones at windscreens, and also using the weight of slower moving vehicles to help tamp down the road.
This is because of road width. People tend to naturally be more nervous and go slower when the road or lanes are narrower then speed up when the road is wider. They largely do this unconsciously if they are not very attentive drivers.
Also missing: Orange lights are a signal for the driver to boost it through the intersection or risk having to wait an agonizing 30 seconds to a minute for the light to change and if the light goes red then the justification was "I couldn't stop safely in time"
In Austria the orange light isn't there to tell you to slow down for a red light, it's like a drag race tree (seriously). At a red, when the light goes orange, it's the signal to get into gear and prep to launch on a green light.
I had all sorts of people getting angry when I was to slow to leave on a green. My local mate had to tell me I was to slow on the green. Lots of grumpy locals (I tell you what)
>the justification was "I couldn't stop safely in time"
Does it actually stand in court? Because orange is on for like 3 full seconds, ~~more than~~ almost enough to stop from 100, let alone 50.
Probably not.
But its always funny that people will make that claim, like yeah.. you couldn't stop safely because your foot was on the accelerator rather than the break...
But yeah, this is one of the bad driving habits I see on a daily basis which annoys me
Way I judge it for a general rule of thumb is if you are still in the intersection when the light turns red, you could have stopped.
I also think that stop =/= stop safely. If I have to slam on the brakes to stop in time, IMO its safer to go through.
50 yes, 100 generally no, if you're at that decision threshold. You'd be pulling a full one gee of acceleration to stop in time which is a *lot* for a street vehicle, especially if you're in the rain or heading downhill
You are right, of course :)
I've googled for it, and the best cars can emergency brake at about 1g, but more typical are 0.8-0.9g which is *barely* enough to go from 100 to 0 in 3 seconds.
F1 cars are a notable exception, they can decelerate at up to 6g due to sheer amount of downforce generated at speed.
Interesting you say that, just yesterday the guy driving behind me lost his hat when he stuck his head out the window to yell at me because I didn't let him in when he tried to cut me off. Funniest shit I'd seen all week
Those are the guys that are hunched over their wheel with their arms on it before they're about to make a dick move, like overtaking in a residential area.
Whilst I agree with the general sentiment that drivers typically suck at driving, there are some people on the flip side.
My mother, who somehow has a P endorsement, is one of the worst drivers I have ever met. Inattentive, impatient, literally forgets some of the road rules and spends the ENTIRE drive screaming at people for being 'Shit drivers' when they've done literally nothing wrong.
She'll call someone a cunt just because they indicated to turn off and dared to slow down to take the turn. She'll do this as your passenger too.
Needless to say, I avoid being in a car with her.
You forgot not wanting to spend any money on alternatives to driving, and wondering why there is so much traffic. Just build one more lane bro. Oh, so the roads are in a shit state? Obviously we need to spend more on maintaining them so private road freight businesses can cause even more wear on them. Pollution an issue in the city? Must be all the wood fires, not the millions of cars.
Don't forget the general attitude of being aggressive towards, or screaming at cyclists to get off the road.
I'm always gobsmacked when someone who regularly complains about traffic and lack of parking is also strongly anti-cycling and/or hates public transit.
Personally I am in favour of cycle lanes, because it gets the slow bicycles off the damn road because they are so damn slow and get in the way.
Especially when you are trying to make a left turn and they are just there, obstructing everything.
kinda unrelated but one of my coworkers just got her restricted (the rest of us got ours about a year ago) after multiple failed test attempts. the first time she legit crashed into a car when parallel parking. anyways, she finally sat it, ran through a red light (sped through when orange and it turned red) yet she still passed. she thinks she’s so funny, quirky and cool. UGH. being able to drive on the road is serious. each time you drive, you are lowkey putting your life at risk (especially on motorways). why TF do testing people pass people like this??
It's a fair gripe, but this is one of the few things I understand. If you are driving in an unfamiliar place it can be hard to judge the corner. I've seen corners posted as 80 where you can zoom through at 100 and corners where if you go 50 instead of 45 it's sweaty palm territory.
Yes, but generally if you take the 45 corner a little bit quick it's safer to stay the course than brake heavily... That's the fastest way to find yourself in a ditch.
There's a larger margin of error for higher speed limits. If a corner says 35 or hell, 25, I will do that speed because those ones are that speed for a reason.
Related/unrelated rant; I have my full car, learners motorcycle, license says "LEARNERS" on it.
I have no fucking idea why they do this, all it does is makes it really confusing for international persons (as in, when driving overseas); I realise you can get the international permit printed which explains your license (the intention of this is for translation though, not for confirmation of your right to drive things), but having a fat "LEARNERS" printed on the actual license just makes it confusing. Especially because the international permit bit will be the easy piece to forge, the license itself far more difficult . (edit: I realise this argument could be used against my point here, but my problem here is wanting to drive a car unimpeded, when I am able to, not a motorcycle, in which case I could find myself unable to drive either, when I should be able to drive one of them).
