Muppets on the road

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469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2068893 6-Aug-2018 18:04

This happened to me about 1.5 weeks ago was on Lincoln Road during the morning rush. Was in the right lane to get on SH16 towards the city. The van which was ahead of me suddenly changed lane to the left which I thought a little weird since they'd been ahead of me for a while. (The left lane used by those who want to head west on SH16 or who want to get on Triangle Road was a freer flowing as it often is. I think it would actually be even freer if not for muppets trying to force their way into the right lane to get on the motorway heading towards the city near the end.)

Probably because I don't drive much especially at peak time, was a while before it occurred to me what they were going to do. Sure enough they pushed back into the right hand lane at the Lincoln Road/Universal Road traffic lights. They only got 2 cars or so ahead (we weren't that far from the lights) but peeved me off no end. I give them credit for doing it there rather than further ahead but still.....

Was actually enough that I considered writing about them but I couldn't make out the number plate once it occurred to me what was going to happen. Technically I'm not sure if there's any clear violation in the normal case since it's really just a two lane road for most of it. Although I believe in the case I mentioned, they did block the junction temporarily as you'd expect. I also wonder whether it would fall under something like inconsiderate driving if it could be proven you did it intentionally. But intentional is the problem. Even when they change lane then change back, they could simply say I was considering going to X, but changed my mind again. But in any case, it was some sort of marked company van so depending on the boss (assuming it wasn't the boss) they might have their own views if they received a complaint regardless of the legal situation.

Like kryptonjon lane pushers are one of my pet peeve. Kiwi drivers at least aren't as bad as Malaysians. If you've just turned into the road coming from somewhere else or made a genuine mistake I'm happy to let you in. But not when you intentionally drove on the free flowing lane knowing full well you're going to have to force yourself into the slower lane ahead and where you weren't bypassing any bottlenecks. It also sucks when you're in the freer flowing lane and it's hindered because some idiot is trying to force their way.

I suspect it probably causes a fair few minor accidents too. Both people trying to force their way in and when someone doesn't want to let them. And also because it's means a lot of people try to follow the next car very closely to try and stop cars forcing their way in.

mattwnz

20162 posts

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#2068903 6-Aug-2018 18:31

Geektastic:

Rimutaka Hill road is a difficult one; it can offer sudden hazards, such as rocks in the road, trucks coming round bends towards you so close that you can smell the driver's breath, hidden wet or icy patches. I see many people driving that road in an extremely dangerous manner, clearly thinking they are very cool WRC drivers or something. Recently I had one guy corner so hard to get round the traffic that he was on 3 wheels instead of 4, several so close to the edge of the traction envelope that their tyres were squealing as they went round bends, a motorcycle come round a blind bend towards me, on my side of the road, against double yellow centre lines and so on.

The speed limit on that road needs reducing IMO to 80. It's just not safe or sensible to have a 100 limit on a road like that.

TBH, I think it could be 50 for much of it. Not too many places on it people could get up to even 80. Almost everytime I go over, there is a holdup with a crash or roadworks, and cleaning up rockfalls. I am not sure what the longterm plan is, but a road and tunnel through the valley could help, but very pricey.

Technofreak

6530 posts

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#2068943 6-Aug-2018 20:15

mattwnz:

TBH, I think it could be 50 for much of it. Not too many places on it people could get up to even 80. Almost everytime I go over, there is a holdup with a crash or roadworks, and cleaning up rockfalls. I am not sure what the longterm plan is, but a road and tunnel through the valley could help, but very pricey.

I must admit I don't drive the Rimutaka's often, once a year or so, but I drive other similar types roads regularly. I don't think any of them need the speed limit reduced. Drivers just need to drive to the conditions. That may mean 80 kph some days, other days slower, other days faster.

I think that some drivers are "scared" of these roads and drive much much slower than the average driver but will not let others past. This leads to drivers taking unnecessary risks. If someone is driving below the speed limit and holding other drivers up they need to use their rear vision mirror, pull over and let other drivers past.

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Geektastic

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#2068980 6-Aug-2018 21:43

trig42:
Yep, we can't merge.

I drive home on the Northern Motorway every night (going towards the City).

