New Demerit + Fine System & Radar Dectectors Banned

[Silent Knight]

One word people:

Vote.

There is an election coming within the year, vote your district's rival to Labour/Greens. No BS about it being a waste of time or how you don't vote, just vote. We can sit at our keyboards and bitch and whine about this and watch it happen, or we can at least try and do something about it.

Dem be big words!

Since when has voting ever made a difference to anything, and how exactly is voting 'doing something about it'? Every time the powers that be changes things just get that little bit more $&#$% up, some twits make a whole bunch of stupid decisions and all those pretty little promises that were made by saying 'vote for me and I'll do...' are swept aside and never looked at.

Ignorance is bliss...

[Akane]

So, do we have a fine systems for incompetent drivers too? Like the ones that wait at roundabouts forever and not take the gap because they are sooooo scared of the roundabout? What about those 40kph drivers busy texting and playing with their radio / talking to someone next to them?

[flygt4]

i bet all the people who claim they dont have a problem with it will be the first to complain when they lose their licence

[Mr Revhead]

hey, the laws havent changed..... just the punishments

so if you had no problem before, you wont have a problem now

[rolla_fxgt]

I just had a situation today that was why going 70k in a 100k zone should be loss of licence, i was driving in a 100k zone & came round a corner to see this hunk of shit 4wd puffing death out its exhaust doing 65-70k, so i slowed down, annoyed but no biggy, i wait a few mins till i find a decent clear straight drop down a gear to pass & the wanker moves over on me as i'm passing so i drop down another gear & floor it before he takes me off the road. I can hear him yelling something about being a hoon out his window (since when is doing the speed limit hooning). I think what a wanker & on the way home go to the cops with the cars details, & suprise suprise they wanted nothing to do with it, as he'd according to them not committed an offence, i suggested dangerous driving, well no proof his word against mine they say so i say forget about it & walk out.
But i imagine if i had been doing 130-140 they'd of thrown the book at me, see thats where double standards exist, i think it should be mandatory for cops to issue fines for those doing 11k over or under the posted speed.
Also if they're raising the demerits they need to legislate for better signage & make it illegal for folliage or structures to obstruct signs & large fines for those who do, it'd make transit & local bodies actually be proactive in maintaining good drivers.

I know plenty of middle age people who have radar detectors in their BMW's Mercs Audi's etc in fact i bet more middle age men have radar detectors than "boy racers". That part of the law is an ass. bring on the HARM missile launchers for cars, then the cops would have something to complain about!

[IH8TEC]

one thing that peeves me off right royally is people that can't seem to put their foot down on an on-ramp and get up to 100kmh, rather they sit at like 70kmh then SLOW down to in to traffic doing 100.

heck, i drove from auckland to wanganui yesturday, passing lane coming into ngarawahia (spellling?), doing 115 to get passed the big milk tanker. bmw in front, me in honda city, and guy in silvia behind me,

now if he carried on at that speed we all would have got passed nicely, but what does he do, he slows right down to 100 which the truck was doing, the end of the passing lane was nearing, the silvia had time to back off and pull behind the truck, but as my door was just passed the front of his truck, i had no time to pull back, and not enoguh power to sneak up. i accelerated slightly and sat a few inchs from the guy in the bmw's bumper. to be honest i should have nudged him. (he probably didn't like the fact a honda city kept up on the passing lane)

he purposely did it, and could have cuased a big crash if the truck driver hadn't hit the brakes. what about fines for those people

or the people on the back road to otorahonga who seemed quite happy to sit at 80kmh the entire way, along with the 10-15 people happy to sit behind him, but yell abuse when i pass MAYBE pushing 105 during the manouver.

the problems lies alot deeper

[slighty_sykotic]

so they lower the fines, which really means they didnt need all that extra money in the first place.

Think you will find the fact they had higher fines was nothing to do with the money they "needed". It was because they believed that it would make people scared of breaking the laws.

But thats been proven not to work.

the idea of higher demerits is great. I also agree that noise should not be demerits, as it has nothing to do with safety.

So what happens if a 30kph zone sneaks up on you as you come out of a 100kph zone... and you're doing 45kph? loose car?
What happens when the trafic is moving slowly and the light goes orange just before you cross the line and is red before you are out of the intersection? 75 demerits?

Your not allowed to enter an intercetion until you are able to safely go through it. So you shouldnt be following a slow car really, unless you KNOW that you are going to get across while its still green.

[Ae92typeX]

So what happens if a 30kph zone sneaks up on you as you come out of a 100kph zone... and you're doing 45kph? loose car?
What happens when the trafic is moving slowly and the light goes orange just before you cross the line and is red before you are out of the intersection? 75 demerits?

I only takes one wanker cop to make these rules over the top.

If you are looking ahead a 30k zone shouldnt sneak up, but I would agree some are poorly signed, and if this was the case you may have an argument in court. Realisticaly, at present very few actually drop to 30kmh even from a 50kph zone however
If traffic is slow and it goes amber before you cross the line you should be able to stop. you should also be looking ahead into the intersection. Green means go, but if the intersection is getting blocked up you should be slowing down or wait for it to clear anyway!