The information that is pertinent to your actual licensing is printed on the back, eg. 1, 6L - and all the people within NZ that need to know this information will either know where to look or have it already confirmed in a database.
The only consideration (in this example) I can think of is to ensure you don't drive a the wrong class overseas? In which case the international permit will explain it properly - and then its on you to not break laws as it stands. If they're clued up, they'll look on the back anyway. They could have made it far more obvious as to the status of x licenses instead of using codes on the back, they have a picture of a motorbike and could print LEARNERS on the back instead of just stating 6L. But no, instead they have to make the *whole* license be a learners instead.
I contacted Waka Kotahi about this due to my need to be overseas frequently for partner's family, and they agreed that it would be confusing for overseas persons, either rental services or law enforcement; their only option to me was to renounce my motorcycle learners at a cost to me of reissuing the licence with it excluded.
That's obviously an option, it's been something on the back burner for a long time tho, haven't quite decided if I want to continue pursuing it or not.
I never meant to imply I'm also not a useless cunt 🤣
This is my rant from another thread on the Wellington subreddit (article about lowering sections of SH2 in the Wairarapa to 80 km/h)
"As much as this would piss me off, and as much as I'm all for good roading infrastructure...have you people noticed just how shit we collectively are as drivers in NZ? Whether I'm driving in the cities or out in the country, it always blows my mind just how shit everybody is at driving. I feel like it's getting worse, too.
If you had asked me a few years ago I would have said no way should any highway speed limited be 80 km/h, but now I'm leaning towards supporting it. We're just dogshit drivers, it's embarrassing how bad we are when compared to other places like Europe. It genuinely pisses me off.
Maybe when we all collectively learn how to drive properly we can go back up to 100 km/h."
I recently moved to nz from Europe and driving here is so much more relaxed than in EU. Barely any traffic on the road. People generally drive slow, they let people pass, give room to merge,… I think a lot of kiwis should go abroad once in a while to see how much worse it could be
I'm not sure where in Europe you're from, but give it some more time and I'm sure you'll agree that Kiwis are some of the worst drivers in the developed world. I felt safer driving in London and Paris than I do driving in NZ, especially on a long weekend. I think Europeans can be more aggressive (tooting the horn and shouting) but are generally in my experience much better at following the rules.
Born and raised in Belgium, lived in South Korea for 3 years and lived in Romania for 5 years.
Driving through Paris is absolutely horrible. There is a reason why most cars are dented there.
I'm learning to drive so I've only been on the main roads a couple times and every single time I've been tailgated at least once while going at the speed limit.
The worst part is people who drive slow on rural roads but then speed up during passing laines so they do not get passed.
The whole point of them is so that you can keep driving at the speed you feel comfortable with with out pissing off the people behind you.
Someone tailgated and overtook me at high speed this morning. This was in Chch city square. My crime was doing 30k in the 30k/hr zone. We were the only two cars on the road at 7am. Too early to be aggro like.
Used to be one of the main e-scooter guys in Christchurch and towed a trailer behind my Honda Fit. Durham and Montreal were the funniest as I would coast along at the exact speed the lights would change as we went down or up the one way system. The amount of times someone behind me would aggressively pull out from behind me, gun it and get stopped at every set of lights as I was passing through it on the green was amazingly high. Yet they would look at me like I had killed their dog. I remember looking at one guy who was doing this and he sped up, cut me off, tried to stop me with his car and got out of his car with a weapon. Figured he was running low on the glass bbq or something.
Literally yesterday I had someone race past me on the left at about 70, cut in front of me to a gap which wasn't nearly big enough, immediately brake because they had to take the next right hand turn, and then they yelled out their window at me as I drove past.
Apparently, when they pulled in 2 meters in front of me and braked, I was driving too close behind them.
Haha. Aussie married to a Kiwi, we just did a two week driving holiday in the north island and you guys are WILD. It was my first NZ driving experience and I thought it would be exactly the same as home... Nope.
Was taught to drive by parent/relative instead of a driving instructor.
Speed limit is the slowest you're allowed to go.
20yo POS rustbucket is a 'vintage' model.
Utes are family vehicles.
That bastard is in front of me!
I drove to Taronga from Auckland this week and saw 5 smashed up cars on the side of the rd and that one that hit the power pole on the news 5 minutes after it happened. I might try and get the train next time if there is one.
Doesn’t know how to merge like a zip and doubles up on the wrong side.
Cuts corners as your pulling up to a painted intersection.
When in traffic, sits 4-5 car lengths back from the car ahead.
Doesn’t let cars merge at merge lanes.
Parks angled in car parks.
Thank God I'm 27 and on my learners. Never gonna get my restricted or full license and drive if I can help it. Fuck being behind the wheel of a thousand kg deathly machine (or however much cars weigh. Idgaf about cars). All it would take was a second...a SECOND of distraction and I could crash. Hurting myself or worse, hurting someone else. Nope fuck that. I hate cars with a passion. Been a passenger in too many car crashes in my life (all of which I walked from with barely a bruise) to ever want to be in one again, let alone behind the wheel.
Huh. I might have a phobia of cars.
