just went out to motueka via inland highway, an open road with nice open sweepers, nothing less than 65km posted corners. Gentle stuff. Mates young adult Chinese students wanted to follow in their car, a late model Nissan Maxima. Once we got onto inland highway they disappeared from my mirror and I was going gently, kids in car, traffic around. No hung ho stuff here. On way back driver asked my mate to drive their car saying he did not like all the corners and in China he had never driven on roads like this. Now, before I'm labeled racist, this isn't about China, they could be from Arizona and never left the state. It's about folk driving here with a licence but never having experienced these roads.and I'm sure not all are like this. It's scary. Have no answer, except be really careful out there!
tony9,
Nov 8, 2:48am
I believe the issue is that there are drivers not used to our roads. Or at least those roads they don't regularly experience.
Nationality has little to do with it.
henderson_guy,
Nov 8, 3:18am
Not really any different to those born here who have only ever driven in cities and suburbs. The open road is a very different beast altogether, let alone when you start throwing some narrow, winding, hilly sections in there.
tweake,
Nov 8, 3:38am
absolutely. we get loads of jaffas driving up here. you tell they are because they can only do two speeds. 50kmh town and motorway speed. can't do 70kmh aeras or 80kmh aeras. eg the person who has just spent the last 20 minutes hooning around, speeding, tailgating, dangerous overtaking, now does 50km/h in a 70kmh aera. either that or they just can't read.
open road, get to some corners and they go into attack mode. they seam to expect everyone doing under 100km/h to pull over into the "left lane" (which doesn't exist of course). even had them refer to passing lanes as "the motorway".
franc123,
Nov 8, 3:46am
You're not wrong about that, likewise I don't envy the poor people who commute to Ak along that horror stretch of SH2 from Pokeno through Maramarua way who are just trying to get home on a Friday night having to rub shoulders (and hopefully nothing else) with these urban incompetents escaping for the weekend.
socram,
Nov 8, 5:34am
Oh dear. So everyone outside of Auckland in rural NZ is a superb driver - not that I have found any means of identifying 100% where drivers are really from when travelling behind them - or they overtake me, usually in a 70/80kph limit.
Please tell us truthfully how you can tell where a driver is from without physically talking to them. There are idiots and incompetents all over the country.
tweake,
Nov 8, 5:59am
o dear, did your feelings get hurt?
its actually fairly easy to tell who isn't a rural driver, good or bad.
socram,
Nov 8, 6:20am
No feelings hurt - too old and thick skinned for that!
But do tell us more. I'm always interested in those who claim that they can tell all about other drivers, especially when comparing city drivers with rural drivers, or Europeans from Americans or any other major group for that matter. I might learn something - and I am always keen to learn.
I'm 100% sure there are numpties who can't negotiate a traffic roundabout correctly for example, from cities and rural areas, but I'm darned if I know which is which.
tamarillo,
Nov 8, 6:21am
Agree. This example was Chinese gents, and it is a large nation whete a lot of drivers mostly drive in city or highways, and visit here. So, unfortunately, examples are not rare. And I agree with socram, generalisations are bullshit. I guess this made me think because I ride these roads a lot over summer on my bike, and have met many drivers who appear to be very unsure of how to handle these corners, who brake alarmingly and unnecessarily, and make me very uncomfortable. These guys seem to like cars, the trip was to motueka drag meet they wanted to go to. They knew the cars on drag strip. Yet this relatively gentle road scared him enough that he wanted someone else to drive home. That's kinda scary.
tweake,
Nov 8, 6:42am
its a little easier here because theres basically one road and 1/3 of the country population are jaffas. even if you just guess the odds are in your favor.
must admit the difference between learners is a bit tricky, tho age and L plates rules most of that out. mostly you can tell they have inexperience with open roads. just the way their vehicle position is, line through the corner, braking points, following distance for the speed. just the usual road manners you can tell who is used to driving country and who does not. gravel roads shows it instantly. theres also no gravels roads in town to get the cars dusty ;)
of course tourists is hard to tell, but on that stretch of road its not many.
kyokei,
Nov 8, 6:50am
I know of a couple Chinese like that, only used to driving on flat straight roads. I've even got a couple friends who avoid driving up Onslow road to Khandallah in Wellington where I live because the narrow tight corners scare the crap out of them.
mrfxit,
Nov 8, 6:53am
Frequency of specific behavior instances becomes fairly obvious when driving all over NZ on a regular basis.
tweake,
Nov 8, 7:09am
don't forget i cheat
headcat,
Nov 8, 8:30am
I too am not used to our roads as they appear to be falling apart quicker than my ability to learn them. 50 ton trucks and an empty rail line.
kenw1,
Nov 8, 9:23am
The thing that scares me, is the reduction in following distance as the summer traffic increases.
I am sure that 2 car lengths at 80/90k on very twisty coastal roads, with a solid bank on one side and the water on the other is not really the best idea, particularly when there are no passing lanes at all.
socram,
Nov 8, 9:44am
Two of the most frightening drivers I have encountered are European born ladies, but neither had driven in their own countries. The Dutch lady's arrogance on the road, particularly with road positioning, was unbelievably bad and she wasn't very observant (hence doing a U turn in the wrong place and getting tee-boned!) and the UK born one is/was so nervous and under-confident, particularly on a motorway, she too was/is frightening.
My wife on the other hand (also European born) is no petrolhead, but is confident, very observant and very safe. Her daughter I started to teach the basics before sending her off for driving lessons and she is even more confident and can back a trailer/horse-float, better than most men.
Categorising people and their driving habits is impossible as they are all individuals, but overall, I would venture to suggest that there is a greater variation amongst the females than the males, regardless of whether they are rural or city drivers.
I could generalise, as we all can, about certain ethnic groups, age groups, and gender, and their driving, but we just feed our bias whenever we spot anyone doing something we disagree with, who just happens to fall into that bracket! We ignore or don't notice the vast majority.
tweake,
Nov 8, 9:46am
2 car lengths that generous. generally its 3-4m @ 100km/h but 50m @ 50km/h. go figure :-/ cops don't seam to mind at all.
tweake,
Nov 8, 9:49am
just commenting the other day on the 2 day old roads works which has pot holes in it. so now we have pot holes in pot holes.
tweake,
Nov 8, 9:53am
certainly. but when you have the bulk of the drivers are from one city (due to population and only one road) and a large amount of them all do the exact same thing. go figure.
tweake,
Nov 8, 9:55am
of course, we complain about overseas drivers when the locals are just as bad.
henderson_guy,
Nov 8, 8:06pm
Idon't think this is the case at all, more just people who are unfamiliar with a different driving environment than what they are used to. No different to someone from the backwoods of the south island being overwhelmed when driving in Auckland if they've never driven in a big city before.
woodypc,
Nov 9, 5:02am
I can imagine but have also seen this. Roads donn here when you go off a state highway can be very small, if you are not used to it driving even a mid sized sedan take up most of you lane, then come across a truck or tractor and drivers panic.
clatty,
Nov 6, 4:22pm
On highway 25 across the Hauraki Plains about 12pm Friday the mayhem starts when the mad townies start coming along overwhelmed by their exaggerated driving abilities.
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