Big pet hate for when people rush into a intersection as the lights change then hold up traffic around them by blocking it. (not suggesting you do this, but a big hate in my book)

It does only take one swell head cop, but thats no different to now really.

[RAZA]

or the people on the back road to otorahonga who seemed quite happy to sit at 80kmh the entire way, along with the 10-15 people happy to sit behind him, but yell abuse when i pass MAYBE pushing 105 during the manouver.

the problems lies alot deeper

Exactly right.

Open road driving in NZ is a joke. In general people lack the courtesy to let others past if they are holding them up, which causes those stuck behind to take chances to overtake.

When at passing lanes, slow drivers seem to think "ooo a big wide road, i feel safer now so i'll speed up to 100" leaving all the drivers who've been stuck behind them at 75 for the last half hour to choose between speeding to get past or spending another half hour stuck at 75. Other muppets, with a huge queue of cars behind them will creep past at 102 taking a whole passing lane to get past and leaving the other 10 cars still stuck behind grandma to take their chances at the next short straight.

In general I don't drive above the speed limit, but I do object to being forced below it for no good reason.

[touge rolla]

Lowering the fines was a well overdue change imo. For some $200 is a lot, for others it is nothing. Demerit points are universal, community service would be a good idea in this aspect too.
Banning radar detectors I have a split opinion on. On one hand it just lets someone break the law, but on the other there is the overtaking thing. And they are trying to target young drivers when I'd say 80% of radar detectors are in BMWs, Fords or Holdens driven by 40+ yr olds. (funnily every commodore has either a radar or a radar detector)
Tightening up on crap drivers is something that really needs to be done.
*Unnecessarily low drivers
*People who brake, then start to pull over, THEN indicate. Rather than indicate, start to pull over, then brake
*Can't stay in their lane (or turn into lane closest to them, some wanker in a Peugot nearly hit me doing this today)
And the other things mentioned.

Limiting the types of cars to licenses and age groups is a mistake, it won't fix anything as the loudest cars with the worst drivers are in slow old cars (complete with matte black paint and dumpy muffler) anyway. Fast modified cars are generally quieter and better behaved than their 'bogan' counterparts. You can kill yourself in a Starlet as easy as you can in a WRX.

[Bling]

I'm not going to list my pet hates of drivers, as theres just too many. i by no means am a perfect driver and take fines on the chin.

My plan is to buy 2 sets of air horns this christmas and put one set in my car and the other in the work van. An average horn doesn't seem to be a loud enough deterrent to stop people randomly changing into your lane, pulling out of a side road JUST before you get there when they could have done so 10 seconds earlier and not made you slow down.

So if you get air horn'd, don't take it too seriously, it just means I want you the f**k out of my way. yup i'm courteous

[Si]

15328 (2007). Chester Borrows to the Minister for Transport Safety (31 Aug 2007): How many drivers have more than 100 demerit points but have not yet been served the suspension documents, and how does this compare to each of the previous eight years?

Hon Harry Duynhoven (Minister for Transport Safety) replied: The attached table shows the number of drivers (at 31 August 2007) who have accumulated sufficient demerit points to warrant a demerit suspension and are wanted for service but have not yet been served with suspension documents.


Year Number outstanding
2003 1
2004 9
2005 196
2006 1523



from the table id say increasing demerits and causing more suspensions is a rather rediculous thing.

[Akane]

Today I was driving along Glenfield Road, a white Bighorn was doing 35kph for a while, so I gave him a toot to remind him he doesn't really own Glenfield Road, move to the left if you really like doing 35kph in a 50 zone.

He signals for me to pass him, so I floored it on my mightly 4E-FE slowly trying to pass him.

What does he do? Tries to run me off the road while I was passing him and gives me the fingers!

So I thought alright, let's play chicken then, Edging in to about 2-3cm gap between the cars, afterall I don't really enjoy being on the median and pushed to the oncoming lane, he backs off, goes behind me, now his wife is giving me the fingers.

So I thought okay let's park up and ask this idiot WTF he thinks he's doing.

He passes me again on the outside, now tries to ram into me sideon, so I thought okay I'm game, let's play that then.

He backs off and then speeds up giving me the fingers....... WTF? Slams on the brakes then speeds off again.

I really can't see how this new system gonna have ANY effect on "making drivers safer". Out there, there are your average soccer mums and business dads who barely understand what road safety means. It'll just clog up our roads even more and making everybody fear for their driving.

I really wish they train drivers to be efficient and safe, not slow and unsafe.

/endrant, flame suit on.

[Bling]

good effort man, airhorns would have helped I reckon

[Akane]

Just to stay on topic a bit, as someone has said before:

Everybody thinks they're above average drivers.
People who drives faster than you are maniacs, people drive slower than you are idiots.

I just wish getting a car licence is like getting a pilot's licence, then you'll see a lot less idiots and maniacs on the road, not dishing out fines to people who has only basic understanding of operating a motor vehicle. Not gonna solve anything. Maybe one day we have self-driving vehicles, but then it only takes 1 accident to get them all banned in this PC world that we live in.

