Road rules I'd like to see changed/implemented

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Road rules I'd like to see changed/implemented

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2847 posts

Uber Geek

#3086663 8-Jun-2023 17:58

gzt: Manual cars used to engine brake at the lights etc all the time. Regen braking is no different. Just an intervening 25+ years of predominant automatic transmissions : )

I'm always looking 12 seconds up the road as I was taught, so if I can see the road ahead is clear, but need to slow down due to traffic immediately in front of me, I typically won't use the brakes. This avoids the needless chain reaction where successive people apply their brakes harder than the vehicle in front, until eventually everyone comes to a complete stop. On the other hand, if there is slow traffic in front of me that will slow everyone down, I will use the brakes so the vehicles behind me can close the gap earlier than needed, in case they aren't paying attention to the road ahead. I'd rather they be close behind with relatively less potential energy.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3086665 8-Jun-2023 17:58

Behodar:

networkn:

The recent changes to the give way rules are stupid.

Can you supply to link to these changes please? I'm not aware of any recent changes (so I might be doing something wrong!) and a search for "give way rule change nz" is only turning up a change that happened a decade ago.

thats recent for some of us.

there has only been a few changes, twice in the last ~30 years. the big one being the give way rule.

MadEngineer

4291 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3086669 8-Jun-2023 19:01

tweake:
one that needs to change is the bogus "on narrow roads stop on the left side of the road before turning right". its an oxymoron because on its only on narrow roads where there is no room to stop on the left and you not only create a hazard as cars overtake you into oncoming traffic, you now how to wait for both sides to be clear. you can also end up with one car stopping on the left and another stopping on the right. plus trucks etc can't pull over anyway. obeying the rule makes the situation worse.

this rule i suspect came from old days when there was no sides, lanes or traffic. its also from the idiot idea of "your not allowed to stop on the road (your in my way)".

It’s really quite simple.

If I’m looking for an address to pull into on a street for example and am having to slow down find the mailbox number I’ll check for any traffic behind me and pull over to let it pass before continuing on.

If I predict that I’m going to hold up traffic by turning right, I’ll pull over well in advance of the intersection, let everyone pass then pull up to and take the turn.

Doing otherwise is called impeding the flow of traffic.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3086671 8-Jun-2023 19:26

MadEngineer:
tweake:

one that needs to change is the bogus "on narrow roads stop on the left side of the road before turning right". its an oxymoron because on its only on narrow roads where there is no room to stop on the left and you not only create a hazard as cars overtake you into oncoming traffic, you now how to wait for both sides to be clear. you can also end up with one car stopping on the left and another stopping on the right. plus trucks etc can't pull over anyway. obeying the rule makes the situation worse.

this rule i suspect came from old days when there was no sides, lanes or traffic. its also from the idiot idea of "your not allowed to stop on the road (your in my way)".

It’s really quite simple.

If I’m looking for an address to pull into on a street for example and am having to slow down find the mailbox number I’ll check for any traffic behind me and pull over to let it pass before continuing on.

If I predict that I’m going to hold up traffic by turning right, I’ll pull over well in advance of the intersection, let everyone pass then pull up to and take the turn.

Doing otherwise is called impeding the flow of traffic.

you missed the bus on this. it specifically states a "narrow road". therefore there is no place for you to pull over off the road so you do not impede traffic. get the catch22 of this ?? if its a wide road, you have room to pull over, tho not legally required to, and traffic will go past. but also if you stay in the centre then there is plenty of room for traffic to pass you on the left and your not impeding traffic. the law only applies in the one situation where it makes things worse. thats the really absurd part of this law.

also if you pull over to the left, you have to wait until both lanes are clear. fat chance of that. meanwhile other traffic stops on the centre and now your the one blocking up the road. what makes it worse is when its a cross road and your now blocking the other road. we had a local spot where this used to regularly turn into nitemare because some silly person would obey the law and pull over to the left to turn right.

RunningMan

8956 posts

Uber Geek

#3086674 8-Jun-2023 19:54

@tweake are you sure it specifically states "narrow road". Not getting confused with turning right on high speed road?

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3086721 8-Jun-2023 20:16

RunningMan:

@tweake are you sure it specifically states "narrow road". Not getting confused with turning right on high speed road?

yes its narrow road.

edit: it WAS narrow road.

mudguard

2119 posts

Uber Geek

#3086725 8-Jun-2023 20:25

tweake:

also if you pull over to the left, you have to wait until both lanes are clear. fat chance of that. meanwhile other traffic stops on the centre and now your the one blocking up the road. what makes it worse is when its a cross road and your now blocking the other road. we had a local spot where this used to regularly turn into nitemare because some silly person would obey the law and pull over to the left to turn right.

