Can we also stop people wearing headphones in their cars, that seems a strange practice to me

one lot of road rules i would like to see changed is towing/trailer laws.

the braking distance rule is stupid and rarely ever enforced. much easier to just go by the manufactures tow rating. which makes enforcement easier. also get rid of the 2000kg unbraked trailer thing as almost no light vehicle has a manufactures unbraked tow capacity of over 700kg let alone 2000kg. 

trailer brakes should be on all axles.

have a look at implementing trailer abs (which is available overseas). one of the problems today is we have vehicles with big multi pot brakes, abs, stability control etc. tow vehicles can drive fast and brake fast but the trailer has brakes from the 60's. 

mudguard:

 

I'd never thought about the footpath thing until I was on crutches for six months. It was awful having to go onto the street to get around a car when I'm already off balance. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be in wheelchair. 

 

This. Until you've actually been forced into this position, what seems like a minor inconvienience to an able-bodied driver is unbelievably difficult or impossible. 

lurker:

 

Can we also stop people wearing headphones in their cars, that seems a strange practice to me

 

Don't see anything wrong with that. 

More policing of cars sticking to the marked lines on a road, in particular not deliberately driving on the part of the road clearly designed for cyclists. In PN we have so many drivers that think it's ok to drive on the cycle lane when they can't see a cyclist on it. 

Reminded of this yesterday when driving behind this complete doofus:

jonathan18:

 

More policing of cars sticking to the marked lines on a road, in particular not deliberately driving on the part of the road clearly designed for cyclists. In PN we have so many drivers that think it's ok to drive on the cycle lane when they can't see a cyclist on it. 

 

Reminded of this yesterday when driving behind this complete doofus

 

To be honest that does not even look like a proper cycling lane.. Looks dangerous to cyclists as its not even clearly marked. I would be very nervous cycling there in case a parked car opened the driver side door. New Zealand really needs to start fixing its cycling lanes and catching up with the rest of the world. 

I would just like to see enforcement of existing rules.  Aside from the rare highway patrol cop, there are virtually no police doing traffic stops in the towns and cities that I see aside from the odd drink driving checkpoint. Bring back the cops on bikes I reckon, start ticketing people who can't use roundabouts, run red lights, don't indicate, the list goes on.  I guess it comes down to resources, maybe bring back a separate traffic department.      

scuwp:

 

I would just like to see enforcement of existing rules.  Aside from the rare highway patrol cop, there are virtually no police doing traffic stops in the towns and cities that I see aside from the odd drink driving checkpoint. Bring back the cops on bikes I reckon, start ticketing people who can't use roundabouts, run red lights, don't indicate, the list goes on.  I guess it comes down to resources, maybe bring back a separate traffic department.      

 

Cameras!  why can't they use red light cameras, phone cameras, head light cameras etc

blackjack17:

scuwp:

I would just like to see enforcement of existing rules.  Aside from the rare highway patrol cop, there are virtually no police doing traffic stops in the towns and cities that I see aside from the odd drink driving checkpoint. Bring back the cops on bikes I reckon, start ticketing people who can't use roundabouts, run red lights, don't indicate, the list goes on.  I guess it comes down to resources, maybe bring back a separate traffic department.      

 

Cameras!  why can't they use red light cameras, phone cameras, head light cameras etc

I'd be interested to know how our road accident statistics compare to those in Australia? There's a lot of talk in this thread about lack of enforcement of current road rules in NZ and according to recent posts above they are aggressively enforced in Australia. Are their road accident statistics significantly better than ours and therefore is enforcement working for them to create safer roads?

Without knowing the numbers I reckon there would be more to it than just enforcement. Both countries are poor at driver education and instilling defensive driving behaviours. 

Senecio:

 

I'd be interested to know how our road accident statistics compare to those in Australia? There's a lot of talk in this thread about lack of enforcement of current road rules in NZ and according to recent posts above they are aggressively enforced in Australia. Are their road accident statistics significantly better than ours and therefore is enforcement working for them to create safer roads?

 

Without knowing the numbers I reckon there would be more to it than just enforcement. Both countries are poor at driver education and instilling defensive driving behaviours. 

 

"But if we look across to Australia, they were on track to have about 4.4 road deaths per 100,000 people this year while New Zealand had 6.3."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458924/2021-road-toll-too-high-little-progress-made-aa 

+1 Education and enforcement of the existing rules.

I'd like to see people having to pass a theory test each time they renew their licence - maybe 10-20 questions on the core safety (speed limits, give way, indicators etc.) road rules. I'm picking that at least some will need to relearn these. Those that already know them will fly through.

I recently got my motorcycle learners licence after 25-ish years of car driving. I re-read the rode code and sat the practice exams, and pleased to say I aced all the core safety ones first time. Having been through that process, I can definitely see the value in testing and retesting the core safety road rules.

That said, I did have to learn/relearn some of the more esoteric ones, particularly distances. I did not know (or could not remember) I could overhang the load on a light vehicle beyond the rear axle by 4 meters. Which seems absolutely bonkers and I would never even come close to that. Personally I would probably be okay leaving this one and its ilk out of any road code testing.