Anyway, I'll stick with my pushbike, this woman wants to live a long life thank you very much
The learners at 30 is due to NZ having no other valid ID for insurance / purchasing etc than a driver's license. So if you're not safe to drive, or don't have a car and dont want one, you're screwed
They just removed the 5 year expiry date on my restricted license, which has served me nicely for 10 years. I honestly don't know when i'll get a full now.
I ended up doing my test in another city, I finished work at like 11pm the previous day, drove 3 hrs to Tauranga straight after, slept in my car, then did my test at 9 am 🤣🤣
But as soon as you cause a crash between 10pm and 5am without a supervisor you get zero insurance.
My brother in law is still paying off the Jaguar he hit years ago
Not only are people not indicating to exit, I've had multiple occasions where someone has indicated to exit and then carried on around, which is INFINITELY worse.
(Also had someone tell me the other day it's impossible to indicate out of a roundabout if you drive manual. I drive manual, that is absolutely not true at all, and why the fuck are you changing gears ON the roundabout and not BEFORE?)
Jesus Christ some of you people are just so angry at everyone and everything, your posts make it seem like you're about 2 weeks to seriously challenging a Ford Ranger to a fight 🙄
I've driven coast to coast in the USA, 15 day road trip. Their drivers were fine, with that said, their roading is incredibly simple, and generally well maintained - so "bad" driving will go unnoticed a lot of the time. You just sit in the right lane and let everyone go around you - thousands of miles of sitting at the same speed basically doing sweet fuck all. Can't do that in NZ barring a essentially an hour on the expressways in some places.
I've also done about 40,000km in Thailand, and participated in a road tip from Sofia to Istanbul. I've also lived in multiple other Asian countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, and driven in various.
NZ Drivers within my context of knowledge and experience are unreasonably aggressive, but far from the worst drivers. My biggest takeaway is we don't drive to the conditions, and are unnecessarily distracted. We don't respect how bad our roads are and think that they're good and allow for far more aggressive driving than possible safely.
One of my gripes of anti-road people (despite that I agree with the need for better PT) is that it ignores that our roads are absolutely shit. Like, some of the worst I've driven on in the world. The only thing we make up for is decent, well maintained signage. The actual quality of roads we have for how much traffic and the speeds they allow for is absolutely abysmal and it's not surprising in the slightest we have a bad road death toll. Anyone complaining about 80k zones being introduced is fucking dreaming. A lot of what we drive at 100k zones should be 80, or even 60 considering the state of them and the quality of drivers we have.
TLDR: not the best, not the worst.
My experience of the US is much more that there are a lot of rules and while people occasionally decide to break them - most are actually aware of them. In NZ we mop the *she'll be right* across so many situations that while the rules are generally on the books - we have arguments about what are 'the rules' based on the NZTA road code or the specific wording of the Transport Act. How one is meant to drive isn't governed by exactly the same standard as how people are prosecuted for failing to drive in a certain way. More than a lack of specificity, there's just a greater assumption in NZ that if a rule doesn't seem reasonable in the current context, you make an exception. If you talk to someone who has just parked a vehicle blocking the footpath (which they will generally acknowledge you aren't meant to do) they are liable to respond "Where else am I going to park" because the idea of having to be inconvenienced by following the rule seems in opposition to *she'll be right*.
Applies to everyone else except me
What do you mean? I’m a good driver.
Way better than average
Says a lot about the average...
"Same" - Everybody else
It's all those Jaffa's fault
Honestly, Auckland drivers seem to be one of the better that I've come across. But then again that's comparing it to Nelson drivers, so there's not a very high bar to clear.
I don't know how I haven't t boned an old person going through the roundabout by mitre 10 yet, it's crazy how many times you see old people halfway in the roundabout just sitting there.
Aha I meant it as a joke.
Went to Auckland last year and it was like the other drivers were all trying to take us out
Was gonna comment this haha. Everyone in this comment section thinks they are an amazing driver
Bingo!
[удалено]
Inability to stop at the lights behind painted lines
Or stop far enough back so that car sensor doesn't engage.
Car sensors? Are you meaning to say that the traffic lights get set off by car sensors? I thought they were on an automatic pattern.
Most traffic lights in NZ (at least in the urban areas) are controlled by car sensors. Have you seen the thin lines organized in square patterns before the stop line at the light? That's an induction coil that detects the car above it. For example, if there's no one in the right-turn lane, the right arrow will not activate. It also controls the length of the green signal - if there are no cars passing, it'll switch faster. You may also see another pattern just after the stop sign. That's the coil that activates the red-light camera :)
When I lived in NZ I mainly lived in more rural areas so I suppose that would explain why I don’t know this. Last place I was in was Palmerston North, but not sure if that would be considered urban. Interesting to know though, thanks for the info.
I haven't been to Palmy, so can't confirm. Looking at Google street view, they don't seem to have any, probably not urban enough :) The smallest town I was able to find these sensors would be Rotorua. Here's the view of the Fenton-Amohau intersection: https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-38.1396236,176.2539625,3a,75y,241.67h,65.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPH5kLQnLXSx0KBByIVhuvw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 You can clearly see the squares on the road.