I'm on the other side of fence on this. If you need to turn right to cross traffic, then you have to suck it up and pull over to the left. Obviously not ideal on a narrow road, or always possible. But it drives me nuts on the open road seeing someone who is stopping 100kmh traffic to try and turn right. Inevitably there's some kind of intersection or road further up that they could turn into easily, do a u-turn off the main road, turn left, then left again.

Another pet peeve is when google makes me do this, turn right across busy traffic when it could have directed me another way. I spend twenty hours a week driving so try minimise risk as much as I can.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3086727 8-Jun-2023 20:31

tweake:

RunningMan:

@tweake are you sure it specifically states "narrow road". Not getting confused with turning right on high speed road?

yes its narrow road.

When I use to drive the SH58 Haywards Road between Pauatahanui and Lower Hutt everyday there was one notorious spot by the golf course where if you did not follow this rule (pull over left, before turning right). you probably would not make it to golf that day, or possibly never play golf again in your life. Also a narrow road, where it makes sense. I witnessed plenty of accidents there, even pulling into the left lane did not give you very much room.

Since being in AUs though the roads are so much wider here there is no need to ever do it. I don't believe its even a road rule.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3086729 8-Jun-2023 20:34

RunningMan:

@tweake are you sure it specifically states "narrow road". Not getting confused with turning right on high speed road?

actually you might be right. it looks like they changed it. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/whole.html#DLM303046

A driver intending to turn to enter another roadway or a vehicle entrance to the right must—
(a)
move as far as practicable to the right without encroaching on any lanes that are unavailable to the driver (or, in the case of a roadway not marked in lanes, without encroaching over the middle of the roadway) before reaching the point at which the driver intends to turn; and
(b)
turn as directly as possible to a similar position on any roadway the driver enters.
(3)
A driver is not in breach of subclause (2) if the driver proves that, in the interests of safety, the driver moved as far as practicable to the left of the roadway on which the driver was travelling and slowed or stopped the vehicle in advance of the point where he or she intended to turn right until the roadway was clear of traffic and it was safe to turn.

so basically that old rule is long gone, its no longer a requirement. in fact its required that you go right as much as possible. but you can still go left if its safe, of course this begs the question of if its any safer and that its sounds like you have to prove it safe. i would argue that in most cases its not as most roads are not big enough to pull over on and if they are the passing traffic can use that to pass.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3086731 8-Jun-2023 20:42

mudguard:

I'm on the other side of fence on this. If you need to turn right to cross traffic, then you have to suck it up and pull over to the left. Obviously not ideal on a narrow road, or always possible. But it drives me nuts on the open road seeing someone who is stopping 100kmh traffic to try and turn right. Inevitably there's some kind of intersection or road further up that they could turn into easily, do a u-turn off the main road, turn left, then left again.

Another pet peeve is when google makes me do this, turn right across busy traffic when it could have directed me another way. I spend twenty hours a week driving so try minimise risk as much as I can.

i sort of agree, its good to do defensive driving. avoid the situation as much as possible. all traffic must stop within the distance they see in front of them. but we well know not many do that. but even then its not always an option. eg a truck driver is not going to try and uturn it.

fe31nz

1232 posts

Uber Geek

#3086740 8-Jun-2023 22:34

Gordy7:

Enforcing no parking on the left side of the road facing the wrong way.

My car automatically brakes when seeing the front of cars facing me on the left.

There is no law that prevents you from parking facing the wrong way. When I was young, my father was given a ticket for doing this, but the ticket was actually for driving on the wrong side of the road, as you have to do that first in order to park the wrong way around. When Dad objected, he was asked to prove that he had hired a crane to put the car where it was!