When it is busy (Thursdays and Fridays usually), the motorway slows down before the Northcote on-ramp. I usually drive down there in the left lane. I always leave a big gap in front of me for the queue of cars waiting to merge, and they do. Once the big chunk of cars has go on the motorway, I fall in behind, in the hope that the person behind me will leave a gap for the next couple of cars (they come two at a time from the on-ramp lights). Just about every time - a muppet will go all the way down in front of me and everyone (usually on the breakdown strip) just to get in a couple of cars ahead.

Nobody seems to have mastered the knack of merging into moving traffic at speed.

I think this is possibly because there is no real intercity network of motorways, so it's not really a required universal skill here.

floydbloke

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#2071450 10-Aug-2018 17:02

Pretty sure that wasn't meant to happen.

Edit: Stole this pic from Facebook, taken from the other side

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

Journeyman

1186 posts

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#2071454 10-Aug-2018 17:11

Woman charged with dangerous driving after dash cam footage release

Good job.

richms

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#2071561 10-Aug-2018 22:40

Journeyman:

Woman charged with dangerous driving after dash cam footage release

Good job.

Love how stuff blur the plate despite their trash potato quality video encoding meaning that noone would be able to read it anyway.

Richard rich.ms

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Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

mattwnz

20162 posts

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#2071580 10-Aug-2018 23:27

Technofreak:

mattwnz:

TBH, I think it could be 50 for much of it. Not too many places on it people could get up to even 80. Almost everytime I go over, there is a holdup with a crash or roadworks, and cleaning up rockfalls. I am not sure what the longterm plan is, but a road and tunnel through the valley could help, but very pricey.

I must admit I don't drive the Rimutaka's often, once a year or so, but I drive other similar types roads regularly. I don't think any of them need the speed limit reduced. Drivers just need to drive to the conditions. That may mean 80 kph some days, other days slower, other days faster.

I think that some drivers are "scared" of these roads and drive much much slower than the average driver but will not let others past. This leads to drivers taking unnecessary risks. If someone is driving below the speed limit and holding other drivers up they need to use their rear vision mirror, pull over and let other drivers past.

I drive over this about 4 times a week, so am very confident driving over it, and hardly ever hold up traffic behind me. If I do, I let them pass. But many people don't , and it seems that people think it is a failure of their driving, to have to pull over. There is however no excuse on this road, due to a large number of pull off areas. But it is a very dangerous road, I think it is one of the most dangerous in NZ. From memory it is number 8, and it is state highway 2, so it is quite a significant road. Even my brother has had quite a major crash on it a few years ago in a head on crash, where someone was overtaking on the wrong side of the road. I think that if they did reduce the speed, it would decrease the number of crashes on it, as the road isn't really up to modern standards. Some parts have been upgraded, but much of it still needs a significant amount of work on it. The Featherston side especially is pretty bad.

mattwnz

20162 posts

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#2071582 10-Aug-2018 23:31

richms:

Journeyman:

Woman charged with dangerous driving after dash cam footage release

Good job.

Love how stuff blur the plate despite their trash potato quality video encoding meaning that noone would be able to read it anyway.

I have experienced worse than that, and if I hadn't braked, I would have hit the oncoming car. In a way I think overtaking should be banned, and instead, there should either be pull over areas, and maybe cameras that can capture vehicles that are slowing down traffic, and not pulling over, which is inconsiderate driving. I would have thought the camera technology would now exist for this. The problem in NZ with our state highways, is that the opposing lanes aren't separated in the middle. In the US, they tend to have quite a big distance between the opposing lanes, so an head on crash is far less likely.

Technofreak

6530 posts

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#2071699 11-Aug-2018 10:47

mattwnz:

I drive over this about 4 times a week, so am very confident driving over it, and hardly ever hold up traffic behind me. If I do, I let them pass. But many people don't , and it seems that people think it is a failure of their driving, to have to pull over. There is however no excuse on this road, due to a large number of pull off areas. But it is a very dangerous road, I think it is one of the most dangerous in NZ. From memory it is number 8, and it is state highway 2, so it is quite a significant road. Even my brother has had quite a major crash on it a few years ago in a head on crash, where someone was overtaking on the wrong side of the road. I think that if they did reduce the speed, it would decrease the number of crashes on it, as the road isn't really up to modern standards. Some parts have been upgraded, but much of it still needs a significant amount of work on it. The Featherston side especially is pretty bad.