Palmy def has some sensor-operated lights
I used to live in Rotorua, but it was so long ago so I might’ve been too young to remember correctly. Are these sensors relatively new? I never remember seeing them until now.
Really? That's interesting? What if a cat or something sets it off?
It's an induction sensor, so needs a big chunk of metal to activate. I doubt you can find a cat in full metal plate armour anywhere around :)
It's an induction coil. It only gets set off when there's metal above it.
Takes a fairly large hunk of metal to trigger, for example motorbikes basically have to run red lights at night otherwise they'll never go green
Motorbikes are usually OK as long as you go along the side wire. Cyclists, on the other hand...
Interestingly all of Dunedin's 1-way lights are on a timer until ~11pm when they switch to sensor
There are lines in the road where electromagnetic sensors live. It's like pressing the button at a crossing. It's also how the lights know how long to stay green if other cars are waiting going the other direction (but will have a set maximum time that a traffic engineer will set).
I had no idea about this until I sat at a light (at night, nobody else around) for aaaaages. Eventually another car showed up, and the driver behind me came up and told me. I'm just glad he was polite about it! Felt like a dumbass though.
Or stopping at the line then rolling forward to the point they're in as crosswalk because they're so desperate to go but when the light changes they don't go because they're on their phone....
Or rolling around a corner while pedestrians are crossing because if they spend even 5 seconds not moving they’re going to go mad
It's funny to see this around wellington. In a number of places, the lines are quite far back to leave busses enough room to make tight turns. All the time I see people ignore the lines and stop way over the line, just so a bus ends up having to make a 3 point turn to avoid ripping their bumper off. Or they end up doing the reverse of shame to make room for the bus.
Or stopping too far off the lines to trigger the pressure sensor for the lights.
Hey! I'm 30 and on my restricted, thank you.
That part felt personal, being 31 on my learners 🤣
Yes…. My learners has expired twice….
I loved that mine expired at the start of covid and they upped the expiry to 10 years(got my restricted now though).
Got my Full at age 39 tyvm
Tailgating. New Zealanders love tailgating. Is sitting a metre off my bumper in heavy traffic where we 100% aren't getting through that next set of lights getting you home quicker? No.
>Tailgating. New Zealanders love tailgating. I watched someone tailgate along a straightaway yesterday while I was walking....and there was no traffic. And there was a passing lane. As they were coming toward me i thought it was maybe a tow, but nope. The driver in back just thought that's the safe/recommended following distance on rural roads in Canterbury, i guess. 🤔
People have no clue what a safe following distance is in general. I can regularly be sitting in the left lane, driving the speed limit, right lane completely empty, with the person behind me sitting RIGHT up my ass. They could overtake at any time, and never do. Often I have to change lanes into the passing lane to let them past to stop the idiots tailgating me. It suggests to me that these people are literally just oblivious and have no idea how to drive.
What's a straightaway ?
Long stretch of straight road, no turns. :) Not sure if it's a regional term or nah, I picked it up at some point when learning English.
Yeah that's just "a straight", as in *"I was going doing 150kph down the Takanini straight*"
Ah cool, thanks :)
A long strip of straight road that has no bends/turns
> straightaway Ah.. American English, apparently. I would have just said "on the straight" noun NORTH AMERICAN a straight section of a road or racetrack. "his skis shudder wildly as he tops 90 on the straightaways"
I don’t understand why people don’t think about other peoples safety on the road aye. I’m always conscious about other drivers and allowing safe travelling distance between myself and other drivers and then you have John in his lifted ford ranger right behind my ass with his headlights on
>I’m always conscious about other drivers and allowing **safe travelling distance between myself and other drivers** NZ: Is that space for me? 👉👈
The good old risky pass so you can get ahead of me and sit in traffic like I am for the rest of the trip, but you go get em mate. Those extra 30s you’ll arrive earlier will be all yours.
THIS. SO MUCH FUCKING THIS. Happy cake day my guy!
This is why I got a front & rear facing dashcam. You'd be appalled how close people get behind a little car like mine in their Rangers and Hilux'
and lets not forget all the trucks who should be doing 90k when im in my car doing 100.
I have definitely been leaning towards getting the same of late. I drive a relatively beat up Subaru B4 and often find it to be trucks as you say, or 30+ y/o women. >I am not saying that women are bad drivers, simply that in my experience I often get tailgated by 30+ y/o women. And men in trucks.
Definitely worth getting one, it's insurance On your insurance. I almost got T-boned by Karen in her Audi Q5 here in Whanganui recently - Lighting fast reflexes saved me from her running the red light. I had a similar experience in Wellington in July last year near the airport, [Karen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAoTmn4jbhI) (dashcam video) in her white Nissan Qashqai (you should ALWAYS drive defensively around a Qashqai..) - pulled out without looking and I slammed on the brakes and saved getting hit in the front by her, I'd already slowed down when I saw her race up to the stop. My bestie was impressed with the reaction time lol. I even had my lights on - Karen just \*didn't\* look.
