Can anyone tell me why...

[Haitoman 110]

What is it about driving a BMW at a steady 100km/hr and minding my own business that makes people think it is okay to do this? Is it the M3 badge, or the 4 tail pipes? Maybe if it were someone else other than me they would have held their ground and nudged him out in front of the truck with nowhere to go.... 

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by Haitoman

[Michael. 2313]

Welcome to the NZ driving standard of today.

I've always said there should be two standard drivers licences 

> One for the city and city highways. 

> One for the open roads / open highways that requires separate testing and TIME with a city license.

It's a privilege to drive at speed on open roads, not a right. 

[wat 3]

Grrrrrrrrrr

That is one of my pet hates!

[MattA 164]

It's NZ any retard's allowed to drive. 

[*Glenn* 854]

2 hours ago, Haitoman said:

What is it about driving a BMW at a steady 100km/hr and minding my own business that makes people think it is okay to do this? Is it the M3 badge, or the 4 tail pipes? Maybe if it were someone else other than me they would have held their ground and nudged him out in front of the truck with nowhere to go.... 

 

The way I see it, you seemed to close that gap up on him slightly giving him no option. I would of backed of and given him a little more room. Ever made a mistake while driving ? No ones hurt...move on

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2959]

Hmm, I think they missed the "merge like a zip" part of the test.

And looking at the type of car they were driving, yes they were trying to make a point by getting in front of the M3. 

[Breaker 980]

See this all the time now I spend half my life in the car with our fabulous motoring public, I of cause am perfect and that's all I will declare 

[kulgan 1042]

I had a similar issue last week with someone merging onto the highway from a side road. No traffic behind me and a truck in front and this doofus came screaming up alongside and with lot of gesticulating and swerving in my direction managed to get between myself and the truck, but only because I was to tired to be bothered with a bit of justifiable road rage so I backed off and let him in.

[huff3r 347]

I just always go by the idea that if they want to be in front that bad, let them. It's not worth the stress to try and be "in the right" and it's not defensive driving either. Do what is safe, not necessarily what is right.

[kwhelan 241]

15 hours ago, *Glenn* said:

The way I see it, you seemed to close that gap up on him slightly giving him no option. I would of backed of and given him a little more room. Ever made a mistake while driving ? No ones hurt...move on

In the clip he was in front of you the entire time,his lights and bumper were ahead of yours and it takes everybody on the road to be responsible to merge like a zip, i think your suggesting that you can just carry on regardless and everybody else has to alter their speed to fit in with you.

go to bali and experience everybody 99% of the time just flowing and merging with never a horn or angry fist, its quite inspiring to see that everybody just gets on and theres no judgement, our attitude sucks and you show it by complaining and showing the video or your injustice, you are part of the problem Im afraid because you feel wronged and targeted over your car?

[Haitoman 110]

28 minutes ago, huff3r said:

I just always go by the idea that if they want to be in front that bad, let them. It's not worth the stress to try and be "in the right" and it's not defensive driving either. Do what is safe, not necessarily what is right.

The sensible side of me absolutely agrees with you but when this sort of situation arises all logic just flies out of the window. There is definitely a driver rage problem here that you don't see overseas so much. Another thing I just don't understand is why people can't see that when two lanes are merging into one, if everyone just pulled into the left lane well before the merge point the traffic would flow easily - but people seem to have this need to overtake just to get a few metres ahead.  

[sweetm3 180]

Sorry Kevin, you're wrong.

If Andrew or anyone else is driving along the road and you're merging into the flow. It's your responsibility as the merger to merge like a zip.

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by sweetm3

[Haitoman 110]

1 minute ago, kwhelan said:

In the clip he was in front of you the entire time,his lights and bumper were ahead of yours and it takes everybody on the road to be responsible to merge like a zip, i think your suggesting that you can just carry on regardless and everybody else has to alter their speed to fit in with you.

go to bali and experience everybody 99% of the time just flowing and merging with never a horn or angry fist, its quite inspiring to see that everybody just gets on and theres no judgement, our attitude sucks and you show it by complaining and showing the video or your injustice, you are part of the problem Im afraid because you feel wronged and targeted over your car?

Look, I'm not saying I am perfect 'cos I'm not, but the fact is he forced me off the road, and any responsible driver wouldn't have done that. The reason it looked like I pulled ahead was because he had to slow down when the car in front of him slowed and indicated he was pulling left.  

[kwhelan 241]

thats half the problem right there, there isn't really a defined wrong, your both supposed to be responsible and adapt to every situation and be safe and courteous ,even if the guy was in the wrong, you were going to run into his door or rear so you could have slowed and given him room, you contributed to the dangerous situation 

at the exact point where the white line finished you were side by side and if anything he was a metre in front so your both not merging at all,and both pretty close to the car in front on a wet road.

you both had ample warning of the lane change and should have amended your driving

Andrew was the person who was merging,the inside lane next to the centre barrier is the original and main lane

Merging 

Sometimes on a road, two lanes will merge into one lane.

The lanes merge where the broken lane lines stop. It's important to make sure that all vehicles from both lanes have plenty of space in which to merge safely. The instructions in this section show you how.

Merge like a zip

The best way to merge is like a zip – where a vehicle from the left lane goes and then a vehicle from the right lane goes, and so on.

As you merge, let one vehicle from the other lane go first, and then go.

 

 

"Merging can be a bit of a grey area, in that we rely on drivers to use their commonsense, "says David Hebden, Land Transport Safety Authority executive and editor of the Road Code.

"By following simple procedures, a 'zipper' effect is created, minimising delays for everyone."

The rule book advises:

* Be aware of vehicles around you.

* Share the road and give other vehicles plenty of space to merge safely.

