Five tips from foreign drivers on how Kiwis can drive better
Since moving from Germany to Auckland, Catrina Kuehler has learned a few driving tips from New Zealanders, and shared a few of her own with Kiwis.
The most dangerous kilometre ahead of you 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 we drive on, it's our driving habits that need work, a new road code so to speak. Tailgating, hogging passing lanes, failing to indicate or talking on mobiles. New Zealanders are rude, terrible drivers.
We could start giving each other a break on our roads using the 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' wave more when we've erred or been shown a courtesy while driving.
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.
READ MORE:
* Jonathan Milne: Is that an apologetic wave – or did you just give me the finger?
* Thousands of new full driver's licence holders failed at least once previously, one failed 13 times
* Top 10 bad driving habits in New Zealand
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.
Driving with lights on during the day is encouraged in Europe, but banned in China.
1 EMBRACE DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT USE
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.
Picture driving down even a long, straight stretch of single lane New Zealand highway caught behind slow traffic.
You want to pass but in the shimmering distance you spot incoming traffic.
How far are they away? Do I have enough space to safely pass?
It feels like roulette because is that approaching car 1 kilometre or 500 metres away?
Sadly some drivers guess wrong and die or at best have to swerve their way back into the traffic queue terrifying carloads of people.
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," she said. "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."
In many countries it's good practice to turn on your hazard lights if you join the back of a queue of traffic, so cars coming up behind you have time to slow down.
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 fast-approaching 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 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."
In Europe it's illegal to pass on the left. Here, it can be rude and dangerous.
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 insideof multi-lane roads.
Sometimes drivers do so out of desperation from the pigheaded driver blocking the right-hand, or passing lane, so there's a quid-pro quo here: 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.
"You're not a police officer, do you give people parking tickets as well? All you're doing is creating anger and frustration by blocking people's progress. Unless you're passing, keep left."
Tailgaters are so reviled In Europe that some jurisdictions have traffic cameras especially set-up to catch them.
4 SLOWING DOWN STOPS TAILGATERS
Trust passive-aggressive Canada to come up with this one.
British Columbia's driver licensing department recommends gently slowly 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 drivers there were impatient and had no issue tailgating other drivers. 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've done something better with the "Two Dots to Safety" practice.
Keeping your eyes on the road, instead of counting to two, keep at least two road dots visible between you and the car you're following.
We're getting better at letting other cars in - merge like a zip is the law in Germany, but here it's becoming a mantra.
5 SET THE TONE, JUST LET PEOPLE IN
In Germany there is a "zipper rule" which legally requires two lanes merging to to take one-for-one turns merging, we don't need to wait for a law here – just start practicing this principle.
Road safety critic Clive Matthew-Wilson said, "Kiwis grow up thinking that the roads exist for them alone ... Kiwis resent having to share the road with everyone else, sullenly refusing to let people into their lane."
Kiwis drivers "sullenly refuse to let people into their lane", says road safety critic Clive Matthew-Wilson.
"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 against discourteous drivers 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."
- Sunday Star Times
