Foreign drivers

[steelsporran]

A petition has been started by a young lad who lost his Dad http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/66569203/hundreds-sign-foreign-drivers-petition-after-senseless-death-of-ruby-marris

[Ian Warren]

You have to see the change only meters away form me, was a Mitre10 store now sold out to a Chinese group who has now turned it into a series of shops all for the Chinese tourists.

I now see many near horrific crash,s , some reason the traffic department removed the traffic 'Give Way' signs ?

To finish that off, the shopping center has now put in NO PARKING SIGNS - 15 minute limit on the wall off the now restaurant come shopping center .. what now happens is these huge dual axle bus's parking in taking up parks and hiding the signage ... the park for near two hours.

I was coming back from the shops and heard a real Rarcus , here was a someone who was yelling a screaming .. the Christchurch City Council regularly tags cars and obviously this person could not see a 15 minute park .... there was a couple off these huge tour bus's taken up all the parking.

That is serious double standard ...

I'll go across the road tomorrow with a camera and photo just to simply show how much and how bad this community of people are parking and they get away with it.

Another strange thing the owners also only live down the road .. 400meters .. he was out there tell the person at the top off his lungs in front of the CCC worker and ticketed person to get out his carpark, a real Chinese prima dona ! - tried to say HI as he walk past my place everyday ... but nah ARROGANCE!

As for the driving most these are people who drive and surpose to no the rules again double standard !

[Splitpin]

I don't want to get into any form whatsoever of race bashing , but there is a real problem here (re the tourist accidents) .
Its awful , but i believe we own the problem , and i also believe it could be reduced significantly with a few hundred litres of yellow road paint , in the form of double yellow lines .
The double yellow line is an international sign that its not safe to pass , and the lack of them is killing people.
I know the line crossing accidents don't account for all of the tourist related fatalities , but they do account for far too many.
Take for example the road into Milford , i don't recall seeing any .... but that's just one location I'm familiar with in another life driving 50 seat tour coaches in and out of there.
I've heard people demanding driving tests for tourists renting cars/ campers etc .... complete waste of everybody's time , and it wont work.
Heres another idea ..... and cheap. Two Velcro dots on the dashboard , and attached to those a sign ( say , 100ml high, 300ml long) in high viz colour , in the native language of the hirer " KEEP LEFT "
Has to be worth a try .

Ian re your bus parking problem , i agree , its a pain . It is a regular occurrence down at south city mall , and with the Chinese new year it seems to be worse .... But .... again (i believe) its our problem.
Going back to the "coach captain " days ..... Queenstown , was , and I'm sure is still , a nightmare for coach drivers as far as parking is concerned.
When i was doing that work , it seemed that the most hated sight was a coach ..... "No bus parking" signs everywhere , despite the fact that we were bringing the place hundreds of people they could rip off everyday.
We spend 10's of millions attracting these people here ... and do stuff all to support the people who do the logistics eg ... bus parks .

I can recall several trips .... arriving there after a 10 hour trip (via every bloody place) unloading all the bags , washing and fuelling the beast , and spending ages finding somewhere to park it . And 3 axle 50 seater's need a bit of space. So I'm just saying ... maybe turn the focus in a bit , i agree , there are some shocking visitor drivers , but i still maintain we could , and should do more.

And if i may add a little more ... some of the most horrific driving I've seen (and see everyday) is the "fluro flood" .... all the contractors and workers heading to the rebuild between 0600 and 0730 , its awful , and not all imports.
Some of the worst I've seen have been local branded vehicles , driven buy "blokey" local yobs ... you know the type .
As i said , turn the focus inward and see what we can do.

Steel ... I'm not detracting from your post at all , and i feel for that young fella. Just a change of perspective.

[Ian Warren]

Ian re your bus parking problem , i agree , its a pain . It is a regular occurrence down at south city mall , and with the Chinese new year it seems to be worse .... But .... again (i believe) its our problem.

Don't think one groups problem ... its when signage is placed and then hidden then council called in to ticket people

... it the same with NZ roads .. biggest thing that finished people off and causes the anger they obviously have called in he 'parking wardens' and yet hide the sign .... for a regular Kiwi , the lady was Europe NZ'erd was really pissed off.

Strangely the mall owner comes out yelling "go away go way go way" to the lady ticketed .... that was his arrogance and so call inviting tourists in ..... think off what happens on the open road with that mindset .... ? (do what we want sorta thing)

[Splitpin]

I understand ....... Oh ... did i tell you about the Spitfire at the airport (maybe i did) , but if i didn't , its going to be removed , cleaned and painted , and put back further down the road at "Spitfire square" the new shopping complex at the airport .
I did tell you that I'm sure

[Ian Warren]

Well that's an idea to take the newbie tourists off the roads ..... move the famed 1954 movie plastic prop ... least a stunt double closer to the airport ... I did prefer it back in the old days were the real McCoy sat outside the then Brevet Club , .... again it could have been a possible stop the van/car to take photos on now a super busy intersection roundabout ..... Ive seen that many times and almost serious accidents.

