Slow drivers are being targeted by Police: Great, but how slow is too slow?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Slow drivers are being targeted by Police: Great, but how slow is too slow?

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#1630779 15-Sep-2016 11:21

Hammerer: The signs that indicate a slower speed are recommending the safe speed in wet conditions. If you are driving on a dry road then you should be able to go a lot faster. I typically add 50% to the recommended speed when on a dry road in good condition. So if the sign says 70 I can easily drive at the open road limit of 100kmph.

Just for the record the recommended speeds are a safe and comfortable speed for light vehicles in dry conditions.

richms

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#1630783 15-Sep-2016 11:25

Bung:
Hammerer: The signs that indicate a slower speed are recommending the safe speed in wet conditions. If you are driving on a dry road then you should be able to go a lot faster. I typically add 50% to the recommended speed when on a dry road in good condition. So if the sign says 70 I can easily drive at the open road limit of 100kmph.

Just for the record the recommended speeds are a safe and comfortable speed for light vehicles in dry conditions.

Perhaps if they are a L200 or similar top heavy piece of crap. Very seldom does any normal car need to slow in the dry.

Richard rich.ms

MikeAqua

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#1630910 15-Sep-2016 13:39

Those yellow corner speed signs ... calibrated to an HQ holden?

I just ignore them and drive to my comfort. Obviously slower if I have passengers or there is water or grit.

Generally I find other traffic slower round corners.

Mike

gzt

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#1630913 15-Sep-2016 13:42

Jase2985:
gzt:
blakamin: If the driver feels unsafe at the open road speed limit, maybe it's time to stick to local roads.

It's a limit, not a target.

drive social

can you tell me why people shouldn't be targeting to drive at 100kph if the conditions permit? it would make the driving experience a lot nicer for all involved

Trailers, agricultural equipment, old people, heavy vehicles uphill etc, it's a long list.

You will never stop it.

Many of these roads can be cheaply improved by adding one or two very short sealed left hand pull-over bays for slow traffic to pull into and marked for that purpose.

MikeAqua

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#1631125 15-Sep-2016 17:06

gzt:
Many of these roads can be cheaply improved by adding one or two very short sealed left hand pull-over bays for slow traffic to pull into and marked for that purpose.

Trucks, cars towing trailers (except horse floats) and larger campervans generally use them

People mover type campervans 50/50.

Slow cars almost never.

Mike

richms

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#1631128 15-Sep-2016 17:15

Would like to see them do something about the 70km/h motorway users that barge into the left lane when a new one appears at an onramp asif they do not have to wait for a gap and indicating is enough. Usually crap little cars with a hat on the parcel tray I find.

Richard rich.ms

frednz

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#1631134 15-Sep-2016 17:24

gzt:
blakamin: If the driver feels unsafe at the open road speed limit, maybe it's time to stick to local roads.

It's a limit, not a target.

Yes the 100kmh speed limit is just that, a limit, it's the maximum speed that you can go before you can be ticketed for speeding.

I heard a case on radio talkback the other day about a driver who was ticketed for driving faster than 100kmh. When he asked the officer how fast he was going, the reply was between 1kmh and 10kmh over the limit. The driver insisted that he was going 103kmh per his GPS and demanded to see the officer's record of what speed he had recorded. The officer simply repeated that his speed was somewhere between 1kmh and 10kmh over the limit and that he couldn't reveal his actual speed.

Now, doesn't this show that, in a 100kmh zone, you can't even assume that you are allowed to go 104kmh before being pinged for speeding?

And why do drivers going up the Ngauranga Gorge near Wellington drive at well under the limit of 80kmh? Simply because there are speed cameras everywhere and you simply can't risk going 84kmh, which is said to be the "theoretical" maximum speed in an 80kmh zone! It's well known that the Ngauranga Gorge is one of the most policed speed limit areas in the country! So don't blame people for driving at 70kmh in this 80kmh zone!

In the article linked to below it says that "the Ngauranga Gorge camera issued 14,200 tickets in the first nine months of the year, equating to $1.07 million in fines. No other cameras topped $1m in the time."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/75594552/Police-offer-no-apologies-for-Wellingtons-1m-plus-speed-cameras

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frednz

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#1631145 15-Sep-2016 17:40

Geektastic:

blakamin:

Obviously the officer felt it was safe to do the speed limit, or that the driver had opportunity to pull over and didn't do it. Good police work.