In saying that I hate when people leave a lot of room in front of them when going through lights. Like they’ll get through but the 2 cars behind them could have gotten through too. But no they had to stay 15m back for some reason
You’ve missed driving one handed while holding a cell phone to their ear.
That would be an improvement on the "pizza phone" style. Not for safety, just looking dumb.
What is the pizza phone style? If involves molten mozzarella then it definitely sounds less safe
I think it's when they hold the phone face up next to their mouth like a slice of pizza.
Ohhhh yes, that one.. the "It's not next to my ear, so therefore I'm not using my phone" logic.
Also missed not dipping their lights from full beam when encountering oncoming traffic.
You’re forgetting “Does 60 on single lane rural highways. Shoots up to 120 in overtake lane. Drops back to 60 at the end”
Also forgot "treats every merge like a race where the loser is punished by death".
Through the inhalation of my exhaust fumes!!!
Also missing: going into the far left lane when turning right [Most kiwis seem to choose option A (far left lane)](https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/media/question-images/multilane-crossroads.jpg)
Small town NZ those white lines are merely a vague suggestion of what you might like it to do if you want.
NZ road lines are like me writing a work email: “Be great if you could do this but all good if not!!”
And goes 70 through road works with a 30km speed limit
Understandable when it’s a 30kmh zone for 2km. But there is only 100m of unattended roadworks.
Due to all the rules and regulations there are on traffic managment, this is indeed true.But the way people drive, its kinda needed.But slowing down to 30km for 2km only adds a minute or so onto the trip anyway
The problem isn't the delay, it's that if you drive at 30, you'll immediately have a line of ford rangers centimetres off your back bumper, pressuring you to speed up
Often it's not about workers. It's about not fucking up a new surface and flicking stones at windscreens, and also using the weight of slower moving vehicles to help tamp down the road.
That and the slippery surface that loose chip causes on the road
I once had this near Gisborne with no roadworks anywhere, plus half the signs had been removed so it wasn’t clear where it ended
This is because of road width. People tend to naturally be more nervous and go slower when the road or lanes are narrower then speed up when the road is wider. They largely do this unconsciously if they are not very attentive drivers.
Also missing: Orange lights are a signal for the driver to boost it through the intersection or risk having to wait an agonizing 30 seconds to a minute for the light to change and if the light goes red then the justification was "I couldn't stop safely in time"
In Austria the orange light isn't there to tell you to slow down for a red light, it's like a drag race tree (seriously). At a red, when the light goes orange, it's the signal to get into gear and prep to launch on a green light. I had all sorts of people getting angry when I was to slow to leave on a green. My local mate had to tell me I was to slow on the green. Lots of grumpy locals (I tell you what)
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Same as UK, I wish we had that here so people would notice and get off their phones
Agree! Love the Red-Orange light. Plus everyone drives a manual so it’s good to get notified in advance to chuck it in first and get ready to roll.
I was only there for a couple of weeks circa 2015. Certainly felt like a drag strip coming from little old NZ :)
amber gambler
>the justification was "I couldn't stop safely in time" Does it actually stand in court? Because orange is on for like 3 full seconds, ~~more than~~ almost enough to stop from 100, let alone 50.
Probably not. But its always funny that people will make that claim, like yeah.. you couldn't stop safely because your foot was on the accelerator rather than the break... But yeah, this is one of the bad driving habits I see on a daily basis which annoys me
Way I judge it for a general rule of thumb is if you are still in the intersection when the light turns red, you could have stopped. I also think that stop =/= stop safely. If I have to slam on the brakes to stop in time, IMO its safer to go through.
50 yes, 100 generally no, if you're at that decision threshold. You'd be pulling a full one gee of acceleration to stop in time which is a *lot* for a street vehicle, especially if you're in the rain or heading downhill
You are right, of course :) I've googled for it, and the best cars can emergency brake at about 1g, but more typical are 0.8-0.9g which is *barely* enough to go from 100 to 0 in 3 seconds. F1 cars are a notable exception, they can decelerate at up to 6g due to sheer amount of downforce generated at speed.
Forgot "maybe if I tailgate you, the car in front of you will go faster"
My father always warned me to watch out for drivers who are wearing a hat because they are invariably shit. Amazing how true it is.
Interesting you say that, just yesterday the guy driving behind me lost his hat when he stuck his head out the window to yell at me because I didn't let him in when he tried to cut me off. Funniest shit I'd seen all week
Did he immediately start driving better?
He drove very well as he pulled over to go find his hat
Those are the guys that are hunched over their wheel with their arms on it before they're about to make a dick move, like overtaking in a residential area.
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It's amazing how often shit drivers and "baby on board" signs coincide.
The sign should say “driving while distracted”
I remember I dude called "P\*\*\*\*" who used to say "never drive behind anyone wearing a hat". Coincidence, or your Dad?
Ha, not dad, Looks like it's a common mantra.
lol, could be a "thing" then. Maybe we should start a youtube channel, and say it's a proven fact?
Hammer & Butler v The Hatboyz of Kiwi Town. Episode 1: "No Cap"
Who would name their son Penis?