I've highlighted a couple of points you made. If this road is so dangerous and not up to modern standards then what does it say about the rest of our roads?

I can think of other stretches of main state highways I'd consider more challenging than the Rimutakas yet I wouldn't consider them very dangerous nor up to standard.

I've driven in Australia, UK, Europe, Canada and the US and the non motorway main highway roads in these countries are by and large of no better standard than ours.

Drivers need to learn to drive to the conditions and their ability.

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Journeyman

1186 posts

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#2074048 15-Aug-2018 16:48

mattwnz:

richms:

Journeyman:

Woman charged with dangerous driving after dash cam footage release

Good job.

Love how stuff blur the plate despite their trash potato quality video encoding meaning that noone would be able to read it anyway.

I have experienced worse than that, and if I hadn't braked, I would have hit the oncoming car. In a way I think overtaking should be banned

You can ban overtaking, but there are already rules in place around overtaking. If people break those rules, they're not going to abide by an overtaking ban. It's very difficult to legislate for stupidity.

Geektastic

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#2074056 15-Aug-2018 17:08

mattwnz:

Technofreak:

mattwnz:

TBH, I think it could be 50 for much of it. Not too many places on it people could get up to even 80. Almost everytime I go over, there is a holdup with a crash or roadworks, and cleaning up rockfalls. I am not sure what the longterm plan is, but a road and tunnel through the valley could help, but very pricey.

I must admit I don't drive the Rimutaka's often, once a year or so, but I drive other similar types roads regularly. I don't think any of them need the speed limit reduced. Drivers just need to drive to the conditions. That may mean 80 kph some days, other days slower, other days faster.

I think that some drivers are "scared" of these roads and drive much much slower than the average driver but will not let others past. This leads to drivers taking unnecessary risks. If someone is driving below the speed limit and holding other drivers up they need to use their rear vision mirror, pull over and let other drivers past.

I drive over this about 4 times a week, so am very confident driving over it, and hardly ever hold up traffic behind me. If I do, I let them pass. But many people don't , and it seems that people think it is a failure of their driving, to have to pull over. There is however no excuse on this road, due to a large number of pull off areas. But it is a very dangerous road, I think it is one of the most dangerous in NZ. From memory it is number 8, and it is state highway 2, so it is quite a significant road. Even my brother has had quite a major crash on it a few years ago in a head on crash, where someone was overtaking on the wrong side of the road. I think that if they did reduce the speed, it would decrease the number of crashes on it, as the road isn't really up to modern standards. Some parts have been upgraded, but much of it still needs a significant amount of work on it. The Featherston side especially is pretty bad.

Whichever way you look at it, there is no way it is safe to do 100kmh anywhere on that road at any time unless it was closed to traffic.

Suggesting New Zealand should learn to drive properly is all well and good but until someone decides that learning such an important skill from random unqualified teachers (otherwise known as parents) is pretty dumb and enacts a requirement for professional instruction before you can take a test and drive solo, I think reducing limits and redesigning principle highways to put safety first is just common sense.

GeekGuy

590 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2074529 16-Aug-2018 15:25

A couple more muppets on my travels.

Both are on Puhinui Rd, Auckland.

This one is heading away from Auckland Airport (around the 25 second mark on my left)

https://youtu.be/B4nIu2F_5z4

and the other heading to Auckland Airport. Around the 20 second mark I give way to a few cars and where the 2 lanes merges into 1, a car crosses the yellow lines and over takes everyone.

https://youtu.be/bKqbacbD_T0

Journeyman

1186 posts

Uber Geek

#2074552 16-Aug-2018 16:13

^^^ Subaru Forester, says it all

There's something about Subaru's which attract a certain kind of... Richard Cranium. Foresters, Legacies, Imprezas. Sorry to generalise but that's my observation.

kryptonjohn

2523 posts

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#2074554 16-Aug-2018 16:18

Journeyman:

^^^ Subaru Forester, says it all

There's something about Subaru's which attract a certain kind of... Richard Cranium. Foresters, Legacies, Imprezas. Sorry to generalise but that's my observation.

I was going to say this about BMW drivers but I don't want to upset @coil !

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