If the driver feels unsafe at the open road speed limit, maybe it's time to stick to local roads.

Hmmm.

1) The police office is trained to a higher driving standard, so whilst he may feel safe (and knows he can't get nicked!) others may not

2) Yes if there was a genuine and safe place that should be the case

3) The Rimutaka Hill road is technically 100 but few would be brave and/or insane enough to keep up 100 over the length of that road (for example)

4) As to the original question, of course a driver must have some leeway to determine what he thinks is safe (sometimes he can see things that those further back in the queue cannot, for example) but generally 90 in a 100 zone is not that unreasonable IMV unless the road is flat and safe with good visibility. There is a curious tendency to insist on driving at 100 as if some awful thing will happen if you only do 95!

I fully agree with your comment about the 100kmh limit for the Rimutaka Hill road. I think this road should have a speed limit of 80kmh so that it reflects the realities of how dangerous it would be to drive at 100kmh over the full length of that particular road. I can think of other examples where a speed limit that's too high is just asking for trouble! Remember that not all of us have been trained to drive racing cars down steep hills like the Rimutakas!

So, if people are now going to be pulled over for driving too slow, then the speed limits have to be sensible and not make safe drivers feel guilty for not driving like maniacs!

Athlonite

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#1631147 15-Sep-2016 17:43

Sidestep:

Lias:

gzt: It's a limit, not a target.

Wrong.. It's the absolute minimum you should be doing if you are in front of me.

A few years back my wife and I arrived in New Zealand for a month's visit.
We'd decided to emigrate (well - return for me), and had come over for a reconnaissance trip, leaving the kids in Canada.

Unfortunately there was a stuff up, our flight was late, the airline had lost my baggage (driver's licenses inside) and the rental agency didn't have the car we'd ordered.
So we tootled off in a tiny, standard shift car (we'd ordered a large automatic) with wife driving, doing her best driving a RHD in Auckland traffic, 'cause they wouldn't put me on as an authorised driver.

We got to Rotorua, dropped off documents to the Lawyer and headed for our hotel in Taupo. It was getting dark and then began absolutely pouring with rain.
My wife wears glasses for driving, with that, the car's dim yellowish headlights and the wipers not very effective she just couldn't see well enough to safely do more than 80-90km/h.

I knew the road a bit from years earlier, and did the rally driver navigator thing from the passenger's seat.
Pointing out where she could drive a bit faster, and any time we had a couple of cars behind us, where she could pull over to let them past.

Finally ended up with a car right on our tail. It's headlights reflecting so brightly into our car from the side mirrors that she couldn't see.
I decided to take over, but had to lean over and grab the wheel to help her pull over safely, with the blinding light she just couldn't see the side of the road.

Mr bright lights pulled up right behind us, and I hopped out, half expecting it to be some road rage nutter, but it was a cop.
He told me to get back in the car - went and stuck his head in the driver's window to give her a lecture on slow driving. In fact he stuck his head in far enough I think he was sniffing for drugs or alcohol.
He only gave up when I handed the rental agreement to him to prove we'd just picked the car up.

I took the risk, drove the car without wrecking it (and will never leave my license in checked baggage again).
And now I think back to that Hell-trip and I'm a bit more compassionate when I'm behind someone driving a bit slower in the dark or rain.

Driving a bit slower in the dark and rain is what you're supposed to do it's called driving to the conditions as should the cop have been doing aswell

frednz

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#1631159 15-Sep-2016 17:58

Technofreak:

Without being present it's very hard to make a judgment call.

In my experience you can easily add 10 and in some cases up to 20 kph to those recommended figures without too much effort and still manage a comfortable ride. Based on this I would consider a driver that was sticking to those speeds religiously is probably holding the traffic up. I use the signs as a heads up but drive to what I see.

Remember they are advisory speeds.

Sure, they are advisory speeds, but I wouldn't expect a traffic officer to ping a driver for going too slow if they keep to these speeds! If these "advisory" speeds are too slow, why have them at all?