[Splitpin]

Ah yes , the old Brevet Club .... beautiful design , and it was gone before anybody noticed .
Was it a quake victim ? i cant remember ... have a "brain case " problem at the moment , its all or nothing ... and starting to piss me off , had a little incident a few weeks ago that wasn't good , and have been a bit confused ever since
Anyway ...... what was i saying

[Ian Warren]

I think one off the biggest things I have noticed specific to the traffic is one roundabout ... in its day it seemed so vast even looking across it ... this is the Sockburn roundabout ... a couple off time I crossed it after walking back from Wigram , .... never again , If I leave Wigram its cross the the Main South Rd at Wiggy gates or close by simply the speed of the traffic and how small the roads have got !

Everyone wants a bloody great 4X4 that can race and they try it means road size has changed , then you get the trucks .. doubled in size as well , course the tour bus's have seriously changed regard to box and speed.

[Ian Warren]

Ah yes , the old Brevet Club .... beautiful design , and it was gone before anybody noticed .
Was it a quake victim ?

Brevet Club disappeared late 1990s , only went to one doo there , I can't recall the date but then they did have free parking

[Splitpin]

"Brevet Club disappeared late 1990s"
Well there you go ..... i missed ten years or so . I hate being like this , and I'm sure i would have known that
Try so hard to exercise the brain , but lately i get stuck in a rut .... for example , all those google earth things, i just couldn't let it go .
Today is good , but what will i recall in the morning ? All of of this I hope .... with your help.
THE 90's !!!

[Ian Warren]

Honestly the place in its last years , inside it could have been inside a school stadium , one thing tho back then there was room for the large bus's , the reason for the doo was a money thing to send kids to the Disney world in LA , a charities fling .. fancy dress , the theme was horse racing hence the horse mask I made .. , but even twenty years back the area was open for parking .... today this get gobbled up real quick ... and pointed out again , some people simple cannot drive .... I have never had a car license ... always motorbike ... but some should seriously not be aloud on the road

[Fozzer]

One thing I always notice as I browse through the various Motorcycle rides on You-Tube, in the USA, are the many "Stop Signs" at cross roads, and road junctions, with warnings painted on the road when approaching them, and BEWARE anyone who ignores them!
Stop to a standstill...NOT crawl!
In England it is rare to see any such signs warning of danger!
In the USA, the same goes for double yellow lines in the centre on the roads. You are in serious trouble if caught crossing them to overtake, etc!
I also love the many yellow triangular signs in the USA with arrows indicating the passage of the road in front!

We don't get anything like that over here, resulting in many avoidable accidents!

A severe shortage of sign-age!

All we get are; sprouting "Roundabouts"...a novel "peculiarity" to Americans... ...!

I do love the USA "STOP" signs though. Makes sense to me!

Paul.... ...!

[omitchell]

I love the idea and It's something I have said many times should be done. However it's not a petition I will be signing despite the fact it's an idea I share and fully agree with simply because of one thing. The overwhelming cost involved in testing every single foreign driver that comes here. Already our economy and budget is stretched beyond breaking point and this would be (At this stage) something that NZ simply cannot afford to undertake even in the slightest which is a real shame because it is something we really need to do.

[Ian Warren]

With that its not just the drivers, it also the passengers, coming from Wanaka it was snowing in Burke's Pass and there is a piece of road that has a gentle climb, 100 meter stretch and it drops away again, this is the standard 100km limit and what do find .. a car load of tourists all four doors open directly on the stopped wandering both sides with their hands catch the snow and saying its snowing , Scotty almost collected two off them ... he was so close .. we pulled over and you had to here the abuse they got from him .... their repeated replies were .. Its snowing ?

[towerguy]

double yellow lines are not the answer on their own, perhaps with the signage in-car as suggested.
The trouble is that they are already on the wrong side of the road so if they 'overtake' then they are
crossing to the correct side of the road!

One suggestion is a mandatory stand down of 24 hrs after arriving in the country - often it is tiredness
after a long flight leading to the lapse in concentration. Have noticed it's not all oriental races involved
either, some American etc. It's a culture related thing i.e. left/right driving at home. I admit to being in
Europe many moons ago and setting out early one morning on an empty road and suddenly remembering
I should be over the other side of the line, luckily no one else around.

Can happen to anybody.

[Ian Warren]

Have noticed it's not all oriental races involved either, some American etc. It's a culture related thing i.e. left/right driving at home.

That is true and one program that use to run on TV was a NZ trucker show and the don't and do that , late comedian Ewen Gilmore, pointed out many habits and always put the trucker in the right, I had one incident with a 40tonne tarp hauler , Hilton haulage, I had the right of way, bright yellow hi-viz gear on my mountain bike , this truck driver looked down saw me ....

I can see the mumble on his lips "what the Truk are you going to do" and kept going , ... the car following braked after I was in the center of the road and a car behind me in the merge , was 'shaken and white as' when he slowed to check me out , I think the reply from Hilton haulage was he did not see me . ... that I know was BULLPUCKY!