All of the above makes sense, but how do you deal with the underlying proembls of aggressive and inattentive drivers?Having driven and cycled in really busy cities in Asia and Europe, I’ve never felt a target the same way as you do in Auckland. Nobody’s ever thrown bottles at me overseas, tried to ram me off the road, or my favourite move, overtake me just before turning left in front of you.People here own the tiny bit of road they travel on, and are prepared to smash into you to defend it. You don’t give way and you don’t leave space to the car in front of you. If you do, someone else jams into the space, forcing you to stand on your brakes.Before coming to Auckland, I had never seen a u-turn on a motorway before. Or people reading maps, texting with both hands and steering with their knees, while doing 40kph for safety’s sake across the Harbour Bridge. And where in the Road Code does it say you must slow down or even stop, and attempt to merge at straight angles on motorway onramps, into 100kph and faster traffic?Even on suburban roads, you have people crossing the centre into your side of the road if there’s an obstacle on their side. They do this rather than slowing down from 60kph and waiting for the other side to be clear.I’ve attended three nasty smashes. One was fatal the driver in front of us went into a tree for no apparent reason on that long stretch of wide road between Napier and Hastings. Another one on SH1 was caused by a driver over-estimating his cornering skills and crossed the centre line, into a small truck. Very messy and bloody.Further up on SH1, some drunk drove off the road near Ti Point. He went really fast, and managed to become airborne over a bridge across a culvert. He landed in the mangroves but was unharmed. When I went to help him, he was really aggressive and shouted WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT? NEVER SEEN SOMEONE CRASH A CAR BEFORE??? With all that around you, I’m not sure technical solutions will work. Policing aggressive and poor driving might however.
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November 20th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
All of the above makes sense, but how do you deal with the underlying proembls of aggressive and inattentive drivers?Having driven and cycled in really busy cities in Asia and Europe, I’ve never felt a target the same way as you do in Auckland. Nobody’s ever thrown bottles at me overseas, tried to ram me off the road, or my favourite move, overtake me just before turning left in front of you.People here own the tiny bit of road they travel on, and are prepared to smash into you to defend it. You don’t give way and you don’t leave space to the car in front of you. If you do, someone else jams into the space, forcing you to stand on your brakes.Before coming to Auckland, I had never seen a u-turn on a motorway before. Or people reading maps, texting with both hands and steering with their knees, while doing 40kph for safety’s sake across the Harbour Bridge. And where in the Road Code does it say you must slow down or even stop, and attempt to merge at straight angles on motorway onramps, into 100kph and faster traffic?Even on suburban roads, you have people crossing the centre into your side of the road if there’s an obstacle on their side. They do this rather than slowing down from 60kph and waiting for the other side to be clear.I’ve attended three nasty smashes. One was fatal the driver in front of us went into a tree for no apparent reason on that long stretch of wide road between Napier and Hastings. Another one on SH1 was caused by a driver over-estimating his cornering skills and crossed the centre line, into a small truck. Very messy and bloody.Further up on SH1, some drunk drove off the road near Ti Point. He went really fast, and managed to become airborne over a bridge across a culvert. He landed in the mangroves but was unharmed. When I went to help him, he was really aggressive and shouted WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT? NEVER SEEN SOMEONE CRASH A CAR BEFORE??? With all that around you, I’m not sure technical solutions will work. Policing aggressive and poor driving might however.