In any event, in my experience, it's usually trucks, buses, campervans, and cars towing trailers that cause the most hold-ups. But here's the thing, not all vehicles are allowed to travel 100kmh in a 100kmh zone. For example, isn't 90 km/h the maximum open road speed limit for all heavy vehicles (except school buses that I think may be limited to 80kmh)?

So why should a careful car driver be pinged for driving 90kmh in a 100kmh speed zone when heavy vehicles aren't supposed to exceed that speed anyway? However, so many heavy truck drivers travel at 100kmh that it makes you wonder whether the 90kmh limit for these vehicles is in fact policed at all.

MikeB4

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#1631162 15-Sep-2016 18:01

richms:

Would like to see them do something about the 70km/h motorway users that barge into the left lane when a new one appears at an onramp asif they do not have to wait for a gap and indicating is enough. Usually crap little cars with a hat on the parcel tray I find.

What? The police do this?

vexxxboy

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#1631163 15-Sep-2016 18:02

if you have cars banked up behind you and a cop pulls you over , the only driver not driving to the conditions is you, pull over then everyone is happy. i cant see the problem.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

MikeB4

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#1631176 15-Sep-2016 18:10

We drive a lot, I still get shocked at the nitwits when the wind is 100kms+ with horizontal giving about 10 meters visibility will fly down the motorway or highway at 100kms+

The instructor at the defensive driving course I did had a saying... any fool can put his foot down, very few can do it safely and even fewer do it wisely.

Linuxluver

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#1631179 15-Sep-2016 18:15

frednz:

Recently, I was a passenger in a car that was being driven by a careful driver along a narrow winding hill road. The speed limit for this road was 100kmh, but there were several corners where signs suggested you should slow down to 60kmh or 70kmh.

So, we were travelling around these corners at the recommended speeds and then speeding up to about 90kmh on the fairly few straight bits. About three cars were driving behind us, one of which turned out to be a traffic officer who later pulled us over and said we should have been travelling at 100kmh as we were holding up traffic which wanted to drive at the full 100kmh.

I can hear you saying “about time, let’s give these slower drivers the message”! Now, I would be the first to agree if we had been on a long “wide” straight road, because I like to drive at 100kmh when possible. But, when you are driving on a single-lane narrow winding hilly road with lots of corners, I’m not sure whether people should be “instructed” to drive at the full 100kmh if they don’t feel safe doing so. At one point we were driving behind a large truck that was going about 80kmh and we passed it when it was safe to do so. Incidentally, there were no places on this road where we could have safely pulled over to let faster cars past.

So, do you think there should be a “slow” speed limit of say 85kmh for a 100mh speed zone so that people know they need to travel no slower than this? In other words, how slow is too slow?

Overall, I was pleased that the driver of our car didn’t exceed 90kmh on this particular road because I doubt whether I would have felt as safe if the car had been going at 100kmh. I would be interested to hear your views on this.

Thanks

Fred

We're expected to drive to the conditions. I have driven at 65kph on a winding, hilly road I do not know...and the locals fly along at 90-100kph.

I definitely try to pull over as soon as possible when someone who knows the road better than me starts tailgating. Why not? Better to have an impatient person (possible fool) in front of me than behind me. More than once I've gone around the next few corners and found someone who passed me off in the bushes or down a hill. I stop if they have actually rolled the car (as happened once).....otherwise I don't bother. Karma can be a sandy beach.

I've never been pulled over for driving too slow.

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Linuxluver

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#1631180 15-Sep-2016 18:22

Geektastic:

4) As to the original question, of course a driver must have some leeway to determine what he thinks is safe (sometimes he can see things that those further back in the queue cannot, for example) but generally 90 in a 100 zone is not that unreasonable IMV unless the road is flat and safe with good visibility. There is a curious tendency to insist on driving at 100 as if some awful thing will happen if you only do 95!

I recently discovered many cars have speedos that deliberately over-egg the reported speeds.

I tried two GPS apps and both reported my Nissan LEAF as going at 100kph when the speedo said 110kph.

My daughter's 1995 Toyota Corsa does the same.

But a BMW 225-xe reports speed with a 1kph variation relative to GPS.

So we may be tooling along at what we think is 95kph, but for the person in the BMW 225-xe behind us we're only doing 85kph.

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