Poor driving habits getting worse amongst kiwi drivers

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Poor driving habits getting worse amongst kiwi drivers

tehgerbil

1113 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#226109 20-Dec-2017 20:45

Further to the 4km/h tolerance thread, I think NZ police have stopped caring about policing the basic road rules.

This was riccarton today, a driver ignored an orange and went through the red without a second thought.

I travel just a small 20 minute drive to work, and 20 mins back every day, but see red light running at least once a trip.

I've seen multiple people run reds (second, third in line at lights turning right) in front of cops who are forced to wait on the green but do nothing whatsoever.

I called the local station once, and asked what was being done and the police lady actually argued with me, completely unprofessionally and accused me running red lights myself and to stop complaining. (happy to give the dashcam audio/video to anyone who cares.)

Anyway, with the rising road toll, I think NZ police have their a$$ in the sky, and their head in the sand over poor driving behavior and just don't give a toss.

This is a filtered page: currently showing replies marked as answers. Click here to see full discussion.

kryptonjohn

2523 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 953

Lifetime subscriber

#1922961 21-Dec-2017 09:34

tehgerbil:

Further to the 4km/h tolerance thread, I think NZ police have stopped caring about policing the basic road rules.

This was riccarton today, a driver ignored an orange and went through the red without a second thought.

I travel just a small 20 minute drive to work, and 20 mins back every day, but see red light running at least once a trip.

I've seen multiple people run reds (second, third in line at lights turning right) in front of cops who are forced to wait on the green but do nothing whatsoever.

I called the local station once, and asked what was being done and the police lady actually argued with me, completely unprofessionally and accused me running red lights myself and to stop complaining. (happy to give the dashcam audio/video to anyone who cares.)

Anyway, with the rising road toll, I think NZ police have their a$$ in the sky, and their head in the sand over poor driving behavior and just don't give a toss.

I believe there is an institutional laziness and lack of creativity at both NZTA and Police Traffic management. They want two things: lower the road toll and to offer some measurable KPI to their political masters. By reducing speeds they can reduce the road toll even if the number of crashes doesn't reduce much. Still get plenty of mangled people but less will die. Infringement notices issued is an easy KPI.

It's unimaginative and lazy. The Waikato cop who wants to shift to counting interactions with the public has a far, far better idea. Make him the boss and sack whoever is in charge currently.

scuwp

3927 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2510

#1923513 22-Dec-2017 08:28

This revenue collecting rubbish just won't go away - Police DO NOT get a single cent from the fines they collect.

Police have limited resources and deploy them to where they can make the biggest impact (no pun intended). Failing to indicate at roundabouts for example may result in a crash which is a PITA but it rarely results in serious injury or death (roundabouts on a whole reduce the number of intersecting pathways and make impact angles more acute which deflects the impact forces). Red light running has a slightly larger potential for injury or death, but by far the highway is where the majority happen.

I also think they should use more technology to fill the gaps. Red light cameras, and cameras at roundabouts to film people surely could be used for automated enforcement leaving the patrolmen to deal with the bigger issues.

Stupid driving is hard to police because you kind of have to be there to see it, to enforce it. Speed may not cause a crash but it has everything to do with what the outcome will be, so it's an effective way of reducing the harms from crashes, if not the crashes themselves.

http://www.saferjourneys.govt.nz/

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation