Tailgaters?

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6488 posts

Uber Geek

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#1786656 23-May-2017 13:17

Keeping left is more than a Road Code suggestion. From the Road User Rules

"2.1 Keeping left
(1)
A driver, when driving, must at all times drive as near as practicable to the left side of the roadway unless this rule otherwise provides.
(2)
If a driver’s speed, when driving, is such as to impede the normal and reasonable flow of traffic, that driver must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, move the vehicle as far as practicable to the left side of the roadway when this is necessary to allow following traffic to pass.
(3)
A driver may drive in the right lane in the direction of travel when driving on a multi-lane road if—
(a)
the driver is turning right, or making a U-turn from the centre of the road, and is giving the prescribed signal of that driver’s intention to turn right; or
(b)
the driver is passing; or
(c)
the left lane is unavailable to the driver; or
(d)
the driver is required by any provision of this rule to drive in the right lane; or
(e)
a variable lane control downward-facing arrow sign indicates that the driver must drive in the right lane; or
(f)
the driver is avoiding an obstruction; or
(g)
the traffic in all other lanes is congested; or
(h)
the traffic in every lane is congested."

Passing on the left is only allowed if vehicles are in separate lanes or 1 vehicle is stationary, indicating a right turn. There are many reasons why adjacent lanes might be moving at different speeds.

PeterQ

84 posts

Master Geek

#1786742 23-May-2017 13:55

Bung: Keeping left is more than a Road Code suggestion. From the Road User Rules

"2.1 Keeping left
(1)
A driver, when driving, must at all times drive as near as practicable to the left side of the roadway unless this rule otherwise provides.
(2)
If a driver’s speed, when driving, is such as to impede the normal and reasonable flow of traffic, that driver must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, move the vehicle as far as practicable to the left side of the roadway when this is necessary to allow following traffic to pass.
(3)
A driver may drive in the right lane in the direction of travel when driving on a multi-lane road if—
(a)
the driver is turning right, or making a U-turn from the centre of the road, and is giving the prescribed signal of that driver’s intention to turn right; or
(b)
the driver is passing; or
(c)
the left lane is unavailable to the driver; or
(d)
the driver is required by any provision of this rule to drive in the right lane; or
(e)
a variable lane control downward-facing arrow sign indicates that the driver must drive in the right lane; or
(f)
the driver is avoiding an obstruction; or
(g)
the traffic in all other lanes is congested; or
(h)
the traffic in every lane is congested."

Passing on the left is only allowed if vehicles are in separate lanes or 1 vehicle is stationary, indicating a right turn. There are many reasons why adjacent lanes might be moving at different speeds.

A lot of people wouldn't know the road rules or wouldn't care less, still its not enforced, unless they see the police behind them they wont pull over on principle

geekbhaji

222 posts

Master Geek

#1786768 23-May-2017 14:17

Anyone who drives over 100kmph in 100kmph speed limit zone is plain STUPID. Its OK if they want to crash themselves to a pole or something similar , but if they crash with another car or a cyclist or anything alive, they have the potential to ruin families.

I would rather prefer calling police if find someone driving like that. Think of it like saving someone's family.

I have seen any drivers passing at 120 or more and then stopped at next red lights just ahead of me, how much time they save- may be couple of seconds, how much they risked for these few seconds- too much.

Humor makes us humans !

dafman

3928 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1786776 23-May-2017 14:29

geekbhaji:

Anyone who drives over 100kmph in 100kmph speed limit zone is plain STUPID. Its OK if they want to crash themselves to a pole or something similar , but if they crash with another car or a cyclist or anything alive, they have the potential to ruin families.

I would rather prefer calling police if find someone driving like that. Think of it like saving someone's family.

I have seen any drivers passing at 120 or more and then stopped at next red lights just ahead of me, how much time they save- may be couple of seconds, how much they risked for these few seconds- too much.

Ah, but if you are in the left lane, and the STUPID speeding person is passing you in the right lane, then their stupidity is unlikely to affect you at all. As you rightly point out, let the police deal with them.

