Do you feel safe on the roads?

[jambo]

Had an incident today in the car when someone came through a red light and it felt like I was headed for the next world. Thankfully there was no collision. It got me wondering about how safe you feel on New Zealand's roads compared with wherever you came from.

[VileTraveller]

Best-ever piece of road safety advice came from my old motorcycle instructor: "Always ride as if someone might build a brick wall across the road while you blink." I've never felt safe on a road, which is how it should be. Once people feel safe, they get careless.

Actually, to make my reply even less helpful, that's what's behind the recent upsurge in 'shared spaces' in Europe. Basically, you build roads with no clear demarcation between pedestrian and vehicular areas. This makes drivers nervous and causes them to slow down, resulting in fewer accidents and less serious injuries. Sorry for the intermission, back to people who actually know about driving in NZ (I expect I'll know more than I ever wanted to after April 2012).

[JandM]

If you do a search of old threads, you'll find a whole cross-section of opinions. Of course, there's probably a whole scale of drivers on here, from novice to experienced, downright awful to expert, so how each one experiences driving in NZ is predictably different. Then, where they come from will have varied, too. Even if from the UK, like you, there are people like me who have lived in the south and driven on the full range of roads there, from tiny lanes to motorways, to cities (including London). Then there are people from the Highlands of Scotland. You can see that if we went to each other's normal environments, it would already be rather a change for us, so what we think of NZ roads is going to differ, as well. Then there are newcomers who've never driven on the left before, and that can feel like a big challenge.

You'll get people saying dogmatically in answer to your question, 'NZ drivers are x, y and z.' There isn't one answer, though. Some are good - some aren't. Any of us can have had good or bad experiences.

The answer from me - I always drive defensively, as if everyone's out to get me. But I LIKE driving, everywhere I've ever driven. NZ city conditions aren't any worse than southern England, and most times, not nearly as congested. NZ countryside has far fewer roads designed to cover the distance fast and easily than the UK, so you don't do much speed, and wouldn't want to because of the terrain a lot of the time. However, there is much less traffic (because there's a much smaller population). If you get behind something slow, you can be held up with no chance of passing for kilometres on end, but you can go for hours in some parts and not see another vehicle, literally.

[ralf-nz]

As JandM wrote you'll find a huge variety on opinions onthis here in old threads - take your pick!

One topic that has not been touched recently (when I recall correctly) is that not overly many guardrails are installed. So people not used to driving on narrow windy gravel roads might feel a little anxious (unsafe) in the hilly and mountainous countryside.

[deanied]

I don't own a car so I can't comment on how safe I feel on the road, however as a pedestrian I have definitely noticed you have to be much more aware of drivers than you would in Canada. At home, if a car is turning out of a parking lot or side road for example, they stop and look for both cars and pedestrians going by. Since moving to Auckland I've had to stop (or jump out of the way!) while walking by a driveway/parking lot entrance/ etc. while a car zooms out numerous times. You would hardly leave your driveway without checking for oncoming cars on the road, so why would oncoming pedestrians be any different? I'm not sure if the rules or the road are just different here or if I've had bad luck with maniac drivers lol.

[Living Life]

Then, where they come from will have varied, too. Even if from the UK, like you, there are people like me who have lived in the south and driven on the full range of roads there, from tiny lanes to motorways, to cities (including London). Then there are people from the Highlands of Scotland. You can see that if we went to each other's normal environments, it would already be rather a change for us, so what we think of NZ roads is going to differ, as well. Then there are newcomers who've never driven on the left before, and that can feel like a big challenge.

I agree with J&M

There are so many good drivers and lots of bad drivers no matter where you are!! I enjoyed... actually felt relaxed driving over in NZ last year!! We drove for miles at one point and never saw another car but I think if your driving in the city thats a different matter but I doubt it will not differ from one city to another!!

[Steve_B]

Let's put it this way, middle-lane hoggers used to drive me insane in the UK but in NZ, particularly on SH1 on the North Shore, you can sit in the outside lane and do 40kph and no-one will hoot and tell you to get out of the way. 'Undertaking', as opposed to overtaking, is the norm and you do have to keep your wits about you.

Oh, and I still hate turning right anywhere in NZ because of the uncertainty of what the other driver is going to do

Other than that, and the narrowness of the lanes on Auckland Bridge, I feel 'fairly' comfortable on NZ roads.

[Sam B]

Unless you are in a big city, the driving is pretty uncomplicated and there are fewer people on the roads. There is some sloppy driving, and I think there are also more people prepared to drink and drive, but on the whole, I feel perfectly safe on the roads here.

[kiwieagle]

I feel mostly safe but sometimes people make silly moves. You have to watch out for people passing from the very back of a queue of cars. I didn't realize this was legal (it might not be, but it happens often) and have had a few close calls. For example, you might be on a twisty road, you come upon a campervan going slow. It is not safe to pass and there is not enough room. After a few twists, the cars build up behind you. Finally, the campervan driver finds a suitable place to pull to the side, you start to pass him and realize that someone behind you has decided to take the opportunity to pass the entire queue or someone in the middle of the queue decides they are the fastest car and will try and pass. I am not used to this and have almost pulled into cars trying to do this. Some kiwi drivers are a little bit impatient.

[Sun777]

Somehow I have been very careful in driving here in Auckland, I don't feel safe while driving as well. Agree with Kiwieagle that people sometimes jump queue at high speed and particularly on SH1 heavy trucks drive in the fast (3rd) lane (its quite worrying to see huge truck at 100 kmph especially with family in the car). I find lanes on SH1 very narrow as well.

This morning I drove OH to Birkenhead, while waiting at a signal saw one motorcyclist that drove from between the cars, stopped in front of us with his leg just about 10 inches away from my front wheel (also I must mention that there were just 2-3 cars waiting for the signal ) - well this didn't happen to me for the first time.

9 out of 10 times I have been out, I have come across people overtaking (or undertaking as Steve just mentioned above) at full speed immediately after the signals or first given opportunity/whenever the lanes split (they hardly go 10 meters ahead, I don't think its worth the risk).

One concept I like is the lanes split before signals and join after the signals to reduce long queues but people wanting to drive past the car in front of them just defeat the whole idea behind it. Another incident from boxing day, there was one huge van which overtook (from left) us in Manukau city in a single lane road just before one roundabout - fortunately I was just turning left so that didn't matter but it was still risky (I just hate going towards that side of Auckland for such reasons).