Speeding
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@dogmeat said in Grumpy Old Man:
Albany -Puhoi.
Was designed to be 120KPH apparently. Was a very funny letter to the local paper comparing it to the "road of death" (Pakistan I think) when letter writer got a speeding ticket and mentioned all of the burning wrecks on the side of the road (not) and how he felt so guilty doing 110KPH.
Yes, in general limits are a joke.
If they want to implement tech to control speed then it should also be car specific (unrealistic I know). A late model audi RS quatro is one hell of a lot safer than a 1970 Nissan Skyline. Both seriously quick, but traction control, better bakes, all of the driver assists just makes one way safer than the other.
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@chimoaus said in Grumpy Old Man:
I am genuinely surprised by the negativity of a system that saves lives and keeps us all safer. It may actually be a good thing for car clubs and track days as it will encourage people to speed on purpose-built tracks, not public roads.
A system like that would be lethal on a motorcycle where a motorbike's superior acceleration gets you out of more accident situations than braking
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@dogmeat said in Grumpy Old Man:
@snowy speed limits are up the crapper. Some are too high, a helluva lot are too low.
Why do we have 110 Hamilton - Cambridge but not other parts of Waikato Expressway or Albany -Puhoi.
They're talking about making Taupo - Napier 80 kph. I get there are a fair number of fatalities on that road and many of them are speed related but I'm betting where speed is involved there are other factors as well. Plus I reckon they'll be well over the current limit and won't be the type of driver who drops from 130 to 110 because the new limit has gone down 20 kph.
Is any other country as strict as NZ on speed limits & advertising / enforcement of them?
You don't read / hear much about speeding here. There was an article last night about changing things to specifically target young men as they are over represented in the statistics. Thats the first thing I can remember in the 4 years I've lived here about them. There are a few speed camera's around on the M roads, although it's well known where they aren't - top of the M3 is key one. I was doing 90mph up there the other day, and 3 series BMW came past me with at least 40-50mph speed differential. That's well over 200kph in real currency. You don't see that as often anymore, but when the roads are clear, the "fast lane" will generally be going 85-90. Not as high as it once was. It's basically advertised that you can do 77mph without getting a ticket.
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@majorrage said in Grumpy Old Man:
@dogmeat said in Grumpy Old Man:
@snowy speed limits are up the crapper. Some are too high, a helluva lot are too low.
Why do we have 110 Hamilton - Cambridge but not other parts of Waikato Expressway or Albany -Puhoi.
They're talking about making Taupo - Napier 80 kph. I get there are a fair number of fatalities on that road and many of them are speed related but I'm betting where speed is involved there are other factors as well. Plus I reckon they'll be well over the current limit and won't be the type of driver who drops from 130 to 110 because the new limit has gone down 20 kph.
Is any other country as strict as NZ on speed limits & advertising / enforcement of them?
oh but our roads are UNIQUE
Yeah its a ridiculous thing to focus on methinks. 100kmh will kill you easily if you hit something. Why not focus on stopping people hitting things? Their speed becomes irrelevant then.
Anyway I've talked to till I'm blue in the face about this on other forums. Don't know how we can change the attitude.
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Make speed limits too low and drivers will get bored. Bored drivers get distracted/lose concentration.
Driver aids are a distraction too. The other day I was at work driving a car borrowed from somewhere else. Same type of car as ours, but as I was to find out the driver warnings had not been turned off. Anyway, I approached some cars stopped at traffic lights a little too fast for the car's liking. The fucking thing starts screaming and flashing at me so I instinctively take my eyes off the road to see what the drama was all about. I look back up in time to slam on the brakes and narrowly avoid a nose to tail. I had it all under control up until my car distracted me.
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@victor-meldrew said in Grumpy Old Man:
@chimoaus said in Grumpy Old Man:
I am genuinely surprised by the negativity of a system that saves lives and keeps us all safer. It may actually be a good thing for car clubs and track days as it will encourage people to speed on purpose-built tracks, not public roads.
A system like that would be lethal on a motorcycle where a motorbike's superior acceleration gets you out of more accident situations than braking
The system does not stop acceleration, the current system allows you to accelerate for a period if needed but then continues to warn you and will reduce power until you slow down. I think there is a difference between speeding and acceleration. There is an article here explaining it. https://www.confused.com/on-the-road/safety/speed-limiters-mandatory-on-new-cars
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@majorrage said in Grumpy Old Man:
Is any other country as strict as NZ on speed limits & advertising / enforcement of them?
Missed my connecting flight to Bathurst a couple of years back when I landed in Sydney from NZ, so had to hire a car and drive. The fucking speed limit felt like it was changing every 500m once I got off the main highways and there was several times where I was driving 4/6 lane roads with very sparse or no residential around and going just over the 40kph speed limit.
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@bones said in Grumpy Old Man:
@majorrage said in Grumpy Old Man:
Is any other country as strict as NZ on speed limits & advertising / enforcement of them?
Missed my connecting flight to Bathurst a couple of years back when I landed in Sydney from NZ, so had to hire a car and drive. The fucking speed limit felt like it was changing every 500m once I got off the main highways and there was several times where I was driving 4/6 lane roads with very sparse or no residential around and going just over the 40kph speed limit.
