changing lanes
Someone said to me "We kiwis drive like we shag...as fast as possible with no control at all."
Considering my experience of driving on State Highway 1, I half expected them to add "yeah and we continue with great vigour while alarmingly close to your arse and could slip up it at any moment."
The New Zealand Driving Experience™ is certainly markedly different from what I was expecting. After 9 years on the roads of London, the M25 and the A303 I thought I'd seen it all, but I'm constantly impressed.
In South Island for example there are many places you may not see a car for 3 or 4 hours at a time - the true open road. However, when you do catch sight of one, as it passess you'll notice what you thought was one car is actually three - all doing over 130k/hr and exactly six inches apart. It seems that the very idea of braking distances was lost shortly after Capt Cook dropped anchor and has never been heard of since.
While in North Island, after 2 years of residence here in Auckland I'm still learning, nee uncovering the atrocities carried out by Aucklanders against their fellow road users.
In 1959 they built a bridge (the harbour bridge) which joined the (rapid expanding suburbs of the) North Shore to the city consisting of only 2 lanes in each direction. Talk about lack of future-proofing!
Ten years later, the powers that be realised that 4 lanes might be a bit of a squash considering the tens of thousands crossing it every day and added 2 more more lanes on each side - a feat of engineering never before attemped or since (thats because everyone else builds their bloody bridges big enough in the first place!) These additionals were affectionately known as the Nippon Clip-ons (after the Japanse contractors who created the engineering world first.)
Today the bridge remains the only structure to link the countless settlements north of the city with the er, city. Leaving London where bridges can be seen every 50 paces it seems absurd to me that an entire city is reliant on a single bridge. Havent they seen the Mothman Prophecies?
We travel over this bridge every day, and sometimes get stuck in a traffic jam at the top. While we sit waiting to crawl into town we notice how much the clip-ons bounce around compared to the main bridge structure. Not too alarming until Ken told me they come to the end of their useful life this year and that in 2006 over 40 fatigue cracks we found in them. Gulp.
So no surprise then when this week headlines read Alarm bells ring over the bridge yep, its not like everyone else on earth except Auckland City Council didnt realise ages ago that 1 bridge simply wasn't enough and that its age and overuse could cause it to plop into the water at anytime. Though not in rush hour please, that would be bloody inconvenient.
More alarming is Mayor Dick Hubbard's statement that the news is a "big wake-up call". YEAH, ONLY IF YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS. DICK.
And so to joys of driving…
On the road, Auckland drivers are as much piss-takers as they are risk takers. For example, common advice to foreign visitors is to wait at least 2 seconds after a green light to avoid collisions with any late red light runners from ther other direction.
The concept of motorway flow and slow lane/fast lane/overtaking lane is as abstract over here as a de Kooning. At the merest hint of a brakelight they look for a gap in any of the other lanes and fill it mercilessly with their 2.6 m of (usually souped-up) metal. Its less like driving and more like a video game, indeed a vigourous competition: weaving recklessly in and out, overtaking on the left, the right, crossing multiple lanes from a slip road, its all fair game. Even when traffic is crawling, a slow motion version of the same is executed with equal lack of regard for human safety. I've lost count of the number of rear shunts I've seen (and no, not just in that adult DVD you've got Peps.)
Lane positioning is also an issue. I mean, how difficult is it to keep your vehicle between two white lines, created specifically as your guide?
As for corners, well just forget it. I havent seen anyone manoevre a vehicle through a 90 degree turn at a junction, ever. A gentle arc that scoops nail-bitingly close to oncoming traffic and others paintwork is more the norm.
Safety for oneself and one's passengers also seems deeply unfashionable. Not content with mobile phone conversations while driving, nearly everyone feels its only natural to go "one louder" and write lengthy text messages to virtually ensure ones hands are off the wheel at the same time as ones eyes are off the road. Fuck it, why not just get into the back seat and play on the parcel shelf, the car will drive itself!
Add to this a love of drink-driving (Nah, I'm okay to drive. I've had 6 pints over 3 hrs, so it should have all gone out of me system by now*); no requirement for insurance and young experienced road users driving cars you only usually see on a Gran Turismo wish list, makes me considerably concerned for my safety.
* Er, no. You've had 6 pints, you twat.
Drunk and Deadly
Crashes tied to lower drink age
Four dead in weekend crashes
Mown down at a party
Considering my experience of driving on State Highway 1, I half expected them to add "yeah and we continue with great vigour while alarmingly close to your arse and could slip up it at any moment."