Unfortunately, there are many kiwi drivers that insist on staying in the right hand lane, highway vigilantes on self appointed missions to slow speeding drivers down. In which case, stupidity, sadly, is no longer the sole domain of the speeder.

frankv

5680 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1786781 23-May-2017 14:36

geekbhaji:

Anyone who drives over 100kmph in 100kmph speed limit zone is plain STUPID. Its OK if they want to crash themselves to a pole or something similar , but if they crash with another car or a cyclist or anything alive, they have the potential to ruin families.

I would rather prefer calling police if find someone driving like that. Think of it like saving someone's family.

But people who drive within the speed limit also crash. Presumably that means that people who drive within the speed limit are also plain STUPID. (Actually, I don't disagree with the proposal that lots of drivers are plain STUPID).

There is *nothing* about 100kph which makes it safe to drive below that speed nor dangerous to drive above that speed. The risk vs speed graph is a continuous curve, and the Govt has arbitrarily chosen 100kph as being "about right" as a maximum speed. Next year, hopefully, some roads in NZ will have 110kph speed limits. Are people driving on those roads at 105kph this year plain STUPID? If so, Will they still be plain STUPID next year?

I have seen any drivers passing at 120 or more and then stopped at next red lights just ahead of me, how much time they save- may be couple of seconds, how much they risked for these few seconds- too much.

What about the drivers passing at 120 or more and then got through the lights before they turned red? You wouldn't have seen them, because they were gone.

Labelling people as plain STUPID without thinking is just, well, plain STUPID.

geekbhaji

222 posts

Master Geek

#1786792 23-May-2017 14:51

frankv:

But people who drive within the speed limit also crash. Presumably that means that people who drive within the speed limit are also plain STUPID. (Actually, I don't disagree with the proposal that lots of drivers are plain STUPID).

There is *nothing* about 100kph which makes it safe to drive below that speed nor dangerous to drive above that speed. The risk vs speed graph is a continuous curve, and the Govt has arbitrarily chosen 100kph as being "about right" as a maximum speed. Next year, hopefully, some roads in NZ will have 110kph speed limits. Are people driving on those roads at 105kph this year plain STUPID? If so, Will they still be plain STUPID next year?

The people who drive within limits are less likely to crash than the ones who over speed. Being on road is unsafe but collectively everybody should try to make it safe for everyone. If its on expense of speed, so be it. If govt. has chosen 100kmph arbitrarily, then the discussion here should be about researching on a safe speed not randomly accepting 100 or 110.

I have seen any drivers passing at 120 or more and then stopped at next red lights just ahead of me, how much time they save- may be couple of seconds, how much they risked for these few seconds- too much.

What about the drivers passing at 120 or more and then got through the lights before they turned red? You wouldn't have seen them, because they were gone.

Labelling people as plain STUPID without thinking is just, well, plain STUPID.

Passing and driving are two different things. I was talking about drivers who try to drive at 120 and keep tailgating until a person doing 100 give them a way.

They will have to stop at some red lights and if you do the maths it wont make that much of difference in time, Call it few minutes then.. Still few minutes are way less important than a leg, an eye, or life.

I haven't labelled everybody as plain stupid, i have labelled people who over speed carelessly plain Stupid. They will be plain stupid even If I label them or not. My label wont make any difference ;)

Humor makes us humans !

PeterQ

84 posts

Master Geek

#1786795 23-May-2017 14:56

Doing 100 kmh in the right hand lane doesn't give you the right to stay in there unless you're passing of course

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geekbhaji

222 posts

Master Geek

#1786800 23-May-2017 14:58

dafman:

geekbhaji:

Anyone who drives over 100kmph in 100kmph speed limit zone is plain STUPID. Its OK if they want to crash themselves to a pole or something similar , but if they crash with another car or a cyclist or anything alive, they have the potential to ruin families.

I would rather prefer calling police if find someone driving like that. Think of it like saving someone's family.

I have seen any drivers passing at 120 or more and then stopped at next red lights just ahead of me, how much time they save- may be couple of seconds, how much they risked for these few seconds- too much.

Ah, but if you are in the left lane, and the STUPID speeding person is passing you in the right lane, then their stupidity is unlikely to affect you at all. As you rightly point out, let the police deal with them.

Unfortunately, there are many kiwi drivers that insist on staying in the right hand lane, highway vigilantes on self appointed missions to slow speeding drivers down. In which case, stupidity, sadly, is no longer the sole domain of the speeder.