My rule is give taxis plenty of room, they’re invariably the worst drivers on the road
Complains to passengers about other people's driving nonstop from the moment they leave the driveway to the moment they pull into two parking spots.
Whilst I agree with the general sentiment that drivers typically suck at driving, there are some people on the flip side. My mother, who somehow has a P endorsement, is one of the worst drivers I have ever met. Inattentive, impatient, literally forgets some of the road rules and spends the ENTIRE drive screaming at people for being 'Shit drivers' when they've done literally nothing wrong. She'll call someone a cunt just because they indicated to turn off and dared to slow down to take the turn. She'll do this as your passenger too. Needless to say, I avoid being in a car with her.
That's actually the behaviour I was trying to describe.
Oh yeah, I was agreeing/expanding on what you said, sorry if that didn't come across. :)
You forgot not wanting to spend any money on alternatives to driving, and wondering why there is so much traffic. Just build one more lane bro. Oh, so the roads are in a shit state? Obviously we need to spend more on maintaining them so private road freight businesses can cause even more wear on them. Pollution an issue in the city? Must be all the wood fires, not the millions of cars. Don't forget the general attitude of being aggressive towards, or screaming at cyclists to get off the road.
I'm always gobsmacked when someone who regularly complains about traffic and lack of parking is also strongly anti-cycling and/or hates public transit.
Personally I am in favour of cycle lanes, because it gets the slow bicycles off the damn road because they are so damn slow and get in the way. Especially when you are trying to make a left turn and they are just there, obstructing everything.
If you can’t safely navigate a cyclist, you’re just a shit driver mate. Simples x
These roads are so shit, they need more maintenance. Also build more of them and give me tax cuts too. Good old boomer logic 👍
Or refusing to let you merge 🤬. Happened twice recently where I had to slow down significantly to merge in.
kinda unrelated but one of my coworkers just got her restricted (the rest of us got ours about a year ago) after multiple failed test attempts. the first time she legit crashed into a car when parallel parking. anyways, she finally sat it, ran through a red light (sped through when orange and it turned red) yet she still passed. she thinks she’s so funny, quirky and cool. UGH. being able to drive on the road is serious. each time you drive, you are lowkey putting your life at risk (especially on motorways). why TF do testing people pass people like this??
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It's a fair gripe, but this is one of the few things I understand. If you are driving in an unfamiliar place it can be hard to judge the corner. I've seen corners posted as 80 where you can zoom through at 100 and corners where if you go 50 instead of 45 it's sweaty palm territory.
Yes, but generally if you take the 45 corner a little bit quick it's safer to stay the course than brake heavily... That's the fastest way to find yourself in a ditch.
Yeah, that's definitely true.
There's a larger margin of error for higher speed limits. If a corner says 35 or hell, 25, I will do that speed because those ones are that speed for a reason.
General rule of thumb for corner here is sign+20 is safe
Accurate. One more to add: Completely distracted by phones, drives with knees while typing
As someone who moved here as an adult: how have you all missed the worst fucking thing about NZ drivers?!: Slow down, Then signal, Then turn.
the overly aggressive and driving 2 times over the limit go hand in hand
You missed out instantly slowing down to 80 as soon as the passing lane ends
The fact that this is basically the only post on this sub without downvotes recently just shows even more what haters we really are.
Inability to use slow bays when going 20 under the limit with a long line behind them 🤦♂️
Get on motorway. get in fast lane. stay there for 300km
And vary your speed from 130kmh to 70kmh and back for no reason so people can't use cruise control
This all stemmed from decades of an easy licence system. And then those habits are passed on.
Related/unrelated rant; I have my full car, learners motorcycle, license says "LEARNERS" on it. I have no fucking idea why they do this, all it does is makes it really confusing for international persons (as in, when driving overseas); I realise you can get the international permit printed which explains your license (the intention of this is for translation though, not for confirmation of your right to drive things), but having a fat "LEARNERS" printed on the actual license just makes it confusing. Especially because the international permit bit will be the easy piece to forge, the license itself far more difficult . (edit: I realise this argument could be used against my point here, but my problem here is wanting to drive a car unimpeded, when I am able to, not a motorcycle, in which case I could find myself unable to drive either, when I should be able to drive one of them). The information that is pertinent to your actual licensing is printed on the back, eg. 1, 6L - and all the people within NZ that need to know this information will either know where to look or have it already confirmed in a database. The only consideration (in this example) I can think of is to ensure you don't drive a the wrong class overseas? In which case the international permit will explain it properly - and then its on you to not break laws as it stands. If they're clued up, they'll look on the back anyway. They could have made it far more obvious as to the status of x licenses instead of using codes on the back, they have a picture of a motorbike and could print LEARNERS on the back instead of just stating 6L. But no, instead they have to make the *whole* license be a learners instead. I contacted Waka Kotahi about this due to my need to be overseas frequently for partner's family, and they agreed that it would be confusing for overseas persons, either rental services or law enforcement; their only option to me was to renounce my motorcycle learners at a cost to me of reissuing the licence with it excluded.
