Driving a slow vehicle on the motorway

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absolute_detail, Feb 18, 5:45pm
Would you cop a ticket for driving at 75kph on the motorway if thats all your vehicle was capable of doing?

bumfacingdown, Feb 18, 6:03pm
Might depend on how and when you drove it?

falcon74, Feb 18, 6:27pm
usually yes i know from experience i never drive above 80k lol!

cjohnw, Feb 18, 6:34pm
Well, you definitely should if you are disrupting traffic flow.

sw20, Feb 18, 6:40pm
Probably not. Enforcement for anything other than speeding is nearly non existent

lakeview3, Feb 18, 6:59pm
Reminds me of that Gary Larson cartoon - see if I can find it.

tony9, Feb 18, 7:02pm
Not unless you were holding up other traffic and did not pull over when you could.

However there is aways an alternative to a motorway, for cycles, agricultural vehicles etc.

lakeview3, Feb 18, 7:02pm

s_nz, Feb 18, 7:07pm
Nah. You will be fine, as long as you are considerate (use left lane etc.)

poppy62, Feb 18, 8:49pm
I've seen a fair few Tractors on the motorway (Manurewa- Papakura) and I doubt they'd get to 75kph.

serf407, Feb 18, 8:53pm
Might not be a good look if you are doing 75km/h in the left lane on one of NZ's 110km/h sections and a meth-head doing 115 k/h runs into the back of your vehicle.

I can remember doing 100km/h on the Auckland motorway in the left & centre lanes and getting overtaken and undertaken by lots of vehicles that were a fair bit over the speed limit. 75km/h is mobile chicane territory.
Officers discretion
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/112766606/driving-too-slow-police-ticket-dawdling-drivers

m16d, Feb 18, 8:55pm
Last time out of Auckland,[ which is not very often ] this person was towing a double horse float in the outside lane of 3 lanes, at about 70 or 80. while everybody rocketed past on the left.
I know that some horsy ones dont like using the left lane because it's too rough a ride for mr horse, but this was down right dangerous with the amount of traffic out there.

tweake, Feb 18, 9:06pm
some years ago i hired a trailer and picked up a vehicle south of auckland.
trailer turned out to be a pile of crap and we couldn't get the vehicle forward enough to balance it. got the shakes at 80kmh. did almost the entire auckland motorway at 70-75kmh, fortunately at night.
no real issue, traffic busy but not bad. sat in the left lane and got passed by everything.
worse was after the motorway. pulled over now and then to let traffic pass.

2sheddies, Feb 18, 9:08pm
This. Despite impeding the flow of traffic being a ticket able offence, I've never seen it being enforced. Dawdling and getting in everybody else's way is fine. Doing 1km/h above the limit is not.

spead, Feb 18, 9:11pm
probably not provide you were making an effort to let traffic pass. It actually is an offence but rarely ticketed for as common sense usually prevails.

esprit, Feb 18, 9:56pm
A vehicle on the motorway needs to be able to maintain a minimum speed of 60km/h average.

s_nz, Feb 18, 10:21pm
Can you quote a source for that?

marte, Feb 18, 10:49pm
Quote { Driving slowly will frustrate other drivers. If you or your vehicle cannot drive within 20kph of the motorway speed limit then you are causing a problem.) end quote
https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/resources/driving-safely-on-motorways/

bumfacingdown, Feb 19, 5:28am
Or
"Although there is no minimum posted speed limit, it is illegal to drive at an "unreasonably slow speed" which means slow drivers are required by law to pull over to the side of the road to allow queues of cars behind them to pass"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_New_Zealand

sw20, Feb 19, 6:06am
That’s a source I guess. Just like the REINZ is a source for unbiased real estate advice.

nice_lady, Feb 19, 8:07am
Yeah it's kinda ridiculous.

s_nz, Feb 19, 9:11am
Any link to legislation?

The link above is just a guide written by some driving school.

intrade, Feb 19, 10:27am
keep left unless overtaking . only problem i could see is if you deliberetly block cars from overtaking.
example
i towed my secound mb140 van with my one on a trailer. at 69 it started to sway so i driven 65kph and pulled over where possible if i had 5 or more cars behind me. i slow down to 75 on passing lanes with my camper till they are in front and speed up to 90 as soon as the passing lanes end .
that is how i recon one should drive a slower vehicle.
and i did drive 110 on motorway and overtaken most cars also all legal . as i finally found the motorway that is 110k few weeks ago.

3tomany, Feb 19, 10:39am
It is not illegal to drive slow on the motorway but it is illegal to hold up traffic in an unreasonable way. I know of people who have driven tractors through without any issue. Just be courteous.

ronaldo8, Feb 19, 11:05pm
The thing about wikis is they generally provide the source, so upon looking, it links to an article in the Herald where the writer references this statistic.

"Last year, police issued 515 tickets for slow or inconsiderate driving which hinders traffic - the highest number in a decade. Inconsiderate driving includes slowing down and speeding up on passing lanes, and failing to pull left when towing. Motorists were usually fined $150 and in some circumstances lost 20 demerit points."

And follows with this quote from national road policing operations manager Inspector Peter McKennie.

""Police would also encourage motorists who are driving more slowly than others to find a safe place to pull over and let traffic pass."

Not quite
"which means slow drivers are required by law to pull over to the side of the road to allow queues of cars behind them to pass"
though is it.