The New Zealand Driving Experience™ is certainly markedly different from what I was expecting. After 9 years on the roads of London, the M25 and the A303 I thought I'd seen it all, but I'm constantly impressed.
In South Island for example there are many places you may not see a car for 3 or 4 hours at a time - the true open road. However, when you do catch sight of one, as it passess you'll notice what you thought was one car is actually three - all doing over 130k/hr and exactly six inches apart. It seems that the very idea of braking distances was lost shortly after Capt Cook dropped anchor and has never been heard of since.
While in North Island, after 2 years of residence here in Auckland I'm still learning, nee uncovering the atrocities carried out by Aucklanders against their fellow road users.
A brief history of traffic in Auckland
Nobody thought there would be any.In 1959 they built a bridge (the harbour bridge) which joined the (rapid expanding suburbs of the) North Shore to the city consisting of only 2 lanes in each direction. Talk about lack of future-proofing!
Ten years later, the powers that be realised that 4 lanes might be a bit of a squash considering the tens of thousands crossing it every day and added 2 more more lanes on each side - a feat of engineering never before attemped or since (thats because everyone else builds their bloody bridges big enough in the first place!) These additionals were affectionately known as the Nippon Clip-ons (after the Japanse contractors who created the engineering world first.)
Today the bridge remains the only structure to link the countless settlements north of the city with the er, city. Leaving London where bridges can be seen every 50 paces it seems absurd to me that an entire city is reliant on a single bridge. Havent they seen the Mothman Prophecies?
We travel over this bridge every day, and sometimes get stuck in a traffic jam at the top. While we sit waiting to crawl into town we notice how much the clip-ons bounce around compared to the main bridge structure. Not too alarming until Ken told me they come to the end of their useful life this year and that in 2006 over 40 fatigue cracks we found in them. Gulp.
So no surprise then when this week headlines read Alarm bells ring over the bridge yep, its not like everyone else on earth except Auckland City Council didnt realise ages ago that 1 bridge simply wasn't enough and that its age and overuse could cause it to plop into the water at anytime. Though not in rush hour please, that would be bloody inconvenient.
More alarming is Mayor Dick Hubbard's statement that the news is a "big wake-up call". YEAH, ONLY IF YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS. DICK.
And so to joys of driving…
On the road, Auckland drivers are as much piss-takers as they are risk takers. For example, common advice to foreign visitors is to wait at least 2 seconds after a green light to avoid collisions with any late red light runners from ther other direction.
The concept of motorway flow and slow lane/fast lane/overtaking lane is as abstract over here as a de Kooning. At the merest hint of a brakelight they look for a gap in any of the other lanes and fill it mercilessly with their 2.6 m of (usually souped-up) metal. Its less like driving and more like a video game, indeed a vigourous competition: weaving recklessly in and out, overtaking on the left, the right, crossing multiple lanes from a slip road, its all fair game. Even when traffic is crawling, a slow motion version of the same is executed with equal lack of regard for human safety. I've lost count of the number of rear shunts I've seen (and no, not just in that adult DVD you've got Peps.)
Lane positioning is also an issue. I mean, how difficult is it to keep your vehicle between two white lines, created specifically as your guide?
As for corners, well just forget it. I havent seen anyone manoevre a vehicle through a 90 degree turn at a junction, ever. A gentle arc that scoops nail-bitingly close to oncoming traffic and others paintwork is more the norm.
Safety for oneself and one's passengers also seems deeply unfashionable. Not content with mobile phone conversations while driving, nearly everyone feels its only natural to go "one louder" and write lengthy text messages to virtually ensure ones hands are off the wheel at the same time as ones eyes are off the road. Fuck it, why not just get into the back seat and play on the parcel shelf, the car will drive itself!
Add to this a love of drink-driving (Nah, I'm okay to drive. I've had 6 pints over 3 hrs, so it should have all gone out of me system by now*); no requirement for insurance and young experienced road users driving cars you only usually see on a Gran Turismo wish list, makes me considerably concerned for my safety.
* Er, no. You've had 6 pints, you twat.
Drunk and Deadly
Crashes tied to lower drink age
Four dead in weekend crashes
Mown down at a party
posted by Phil at 5:17 pm
1 Comments:
Hey dude- check out my blog. I write about how i was recently almost hit by an idiot of a driver while innocently walking down my own street ON THE PAVEMENT. I live on the North Shore and have no desire to get a car and I can't be bothered getting my license...yet. For all the reasons you have stated :)
Post a Comment
<< Home