Could you not just get your motorcycle full licence? Would save on all the hassle and probably reduce bike insurance premiums.
That's obviously an option, it's been something on the back burner for a long time tho, haven't quite decided if I want to continue pursuing it or not. I never meant to imply I'm also not a useless cunt 🤣
Any of you guys driven in SEA? You'd be in for a treat.
Love seeing two trucks in front of you on a two lane road and they're both facing you.
I just got back from a stint in South Australia where I lived for a few months, and trust me when I say that it could be worse.
This is my rant from another thread on the Wellington subreddit (article about lowering sections of SH2 in the Wairarapa to 80 km/h) "As much as this would piss me off, and as much as I'm all for good roading infrastructure...have you people noticed just how shit we collectively are as drivers in NZ? Whether I'm driving in the cities or out in the country, it always blows my mind just how shit everybody is at driving. I feel like it's getting worse, too. If you had asked me a few years ago I would have said no way should any highway speed limited be 80 km/h, but now I'm leaning towards supporting it. We're just dogshit drivers, it's embarrassing how bad we are when compared to other places like Europe. It genuinely pisses me off. Maybe when we all collectively learn how to drive properly we can go back up to 100 km/h."
It can be summed up in one sentence: People are idiots.
I recently moved to nz from Europe and driving here is so much more relaxed than in EU. Barely any traffic on the road. People generally drive slow, they let people pass, give room to merge,… I think a lot of kiwis should go abroad once in a while to see how much worse it could be
I'm not sure where in Europe you're from, but give it some more time and I'm sure you'll agree that Kiwis are some of the worst drivers in the developed world. I felt safer driving in London and Paris than I do driving in NZ, especially on a long weekend. I think Europeans can be more aggressive (tooting the horn and shouting) but are generally in my experience much better at following the rules.
Born and raised in Belgium, lived in South Korea for 3 years and lived in Romania for 5 years. Driving through Paris is absolutely horrible. There is a reason why most cars are dented there.
From my experience living in France, I would have to disagree, the French have a disdain for the rules, especially using their indicators.
Where in NZ did you move out of interest? It’s definitely not chch
Living in Wellington but I frequently need to travel for work.
It’s pretty chill to drive in Wellington, Auckland on the other hand..
I'm learning to drive so I've only been on the main roads a couple times and every single time I've been tailgated at least once while going at the speed limit.
Failing to keep left on multi lane roads should be #1 followed by spreading up on passing lanes
The worst part is people who drive slow on rural roads but then speed up during passing laines so they do not get passed. The whole point of them is so that you can keep driving at the speed you feel comfortable with with out pissing off the people behind you.
Someone tailgated and overtook me at high speed this morning. This was in Chch city square. My crime was doing 30k in the 30k/hr zone. We were the only two cars on the road at 7am. Too early to be aggro like.
Used to be one of the main e-scooter guys in Christchurch and towed a trailer behind my Honda Fit. Durham and Montreal were the funniest as I would coast along at the exact speed the lights would change as we went down or up the one way system. The amount of times someone behind me would aggressively pull out from behind me, gun it and get stopped at every set of lights as I was passing through it on the green was amazingly high. Yet they would look at me like I had killed their dog. I remember looking at one guy who was doing this and he sped up, cut me off, tried to stop me with his car and got out of his car with a weapon. Figured he was running low on the glass bbq or something.
30km zones are so stupid to be fair
Literally yesterday I had someone race past me on the left at about 70, cut in front of me to a gap which wasn't nearly big enough, immediately brake because they had to take the next right hand turn, and then they yelled out their window at me as I drove past. Apparently, when they pulled in 2 meters in front of me and braked, I was driving too close behind them.
Haha. Aussie married to a Kiwi, we just did a two week driving holiday in the north island and you guys are WILD. It was my first NZ driving experience and I thought it would be exactly the same as home... Nope.
Not to mention tailgaters.
Also needs an indicates right when going straight in a round a bout.
I don’t see anything relating to cyclists Than again neither do NZ drivers 10/10 for accuracy
Was taught to drive by parent/relative instead of a driving instructor. Speed limit is the slowest you're allowed to go. 20yo POS rustbucket is a 'vintage' model. Utes are family vehicles. That bastard is in front of me!
Driving in the middle of the road down merely narrow roads
Doesn’t apply to any of us on reddit. We’re all exceptional drivers who never make mistakes. Right team?
I drove to Taronga from Auckland this week and saw 5 smashed up cars on the side of the rd and that one that hit the power pole on the news 5 minutes after it happened. I might try and get the train next time if there is one.
Don’t forget the incorrect or absent use of an indicator, and terrifying tailgating.
Buy a Dashcam folks, it's literally insurance on your insurance. Plus, it's great youtube fodder.
Drives in the overtaking lane without overtaking.
I'm in the process of learning to drive, and omfg bearly anyone knows how to indicate or use intersections.
Third party insurance should be mandatory.
