Behaviour that grinds our gears

DRIVERS who can’t merge and slowpokes who won’t pull over are just two breaches of highway etiquette likely to drive holidaymakers to distraction this long weekend.

Jams such as the 21⁄2-hour delays facing northbound drivers on Kapiti Coast yesterday evening can be predicted, but it’s the dumb and discourteous stunts some motorists pull that really grate with their fellow road users.

In Wairarapa, it’s the slow drivers who refuse to pull over on the Rimutaka Hill, while in Lower Hutt and Pukerua Bay it’s people failing to merge properly.

‘‘You know there’s been a long weekend and Wellingtonians have been over here by their driving on the way back,’’ Wairarapa-based NZ First MP Ron Mark said yesterday. ‘‘It’s appalling.

‘‘You see people who have obviously never driven over a hill before . . . steering around every corner, braking going up hill, passing layby after layby, oblivious that they’ve got 12 or 15 cars behind.’’

Living in Wainuiomata means Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard often uses another well-known hotspot for poor driving, the Petone interchange on State Highway 2.

An unwritten convention that drivers should stay out of the right-hand merger lane at Petone before the motorway was often not respected, he said.

‘‘Kiwis are notoriously bad at merging . . . especially on long weekends when people are tired.’’

Another unwritten rule says drivers should stick to the left lane heading northwards from Wellington before the motorway narrows at Pukerua Bay.

But Pukerua Bay Residents’ Association chairman Iain MacLean said that, with an average of 23,000 cars a day passing through the village, some still ‘‘whizz down to the front’’ of the queue before sidling back in.

A worse problem was excessive speed. ‘‘I’d just say take it easy. If you see someone turning on or off the main road, please let them in.’’

There are many other types of poor driving etiquette, including failing to give way on narrow, steep roads to cars heading uphill, failing to keep left, tailgating, and dangerous passing.

‘‘This is why I won’t be travelling this weekend,’’ tweeted April Stevenson, with the hashtag ‘‘crazy drivers’’.

Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of the car review website dogandlemon.com, said the main problem was that Kiwis were ‘‘a nation of country drivers’’, whereas Europeans grew up realising roads had to be shared.

‘‘This attitude underlies much of the antisocial behaviour that we see every long weekend, such as lane-hogging, unsafe overtaking, tailgating and abusive behaviour.

‘‘I would like to see the police spending less time rigidly enforcing speed limits and more time warning drivers about antisocial behaviour.’’