Dangerous NZ drivers told to shape up
Kiwi drivers are notoriously bad, we’re told – so Simon Maude asks foreign-born NZers for tips on how we can drive better.
The most dangerous kilometre on the road is the next – so the saying goes. For New Zealand’s 11,000 kilometres of highway and its roughly 3.3 million drivers you could add the adjectives stressful, frustrating, inconsiderate and entitled.
Forget the roads, it’s our driving habits that need work. Tailgating, hogging passing lanes, failing to indicate or talking on mobiles. Kiwis are rude, terrible drivers.
A Nielsen survey commissioned by insurer IAG showed 55 per cent of New Zealand drivers confessed to eating while motoring, 42 per cent admitted running a red or late amber light, 39 per cent said they spoke or texted on a hand-held cellphone, and 25 per cent drove in bare feet or jandals in the preceding six months.
Last week we reported that almost 10,000 people who received their full driver’s licence last year had failed at least once before, and one wannabe motorist took 13 attempts to pass the test.
New Zealand drivers have the dubious distinction at being better at killing each other than most developed countries, too. Although we rank 17 out of 33 OECD countries for accidents involving casualties at 9737 per million people, you’re more likely to die in an accident here.
We have the eighth highest OECD road accident death rate at more than 69 deaths per year per million drivers – in 2016, 328 people died in New Zealand road crashes.
Five simple driving habits used overseas used here could lower motoring frustrations and our road toll. 1 Embrace switching on headlights during the day. One perverse manifestation of our tall poppy syndrome, not wanting to stand out, is our reluctance to drive with lights on or let others do so.
Passing on long, straight roads feels like roulette because is that approaching car one kilometre or 500 metres away? Sadly some drivers guess wrong and die or, at best, have to swerve their way back into the traffic.
German ex-pat Catrina Kuehler said encouraging the daytime use of running lights here, as it is in Europe, would be beneficial.
‘‘Basically you’re more visible. In many cases New Zealand drivers aren’t 100 per cent sure when to turns lights on. I’ve found here even in fog people don’t drive with their lights on.’’ 2 Using hazard lights at the end of tail backs. Long traffic queues can be more than an unpleasant surprise and lead to nose-to-tail prangs.
Whoever’s at the back of a long, slow-moving queue should use their hazard lights giving fastapproaching drivers ample warning to slow down, as several countries do.
New Kiwi Jacques Steenkamp, who has been driving on Auckland roads for a month, said ‘‘getting into the habit’’ of using hazard lights helped keep him safe when he was driving on South African roads.
‘‘With tail-backs, if you’re around a corner at the back of a queue you’ve got to warn people behind you otherwise they’ll slam into you.’’ 3 Don’t pass on the left (undertake). Nothing’s more unnerving than having a car zoom by seemingly out of nowhere.
We expect vehicles to pass on the right, so don’t scare fellow motorists by zipping by on the inside of multilane roads.
Sometimes a pigheaded driver blocking the right-hand, or passing lane, causes this – so don’t use the right lane unless passing.
In Europe and in many US states it is illegal to use passing lanes as travelling lanes.
Our motoring editor David Linklater said it’s not up to motorists to police the speed limit by sitting below the speed limit in the passing lane.
‘‘All you’re doing is creating anger and frustration by blocking people’s progress.’’ 4 Slowing down stops tailgaters. Trust passive-aggressive Canada to come up with this one.
British Columbia’s driver licensing department recommends gently slowing down to create a safe following distance in front of you which also encourages those behind to do so too.
Auckland’s Henri Eliot, who grew up in Montreal, said impatient drivers there often tailgated. But in other provinces like Ontario, drivers had learned better manners. ‘‘Tailgating is quite rare. It’s usually a tourist who tailgates if ever.’’
Here we call it the ‘‘two-second rule’’ while in the UK they have dots on the road. Keeping two dots between you and the car you’re following makes you safe. 5 Set the tone, just let people in. In Germany there is a ‘‘zipper rule’’ which legally requires merging cars to take one-for-one turns.
Road safety critic Clive MatthewWilson said, ‘‘Kiwis resent having to share the road with everyone else, sullenly refusing to let people into their lane.
‘‘By comparison, most Europeans and Americans grow up assuming that they have to share roads with millions of other cars. They assume they have to indicate, to let other cars into their lanes, to keep a safe space between them and the car ahead.
‘‘My revenge is to be doubly courteous to the next driver I meet. That way it breaks down the chain.
‘‘I’m damned if I’m going to become a negative driver.’’