What are your thoughts on "no tolerance" on speed

[sergei]

I almost missed the announcement, and probably would have been stung, if I was not passing (randomly) in front of TV. I don't watch TV and the announcement came as surprise (well, not really, disappointment more like it).

For those who were not aware, govt. dropped tolerance (well, decreased to 4km/h) on speeding for long weekend.

I don't see how that would solve anything.
Someone doing 160 is not doing 160 because tolerance allows it.
Someone doing 120, because it is too busy texting is also not doing it because tolerance allows it.

I believe this is 100% revenue collection.
I call it random tax.

Whoever started speeding kills campaign is an idiot.
Motorists in NZ know nothing about dangers of driving apart from "speeding kills". Speeding does not kill. Idiots making bad decisions, or simply not paying attention kills.

How accurate is their gear to start with?

Is there any cops on forums?
What do cops think about it?

[tsoob]

yep they are just after our money. BUT if you think about it for a second, how else will they ever make any money

there is no point in arresting and ticketing some little FW from south auckland who sells crack. if they do arrest or fine him he wont have the money to pay anyway and just becomes a strain on the legal system anyway.

that is why cops are more intrested in traffic charges than and "real" police work.

[sergei]

Well, I see solution: perhaps more red light cameras, separate traffic cops from real cops, be more strict about lane changes and tailgating, almost everyone tailgates in auckland and cops just ignore that. Also fine people improperly merging, I bet if you put a cop on on ramp, you could milk it big time.

[1I1]

Sister also mentioned cops were going to hide so that they could catch speeding motorists, not sure how true this is. If they are doing that I believe it's a bad move and purely revenue collecting. If police are seen then motorists will be wary of their speed.


With just the one death on the roads it's probably going to be fuel to the fire that speed is the main reason for deaths on roads.

[sergei]

But how can we change that?
What can we do to address this problem, and problem of Kiwis unable to drive to conditions?

The problem here is that car doing 50kph is completely different when it is doing 100kph. If you don't have enough experience at driving, and you handle the car at 100 just the same way you would at 50, this is where bad shit happens.

[MrOizo]

if police ran a campaign where they had no presence on the road, and the road toll was nil, i dont see them staying off the roads.

so many people didnt even know about the announcement so i dont see how they can say it 'worked'

[B1NZ]

Only 1 person was game enough to go outside over the weekend and brave the cold, and crashed their car and died

[Dell'Orto]

No we definately noticed people going slower on the way down on Saturday...annoyingly so, lots of people doing 90k's

[pc]

From what I saw, everyone was going really slowly because the weather was terrible, and the traffic did seem light too. Maybe people stayed home and didn't drive anywhere because the weather was crap.

So it must have been the 0 tolerance to speed that saved everyone... proven by selectivly reviewing statistics

[TRD Man]

Yes, I did the usual Wgtn ~ Taupo & return trip over the weekend. Cops everywhere. I pulled my usual 110kph touring speed back to about 107kph but spent a lot of time in traffic doing 90ish.
At one point on the Desert Road I overtook a car at 120+ and passed a cop partially hidden over a crest. He simply waved & pointed downward indicating that I should lower my speed.

It was very noticeable that there was a lot less traffic than usual on the road. Even the regular weekend bottlenecks at Otaki & Waikanae weren't there at all.
So claiming the blitz was responsible for a lesser road toll is a bit OTT I think.

[blindnz]

I know how to fix it, next time a few people man up and die, so the road toll is greater then last time.

[Akane]

Ironic that someone got t-boned right outside my house yesterday (T intersection) because he was going too slow. Pulled out into the main road doing the "i'm so gangsta and slow ridin'" styles, I witnessed the whole thing.

If he stop fking around and drove normally he would've been okay.

Slow doesn't mean safe.
It's the lack of awareness and driving skill that's dangerous.

[GDII]

Wellington was mad around 3pm yesterday. It was like there wasn't a holiday.

What the cops need to do is catch all the red light runners. It's really dangerous and that would make the cops SO much money.
How hard is it to stop when you see an orange light? Most people seem to just run them because they are 'in a hurry'.

[Malcolm]

I have decided that the NZ police/NZTA have obviously given up on trying to make New Zealanders competent drivers, and are therefore hoping to substitute skill for slowness. I.e. if you can't drive, you're probably going to crash. If you're driving slowly you're less likely to crash and less likely to die.

It's also easier to police speeding: give some monkey a radar/laser gun and tell him to fine anyone going above the speed limit. How do you fine people for being incompetent at driving/life? In theory they don't get licenses, but the NZ driver licensing system seems to be based on the idea that everyone is born with the right to drive and therefore you can't really test whether someone is actually a capable driver: the full license test does not bring car control or judgement into the equation at all - all you need to be able to do is drive between the lines at the speed limit and not crash half an hour.

Maybe if at some point in the driver licensing process you were actually taught/tested on how to react in emergency situations, how to handle your car when you find yourself beyond the limit of grip, how to judge appropriate speed given the conditions and the road, how to best negotiate a corner to give yourself the widest margin of safety, then the first time you practice hazard avoidance wouldn't be when you're cornering on one of our fabulous highways at 100km/h and find someone coming the opposite way halfway in your lane doing the same speed.

Although I think it's shit, I also think the way our country is, especially in the cities, there's not really any viable alternatives to driving a car and if you made licensing too hard or expensive then people would just drive without licenses, so we have to accept that our roads will always be full of the incompetent/arrogant/inconsiderate/oblivious drivers that cause chaos, congestion and crashes and just do our best to identify and avoid them and to avoid becoming them ourselves!

[holden_fan2005]

Well I hope they put some of this revenue back into NZ roads because put simply, they are SHIT!

After driving to Rotorua and back over the weekend for Targa, I have decided who ever does nz roading is either mentally challenged or blind.

[snwtoy]

Question 1: How accurate are car speedos (most read under by about 5kms correct?)

Question 2: How does having new tyres vs almost worn out tyres affect your actual speed vs speedo (or perhaps tyre inflation is more relevant?)

[DXROLLA]

Nah they are just all stoned http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3784003 ... r-balls-up

[fangsport]

between Timaru and CHCH on saturday and CHCH Waipara then Timaru on monday, there wasn't enough vehicles on the road to become a statistic!!

weather was crap across the country , people are broke, so they stayed home. so the cops claim a moral victory and chalk it up to excellent tactics.

truth be known, we seen stuff all cops, and only adjusted our speed due to every one doing 85-90 (to be on the safe side).

[MR2SIK]

Nah they are just all stoned http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3784003 ... r-balls-up

you gotta be to spend any length of time in Mot

[pc]

Question 1: How accurate are car speedos (most read under by about 5kms correct?)
Question 2: How does having new tyres vs almost worn out tyres affect your actual speed vs speedo (or perhaps tyre inflation is more relevant?)

I've yet to see this kind of error in practice. All my cars have been within 1KM and the worst on is my 10 year old lancer that is reading about 98-99KM on the speedo at 100KM. All speeds checked with a Performance Box in clear conditions... so I know it's accurate.

Maybe if people have incorrect size tyres or really worn tyres and run them 10psi under inflated?

My quick calculations (which may be wrong) say that a tyre would have to be 75% of the correct height on a 15" rim to get a speedo reading 9KM low at 100KM... This makes the claims that many speedos read 9KM higher than actual speed a little unbelievable.