FormulaNova said..
The restriction of trucks to the left-most lane is a great idea. I think they had to introduce it on this particular stretch of road because it is a long steep downhill section, and I am sure in the past truck drivers have come to grief trying to overtake each other and not realising how hard it is to stop a heavy load at that speed downhill. I think when I was a kid, or at least 20 years ago, there might not have been this restriction.

One of my pet hates which I now understand is where someone drops down to say 80kmph in a single lane road, and then the overtaking lane starts and they speed up to the speed limit or above. They seem to slow down to a 'safe' speed on the single lane and then feel safer on the dual lane section, and/or not want to be overtaken, and speed up, only to slow down again when it gets back to a single lane.

It bugs me, and recently I got the ****s after sitting behind two other cars who were sitting behind this slow driver for section after section of overtaking lanes, with neither trying to overtake. When I finally decided to overtake all of them, one of them suddenly decides that they want to as well. Being a nice person, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they only realised then, but otherwise they are just idiots.

1kmh over the limit (in NZ or Japan)? That's crazy! No doubt there is some justification about 'they should not even be 1km over', but that's nonsense. I like the 'assumed' allowance we have here. If you have the balls to, or are stupid enough, you can play your luck and see how much over you can get away with. I used to like it when everyone else didn't sit close to the limit, but I think now with phone GPS being more common, people like me sit as close as they dare.

At what point do the police say 'this area is so dangerous that we won't hide the speed cameras' and just sit there obviously with a radar unit to ensure people slow down and then consistently pull them over 200 metres down the road and fine them instead of sending them a fine in the mail. I know I would be more careful of speeding if some cop pulled me over, read me the riot act, and then gave me a huge fine. A letter from the office of state revenue does not have the same impact.

Mr Milk said..
How the f** did he land on his head? I've had plenty of crashes at 30-40kmh and never scratched my nut. Hips are another story. Normal coordination means your hand goes out to break your fall.
At about 70, going down a steep hill, no helmet, I broke a couple of ribs, punctured a lung, shattered my R collarbone and tore flesh out of my flanks and shoulder and also managed to bang my head on the road enough to need a few stitches. That I put down to speed. You're bouncing along the road faster and less predictably than at low speed, so natural coordination isn't enough to mitigate the impact.
You do realise that the helmet is fairly brittle too? Specially one that is a bit old. The standard says that they have to not break in a fall from 1.5m empty, not carrying at least some of the force of the rider with them. So the breakage looks dramatic, but it doesn't represent much...just like that tar laden cigarette filter.

Kamikuza said..


There's an actual psychological reason why people unconsciously speed up in wide open bits of road.They should be watching the goddamn speedo though.

NZ for 1kph over. Here in Japan,the policeadvertise when they're doing a safety campaign and they advertise the location ofradartraps. You won't get a ticket unless you're 20kph over the limit and the fixed speed cameras on highway only go off at 50kph over to catch the naughtiest of boys. I wish to god they'd put in red light cameras or start grabbing the bikes without exhausts...

Speedos these days report either 100% accurate or slightly over ie. you're doing 49 and the speedo reads 50. I have zero problem with zero tolerance...but FFS if you expect people to take a second or so to take their attention off the road and look down at the speedo you're asking for more mayhem.

Don't hide the speed cameras. You want people safe, to stop speeding because speed is _so_ _****ing_ _dangerous_? Put the boxes everywhere. All over the ****ing show. Every single street Put up signs, paint 'em hi-viz colors with flashing lights on top.

They won't though will they, because they love the revenue more than they love the healthy tax-payers. Because speed kills, don't you know /rolleyes