I was going to reply that Australia is pedantic over speeding and it's getting worse. Bend in a road? Better slow the traffic down to 80! A hill with winding roads. 60! Aussies and corners don't mix.
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@crazy-horse said in Grumpy Old Man:
@bones said in Grumpy Old Man:
@majorrage said in Grumpy Old Man:
Is any other country as strict as NZ on speed limits & advertising / enforcement of them?
Missed my connecting flight to Bathurst a couple of years back when I landed in Sydney from NZ, so had to hire a car and drive. The fucking speed limit felt like it was changing every 500m once I got off the main highways and there was several times where I was driving 4/6 lane roads with very sparse or no residential around and going just over the 40kph speed limit.
I was going to reply that Australia is pedantic over speeding and it's getting worse. Bend in a road? Better slow the traffic down to 80! A hill with winding roads. 60! Aussies and corners don't mix.
That s fair enough when such a large percentage drive Commodore's and Falcons.
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@chimoaus said in Grumpy Old Man:
The system does not stop acceleration, the current system allows you to accelerate for a period if needed but then continues to warn you and will reduce power until you slow down. I think there is a difference between speeding and acceleration. There is an article here explaining it. https://www.confused.com/on-the-road/safety/speed-limiters-mandatory-on-new-cars
Which is why it would kill riders if it were fitted to motorcycles.
You over-take a car safely on a 80kph road and find another car hasn't seen you and has pulled into the road and is is travelling towards you. You either brake sharply, which can be dangerous in the wet, and hope you have space to move back into you're lane, or you drop down a cog and wind open the throttle to pass safely. Happened last week to me and I easily hit 140-150 kph during the manoeuvre - and every motorcyclist will tell you similar stories.
If fitted to my motorcycle I'd have lost power at a critical moment and probably had a head-on collision - and unlike cars there's no airbags or seatbelts to save my life.
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My new car has all that safety tech. The radar cruise control reads the road signs and suggests that as the speed. Hit set and your done. Or you can get the car to automatically set the control every time it reads a speed limit sign without intervention. You can also add in a tolerance, so if the sign says 100 you can get it to set to 104 or 107. And it lets you have different tolerances for under 60 kmh and over, so you can set the around town limits to be slower than the sign.
And you can disable the whole lot with one prod of a button on the dash.
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@victor-meldrew Yeah, its very lost on most law enforcement that power can you get out of situations as much as it can get you into them.
Although I guess the argument is that you shouldn't have got yourself in the situation anyway ....
@jc said in Grumpy Old Man:
My new car has all that safety tech. The radar cruise control reads the road signs and suggests that as the speed. Hit set and your done. Or you can get the car to automatically set the control every time it reads a speed limit sign without intervention. You can also add in a tolerance, so if the sign says 100 you can get it to set to 104 or 107. And it lets you have different tolerances for under 60 kmh and over, so you can set the around town limits to be slower than the sign.
And you can disable the whole lot with one prod of a button on the dash.
Will you use it? Most people who buy GT-R's aren't really interested in having their cars drive themselves ....
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@crazy-horse said in Grumpy Old Man:
Driver aids are a distraction too.
This, one hundred times. The only car accident I've ever had was due to the automatic braking system on my Skoda when changing lanes on the M25. The red warning light came on and distracted me and I rear-ended the bloke in front at 30kph. Not even sure the system kicked in fully. Now turned off permanently.
Another thing which gets my goat is the distraction from steering wheel controls for infotainment systems and touch screens - need an option to turn these off while the car is moving. I want to see my speed and get basic information in one place and that's it.
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@majorrage said in Grumpy Old Man:
Although I guess the argument is that you shouldn't have got yourself in the situation anyway ....
Well, I think I now know where the cretin who didn't notice me overtaking before he pulled out into my path lives....
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@victor-meldrew said in Grumpy Old Man:
@chimoaus said in Grumpy Old Man:
I am genuinely surprised by the negativity of a system that saves lives and keeps us all safer. It may actually be a good thing for car clubs and track days as it will encourage people to speed on purpose-built tracks, not public roads.
A system like that would be lethal on a motorcycle where a motorbike's superior acceleration gets you out of more accident situations than braking
Yep... I can testify to that... getting into a dodgy situation, figuring it was safer to accelerate out of trouble than slam on the brakes with unpredictable results... and then realising that a Royal Enfield Bullet doesn't really have that instant acceleration.
I am to this day, pretty sure that the streak of paint on the rear fender of that bike was from the oncoming truck. -
@jc said in Grumpy Old Man:
@majorrage Yep. Every day. I have to admit that in every way except hoon factor it is a better car than the Kamikaze Killer.
Did you trade it in? Noooooooo ...
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@snowy The GTR is incredibly tiring to drive in the real world. It isn't designed for Grumpy Old Men even though that's the demographic that can afford to run it. Just getting in and out generates weird noises that I didn't know my body made until just a few years ago. The steering is heavy and the suspension is low and stiff, which isn't ideal in Napier as some arsebandit in the council has decided we need speed humps everywhere.
I'm pretty confident that I could get from Napier to Whangarei in the SUV quicker than I could in the Nissan. And the SUV has more shit going on that is important to me as a GOM than a sports car offers. Like air suspension. And heated and cooled cupholders. Where have they been all my life?
Edit: Oooh, and the paint on the Beamer is amazing. Tanzanite Blue II. Mmmm.