Scott3

3970 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3086741 8-Jun-2023 22:44

Stop the mix of 1 7/8th & 50mm towballs, move to 50mm.
Relieve cycles of the obligation to stop at stop sign's. Sight lines are really good on bike's so it is not really needed, and stopping is a pain and adds risk.
Add Usa style 4 way stop's to our road laws.
Re-classify Pure EV's (between 3500kg & 4250kg as light vehicles). This will allow large EV van's to be competitive on payload with similar diesel vehicles. UK has allows EV's up to 4250 to be driven on the same license that allows 3500kg max car's.
Rewrite all Road laws involving fines, so that the $ value is not hard-coded into the law, instead refer to say a tier 17 fine, and have the government publish a fine's table each year. Would remove the current crazy situation where parking in a bus lane is a $60 fine, but driving in a buslane is a $150 fine. In general parking fines in the big cities have been eroded by inflation to a point where a few hours in a wilsons car park can be more expensive.
Add in-service emissions testing requirements (i.e. sniffer test at WOF).
Change central government law from allowing berm parking, to only allowing it in locations without a formed cerb (allow councils to override with bylaws or signage).
Add law to allow automated vehicle lighting enforcement camera's. Like a speed camera, but detects vehicles With the dip beams pointing into other car's windscreens, vehicles with fog lights on in clear weather etc.
Make it legal to pass a cyclist on a painted median.
Make it illegal for a vehicle to emit visible smoke (say 10 year grandfather period for vehicles registered before the law change). Currently, the law only makes it illegal to if the smoke is emitted for 10 seconds or more.
Remove the law which makes it illegal to park on road when off road park is available.
Rework of the laws for e-mobility vehicles. Currently 1.2kW Yike bikes, 300W max e-scooters, 300W assist e-bikes are legal, while the following are illegal: e-skateboards, segways, 300W elctric scooters (motorcycle styling) electric monowheels, ebikes /escooters over 300W. Need a consistent basis for all these vehicles, rather than cherrypicking stuff. I lump low powered electric personal vehicles together. Say anything under 40kg, that either has a max power under 300W, or a max speed under 35km/h.
Reform helmet laws for consistency between bikes and e-scooters
Allow neighborhood electric vehicles & golf carts to be used on roads with say speed limits of 60km/h or less.
Add a law allowing light quadracycles, i.e. Renault Twizy.
Require fresh import vehicles be fitted with an immobilizer to be registered in NZ. (perhaps 5 year grace period for existing fleet)
Change the 20 year old exemption of imports to emissions / collision rules to 30 years.
Require tall vehicles be fitted with side & rear under-run protection.
Get rid of the law requiring coaster breaks on 16" kids bikes.
Change the 90km/h speed limit for heavy vehicles, so it only applies to heavy vehicles over 6000kg GVM.
Require traffic in both directions (no median) to pull over and stop to allow an emergency vehicle to pass (think this is the case in the USA).
Require cargo vans be fitted with a bulkhead for first registration.
Fix the ute FBT loophole (Perhaps only have it apply to utes with a maximum of 1 row of seating, for consistency with vans, hatchbacks, wagons etc.)
Consider a special license or something for 750kg+ towing, even if it is just a theory test.
Substantially increase lengths of licence disqualification for serious driving offences. currently it typically is double the max prison time. I think it should be more like 20x.
Allow the riding of bikes at under 20km/h on the footpath.
Require DRL's (frount & rear), or always on headlights for new import car's.

Not law changes, but things I support:

The use of flashing amber (or turning off) traffic lights late at night to allow for faster travel.
More (preferably automated) enforcement of existing laws).

Left field stuff.

Change our fleet to polarized headlights (retrofit with stickers), and have drivers use a polarized windscreen / shield / glasses. With cheap and high powered modern lights, the loss of 50% intensity via the polarizer (and 50% from the glasses) is not such a big deal. Could drive with high beam lights (plus high power retrofitted spot lights all the time on the open road without causing glare issues for oncoming drivers. Could be a big win for night driving safety and comfort, especially given how headlight glare is an increasing issue.

Scott3

3970 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3086744 8-Jun-2023 22:49

fe31nz:

Gordy7:

Enforcing no parking on the left side of the road facing the wrong way.

My car automatically brakes when seeing the front of cars facing me on the left.

There is no law that prevents you from parking facing the wrong way. When I was young, my father was given a ticket for doing this, but the ticket was actually for driving on the wrong side of the road, as you have to do that first in order to park the wrong way around. When Dad objected, he was asked to prove that he had hired a crane to put the car where it was!

Can't comment on then, but the law now is as below:

https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/whole.html#DLM303608

Bung

6487 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3086747 8-Jun-2023 23:46

Scott3 - passing cyclists on painted medians already allowed.

Passing on right

b) approaching or passing a flush median, unless the driver—

"iv) is passing a cyclist and encroaches on the flush median for the minimum distance necessary to complete the manoeuvre safely."

dukester

475 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3086748 8-Jun-2023 23:51

Roundabout rule should be same as in Finland. You only indicate when you exit roundabout. From my observations so far, everyone follows this rule, it makes negotiating a roundabout easy.

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