If I am on left lane and they are on right lane, then they dont need to go to 120 to pass me, The passing concept does not apply there, it usually applies on single lane roads when thy pass at bit high speed but it should also be avoided too.

And I agree that if there are two lanes, everyone should try to keep left unless passing or there is a lot of congestion where speed is already not an issue. And I also agree that highway vigilantes actually frustrates the overspeeders and hence increasing their chances to do mistakes in aggression.

Humor makes us humans !

geekbhaji

222 posts

Master Geek

#1786803 23-May-2017 14:58

PeterQ:

Doing 100 kmh in the right hand lane doesn't give you the right to stay in there unless you're passing of course

I agree.

Humor makes us humans !

Oblivian

7300 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1786834 23-May-2017 15:18

How your average non related motoring thread always ends in 6 pages of keep left associated debate is beyond me

PeterQ

84 posts

Master Geek

#1786851 23-May-2017 15:28

Its all related

Davy

196 posts

Master Geek

#1786896 23-May-2017 16:36

Also, a lot of people don't know that there are rules about it. I certainly didn't and have been blissfully sticking to the right lane in urban areas to avoid merging traffic, so this has been illuminating.

Another thing we can agree on though - people who tailgate on single-lane roads behind vehicles doing the speed limit are probably too stupid to be allowed to operate any kind of vehicle. I'd like to see this properly monitored by police, and their licenses downgraded to provisional licenses requiring completion of a defensive driving course to unlock full driving privileges.

Oblivian

7300 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1786900 23-May-2017 16:45

Except the original poster. Appeared to be driving a rural state road. With the majority being 1 lane going his direction. And expressing opinion on the people seen, and or sitting on his butt in less than ideal conditions instead of 'driving to the conditions' or presumably utilising a safe passing move when they are entitled to cross the centreline as long as there was no dashed-solid yellows.

I sure couldn't find where he indicated he was on a road with 2 lanes going the same direction refusing to keep left. 0.o

yesterday (Saturday) I drove from Opotiki to Auckland. I was doing 100-110-ish for as much as you can without spinning off the road into a ditch. The rain was torrential at times and the wind was pretty high from the west. Visibilty was pretty poor at times.

Yet there were guys (always a guy) following others at maybe 2 car lengths.....if that.

I generally just pull over as soon as one of these tos.....um...drivers appears behind me. I have no desire to save them from earning a well-deserved ticket and demerit points somewhere down the road ahead of me. If not this time, then next time or the time after

SepticSceptic

2191 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1786917 23-May-2017 17:07

Bung: Keeping left is more than a Road Code suggestion. From the Road User Rules

"2.1 Keeping left

Passing on the left is only allowed if vehicles are in separate lanes or 1 vehicle is stationary, indicating a right turn. There are many reasons why adjacent lanes might be moving at different speeds.

Aww c'mon, a few smart Auckland drivers know that the inside lane is generally the fastest when the motorways are busy.

Many drivers, as soon as they get on the motorway, make a mad frantic dash for the far right lane, no matter how dense the traffic. Indicating furiously, and much head turning - they NEED to get to that far right lane, in as short a distance as possible.

Meanwhile, I just saunter along in the left - passing trailer trucks clogging up the far right lane.

Doesn't matter which motorway, north, south or west, inside lane is generally the quickest - maybe slower, but there is not the stop start tailgating as compared to the right lane, so overall, it is quicker.

Linuxluver

5828 posts

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#1787099 23-May-2017 21:23

NzBeagle:

dafman:

New Zealanders motorway driving is, on average, atrocious.

I spent several weeks driving around Spain last year and it's amazing how well motorway traffic flows when all drivers obey the keep left when not overtaking rule (or in their case, keep right).

One thing I never experienced in Spain was drivers using the outside lane to "spread out the congestion" or, as we often see here, assuming a 'self-appointed-speed-police' role by staying in the outside lanes to slow down drivers they think are travelling too fast.

I found in Italy there was general acceptance of speeding in an orderly fashion... Nobody died.

Italy has 6.1 road crash deaths or 100,000 population.
NZ has 6.0 road crash deaths per 100,000 population.
(2015 data)

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