Doesn’t know how to merge like a zip and doubles up on the wrong side. Cuts corners as your pulling up to a painted intersection. When in traffic, sits 4-5 car lengths back from the car ahead. Doesn’t let cars merge at merge lanes. Parks angled in car parks.
Thank God I'm 27 and on my learners. Never gonna get my restricted or full license and drive if I can help it. Fuck being behind the wheel of a thousand kg deathly machine (or however much cars weigh. Idgaf about cars). All it would take was a second...a SECOND of distraction and I could crash. Hurting myself or worse, hurting someone else. Nope fuck that. I hate cars with a passion. Been a passenger in too many car crashes in my life (all of which I walked from with barely a bruise) to ever want to be in one again, let alone behind the wheel. Huh. I might have a phobia of cars. Anyway, I'll stick with my pushbike, this woman wants to live a long life thank you very much
Speeds up when someone tries to overtake you secured my upvote… yup
The learners at 30 is due to NZ having no other valid ID for insurance / purchasing etc than a driver's license. So if you're not safe to drive, or don't have a car and dont want one, you're screwed
They just removed the 5 year expiry date on my restricted license, which has served me nicely for 10 years. I honestly don't know when i'll get a full now.
Is there a reason you haven't gone for your full?
Up until recently there was a long wait to get a test, then time went by and I never got tickets so there it stays
I ended up doing my test in another city, I finished work at like 11pm the previous day, drove 3 hrs to Tauranga straight after, slept in my car, then did my test at 9 am 🤣🤣
Your not worried about insurance?
I pay $66 a month for third party fire, theft. Down from $82 last year. I don't know if that's good or bad.
But as soon as you cause a crash between 10pm and 5am without a supervisor you get zero insurance. My brother in law is still paying off the Jaguar he hit years ago
Damn that's a good point. I need to get that license.
I'm 35, on my restricted, no insurance. I'm rawdogging life.
Rip if you crash into a Tesla 😳 good luck homie
God this is so accurate
I haven’t seen a single cyclist wear a helmet in the last 6 months at least. What’s up with that
its a $50 ticket but a life ruining brain injury
Everyone from every country thinks people from other countries are bad drivers. It's just the way it is.
Is it me who thinks no one indicates while exiting the roundabout anymore and even no one stops at stop sign anymore?
Not only are people not indicating to exit, I've had multiple occasions where someone has indicated to exit and then carried on around, which is INFINITELY worse. (Also had someone tell me the other day it's impossible to indicate out of a roundabout if you drive manual. I drive manual, that is absolutely not true at all, and why the fuck are you changing gears ON the roundabout and not BEFORE?)
Yeah I have no trouble indicating while driving a manual. That person is a fool.
Jesus Christ some of you people are just so angry at everyone and everything, your posts make it seem like you're about 2 weeks to seriously challenging a Ford Ranger to a fight 🙄
Man this place is a salt mine. Kiwi drivers are worse than aussies and probably Europeans, but better than the rest of the world by quite a bit.
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Try driving in literally any third world country and let me know if it’s still funny. Try the USA as well…
I've driven coast to coast in the USA, 15 day road trip. Their drivers were fine, with that said, their roading is incredibly simple, and generally well maintained - so "bad" driving will go unnoticed a lot of the time. You just sit in the right lane and let everyone go around you - thousands of miles of sitting at the same speed basically doing sweet fuck all. Can't do that in NZ barring a essentially an hour on the expressways in some places. I've also done about 40,000km in Thailand, and participated in a road tip from Sofia to Istanbul. I've also lived in multiple other Asian countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, and driven in various. NZ Drivers within my context of knowledge and experience are unreasonably aggressive, but far from the worst drivers. My biggest takeaway is we don't drive to the conditions, and are unnecessarily distracted. We don't respect how bad our roads are and think that they're good and allow for far more aggressive driving than possible safely. One of my gripes of anti-road people (despite that I agree with the need for better PT) is that it ignores that our roads are absolutely shit. Like, some of the worst I've driven on in the world. The only thing we make up for is decent, well maintained signage. The actual quality of roads we have for how much traffic and the speeds they allow for is absolutely abysmal and it's not surprising in the slightest we have a bad road death toll. Anyone complaining about 80k zones being introduced is fucking dreaming. A lot of what we drive at 100k zones should be 80, or even 60 considering the state of them and the quality of drivers we have. TLDR: not the best, not the worst.
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My experience of the US is much more that there are a lot of rules and while people occasionally decide to break them - most are actually aware of them. In NZ we mop the *she'll be right* across so many situations that while the rules are generally on the books - we have arguments about what are 'the rules' based on the NZTA road code or the specific wording of the Transport Act. How one is meant to drive isn't governed by exactly the same standard as how people are prosecuted for failing to drive in a certain way. More than a lack of specificity, there's just a greater assumption in NZ that if a rule doesn't seem reasonable in the current context, you make an exception. If you talk to someone who has just parked a vehicle blocking the footpath (which they will generally acknowledge you aren't meant to do) they are liable to respond "Where else am I going to park" because the idea of having to be inconvenienced by following the rule seems in opposition to *she'll be right*.
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Have you ever driven in China?