* Alternate with drivers in different lanes during merging.

* Do not attempt to overtake any vehicles if you see that lane markings are ending.

* Quickly adjust your following distance using the "two second rule."

* Always use care and courtesy.

But what isn't made clear in the section dealing with two lanes merging into one is that drivers in the left lane must, before the lanes merge into one, indicate that they are joining traffic.

Cars in the right-hand lane, which are of course closer to the danger oncoming traffic can pose, are not required to indicate, unless they are planning to turn right.

 

 

sweetm3

Sorry Kevin, you're wrong.

If Andrew or anyone else is driving along the road and you're merging into the flow. It's your responsibility as the merger to merge like a zip.

the car in the left lane "Andrew" is merging back into the traffic flow and must indicate to do so and obviously should therefore adjust their speed to fit in to the original traffic flow

Edited July 30, 2016 by kwhelan

[M3AN 4016]

Hmm, the way I see it the Honda was ahead and in the right hand lane, merging like a zip principle doesn't apply here.

The principles I'd apply are:

• Don't pass on the left of somebody
• If somebody is passing you on the right give them the right of way

If I were in the left lane in this situation I'd consider it incumbent upon myself to let the Honda pass and I would have merged in behind them.

If I were in the Honda I wouldn't have been passing that slowly that close to the merge point, I would have sped up. 

[huff3r 347]

48 minutes ago, M3AN said:

Hmm, the way I see it the Honda was ahead and in the right hand lane, merging like a zip principle doesn't apply here.

The principles I'd apply are:

• Don't pass on the left of somebody
• If somebody is passing you on the right give them the right of way

If I were in the left lane in this situation I'd consider it incumbent upon myself to let the Honda pass and I would have merged in behind them.

If I were in the Honda I wouldn't have been passing that slowly that close to the merge point, I would have sped up. 

I agree mostly with this post, however a point to note is that it is entirely legal to pass on the left in NZ, and this is largely because there is no requirement for a vehicle in the right lane to move left if a faster vehicle approaches.

 

Doesn't really apply in this situation as the car in the right lane was at the very least intending to travel faster, and common courtesy, which largely doesn't exist in NZ, dictates that the car that is behind should yield to the car in front.

[M3AN 4016]

1 hour ago, huff3r said:

I agree mostly with this post, however a point to note is that it is entirely legal to pass on the left in NZ, and this is largely because there is no requirement for a vehicle in the right lane to move left if a faster vehicle approaches.

Accepted, and that's the main reason I used the word "principle" instead of "rule".

NZ law does contribute to the problem, passing on the left should be outlawed and (much) stricter enforcement of "stay left" should be introduced. Having driven in Europe for over 5 years I believe these two rules, along with banning heavy vehicles from the right hand lane would really reduce frustration-based actions and accidents in New Zealand. Our myopic agencies with their head-in-the-sand approach to road safety are making our roads more dangerous. Expecting everybody to drive everywhere at 30km/h because "speed kills" is criminal.

In the absence of a sensible road code and effective driver education we all need to develop, implement or adopt other, common sense principles to avoid trouble. I don't think either driver in the OP's video did that but I'm loath to criticise either of them, the rules aren't clear and I've seen and experienced much, much worse.

[gjm 3258]

1 hour ago, huff3r said:

I agree mostly with this post, however a point to note is that it is entirely legal to pass on the left in NZ, and this is largely because there is no requirement for a vehicle in the right lane to move left if a faster vehicle approaches.

Doesn't really apply in this situation as the car in the right lane was at the very least intending to travel faster, and common courtesy, which largely doesn't exist in NZ, dictates that the car that is behind should yield to the car in front.

There's a significant problem. NZ traffic law allows people to legally cause an obstruction on the road, even if the Road Code recommends keeping left unless overtaking.

I had a situation similar to this today, where I was the one joining a road, requiring (me to filter in. Big - BIG - gap in the queue of traffic I was joining, probably 40m or so. I moved to a position where I would filter in and the next thing I know a white Mazda coupe has accelerated and closed the gap to.... Exactly where I was going to join. The driver sat alongside me. Didn't attempt to get ahead of me - he'd closed a 30m or so gap simply to stop me joining the queue of traffic. I slowed, and filtered in behind them. The "Why?" of this is an unanswered question, although we could perhaps take into account the seriously reclined seat, the baseball cap on backwards and the slouch against the door while holding the wheel with one hand driving position.

It's road user attitude that needs to change. And the attitude of policing where anyone exceeding the speed limit is an instant criminal, but dodgy driving (under the speed limit) is fine.

[treone 648]

Kinda on topic... While driving home from work today on SH1 I had two Mazda 3's (and jap equivalent) on different occasions tailgate me between J'ville and Porirua. I was cruising between 100-104 km/h in the left lane and these d$%#head drivers decided to ride my a$$ for a while. Then they pulled out and flew past. I'm not stereotyping Mazda drivers, but just sayin' lol.

So I can only conclude that it must be the quad exhausts... or they wanted to see the badge up close just to make sure it was one 

[Apex 693]

I no longer have any problems like this... people just let me in. 

Funny that.

[Red Dwarf 136]

Ah... my favorite topic... NZ traffic laws are unworkable in this, and many other situations... The engineering is crap and the drivers are worse... 

Give up and take public transport... Oh right.. there is none!!

[Red Dwarf 136]

Just as an aside to my previous comment:

Andrew, the Honda is clearly ahead of you as you pass the 200m "lanes merge ahead" sign and yet you still attempt to pull ahead into a gap that really doesn't exist... The slogan says merge like a zip not "merge like velcro"! Sorry, but in this case just because you're driving a BMW you don't get my sympathy!

Edited August 4, 2016 by Red Dwarf
Grammar