Edit: More rant:

For someone who said vote, do you realise how many people out there are supporting "Crackdown on boyracers"? I regularly listen to Newstalk ZB, everytime the topic "Boyracer" is on, you get soccer mum's ringing up, saying "Yeah let's crush them!", "Ban them all!", "Bloody Maniacs!" etc.

These are the same soccer mums who drives their Toyota Previa with a "Baby on board" sign at the back at 40kph in 50k zones fearing for their little Tommy in the backseat getting hurt, everytime they see a car with anything shiney other than their glass windows, they stare with hatred in their eyes. Knowing they're "making the road safer" because they're doing 10kph or 20kph under the speed limit makes them warm and fuzzy, never mind that the soccer mum is way too busy thinking what to cook for dinner tonight, if their husband is cheating on her, busy telling little Tommy in the backseat to stop bashing his little sister, busy yapping on the phone with her auntie Sally and getting destracted.

You can also see uncle Tim with a car load of people in his flash BMW, or Honda Accord Euro, busy giving his relatives a tour around Auckland, slowing all the way down to 30kph because uncle Tim here cannot multitask, so he slows down to be "safe". "Yes we have the harbour bridge to our left, and we have the sky tower to the right, and we have a long line of cars tooting behind us because we slowed all the way down, but that's okay those bloody boyracers can wait, I'm driving slow and I'm safe.".

Somehow I can't see "vote to have this law abandoned" is going to work.

[darkwolf]

Why not try the direct method?

aking@ministers.govt.nz

Tell her exactly what you think - but remember that if you want to make an impact and not just sound like a total dickhead with massive clocks on his dash to ensure he can tell when his mum wants her car back then you have to keep it civil. You might get some rubbish back about how the world will be a safer place etc be be vigilant.

How about we bring into question the driving of some old people? I'm talking about retirees. I think is bs that NZ can't organise a way to ensure that they have mobility and aren't a risk to themselves or others. They harp on about how unsafe the younger generation is with their lack of attention, but what about the older generation? Nothing ever gets said about that, we have all heard the stories of the crazy old bat down that road that did such and such yet nothing gets done. Mention one twit "v-tecing it" and the whole country is up in arms.

Mrs Annette King seems so concerned about what the public think, why don't we the public put across our point of view rather than bitching on a forum that most of parliament doesn't know exists and wouldn't bother to read anyway.

(no offence intended to anyone in this message but I just think it's time we all stopped bitching and did something)

[Py7h0n]

Unfortunetly this again shows NZ becoming a nanny state, helped in quick progression by the Labour driven government. If somthing is not done soon with all the new negatives coming up here I can see the immigration to Australia jump to a lot more.

[Ae92typeX]

Today I was driving along Glenfield Road...

but your actions wernt much better.it sounds like you played right into his power trip by 'challenging him'.Pulling over to ask whats his deal is just looking for a fight, especially in xmas time.

Not disagreeing he was a c**t, he sounds like one, but its best to give them a wide bearth rather than test how much P they had for lunch.

As you say, the root of it is in the training to begin with, but we need to target existing drivers with something.


People who are concerned should write a submission to parlament, but as said, if you do, write it well or you will just sound like an idiot 'boy racer' You need to pose a clear logical argument really. A petition with thousands of signatures will help this, but I cant imagine anyone here is activelly willing enough to do such a thing. Complaining on a forum is much easirer.

I find the demerit thing above interesting. I have a friend who lost his licence through demerit for speeding. It only took 3 weeks for him to loose his licence, and only took that long as the laywer never caught him at home.

As I said above, I have no problems with this going through and to fix such a wide problem you have to start somewhere.
Politically All major parties will overal support this, but get writing the letters and petitions signed as if they have enough it could be ammended.

Its almost christmas!

[barryogen]

Ramming people who do so deliberately would be very tempting if I had some old POS falcon with bullbars though.

This has been part of my long term plan... only with an old land cruiser

Noise is not a safety issue

errr, yeah it is, and 95dB is plenty loud enough to cause some serious damage to hearing. An hour of 95dB will cause permanent damage, if you have a loud car, don't go on long trips or you'll turn into a deaf old bastard.

A lot of peoples employment relies on having a valid drivers licence, yes you can get work licenses, but the legal costs involved in defending a charge or getting a work license are almost uneconomical.

$1300 it cost my brother in law last year... not a lot when compared to having no job.

I know plenty of middle age people who have radar detectors in their BMW's Mercs Audi's etc in fact i bet more middle age men have radar detectors than "boy racers".

This reminded me that my dads merc has factory radar... does that make his car illegal?

Hon Harry Duynhoven (Minister for Transport Safety) replied: The attached table shows the number of drivers (at 31 August 2007) who have accumulated sufficient demerit points to warrant a demerit suspension and are wanted for service but have not yet been served with suspension documents.


Year Number outstanding
2003 1
2004 9
2005 196
2006 1523

that on in 2003 was me :/

[Mr Revhead]

.Pulling over to ask whats his deal is just looking for a fight, especially in xmas time.

spoil sport!

anyway, iv found from experience they generally dont want to talk to me