In a highly anecdotal display of self reported statistics, 2016 has had a higher occurrence of near misses/near death cycling experiences, than all prior of my 10 years of daily cycle commuting.

What the fuck is up Auckland. And why are you trying so hard to kill me in 2016.

Discuss.

And as a delightful post script... The sunday evening drive to get ice cream had these lovely incidents: x2 cars failing to stop at stop signs in from front of us. x3 red light runs on our green. x1 aggressive tail gate - e.g. so close i could see his headlights.

Wellington driving, in comparison, has always been shit.

dwgknz wrote:Wellington driving, in comparison, has always been shit.

As has Christchurch driving...

+1 for Hamilton

swtchbckr wrote:

dwgknz wrote:Wellington driving, in comparison, has always been shit.

As has Christchurch driving...

Coming from the mighty 'Tron and having spent a good chunk of time driving in Auckland, I concur.
Don't get me started on the behaviour of drivers on the "motorway" here.

I hate that I have to regularly use my horn on the motorway. I feel like a twat but then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70. Every time I drive on it.

AgrAde wrote:... then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70....

I've never met those two, but routinely meet the "you're over the speed limit but not by enough so I'm going to tailgate you till you get out of the way guy"

slidecontrol wrote:

AgrAde wrote:... then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70....

I've never met those two, but routinely meet the "you're over the speed limit but not by enough so I'm going to tailgate you till you get out of the way guy"

That's when you slow down to the speed limit

Astoria Paranoia wrote:

slidecontrol wrote:

AgrAde wrote:... then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70....

I've never met those two, but routinely meet the "you're over the speed limit but not by enough so I'm going to tailgate you till you get out of the way guy"

That's when you slow down to the speed limit

Actually isn't that when you lift off the throttle entirely and coast down to about 80 while looking all around like you're lost?

slidecontrol wrote:

AgrAde wrote:... then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70....

I've never met those two, but routinely meet the "you're over the speed limit but not by enough so I'm going to tailgate you till you get out of the way guy"

Yeah those ones are great. You usually get one millimetres from your arse when you're stuck behind the 70k bellend that wants to hold hands with the car in the left lane. Once you get past, you get into the left lane, the tailgater roars past, then once there's no one in front of him to be angry at he forgets he's in a hurry and slows down to mid 90s. When you have to pass him again he'll steam and jam himself up your arse for a while until he gets distracted.

As a regular traveller to Timaru I fucking hate the driving here.

mudguard wrote:

Astoria Paranoia wrote:

slidecontrol wrote:

AgrAde wrote:... then again there's two fucks next to each other taking up both lanes on an otherwise empty motorway and they're going fucking 70....

I've never met those two, but routinely meet the "you're over the speed limit but not by enough so I'm going to tailgate you till you get out of the way guy"

That's when you slow down to the speed limit

Actually isn't that when you lift off the throttle entirely and coast down to about 80 while looking all around like you're lost?

I have been known to touch the middle pedal just enough to activate the brake lights, in careful synchronization with a down shift and a bootfull of loud.

Wellington's motorway has a few of types:

1. The safe following distance is enough to overtake into
2. The Moses lights, if the indicator is on the traffic will part to let you in
3. The drive slowly to end of the on ramp merge lane, wait for a gap, then merge at 20kmh
4. The only ever use your mirror to overtake types, kind of like the Moses light types but just change lanes out there window to see if anyone's beside you

I feel as if any indicator usage, including grossly incorrect usage, is still evidence of comparatively high driver skill and awareness.

I suggest coming over and driving in Kuala Lumpur. I have about a decade's worth of adrenalin surge every morning on the way in to work, and that's at 05:30 - 06:00 in the morning. I can remember there being more orderly and forgiving behaviour on the dodgem cars at the Ag Shows when I was a kid.
It also goes from aggressive to hibernative - At rush several-hour, it has taken 1-1/2 hours to get across a jammed intersection, with synchronised bus driving executing a perfect herringbone formation. From space, it must look like parquet flooring.
This is not what a full-on jam looks like, but you get the drift (or lack thereof)...