Dialogue: Are motorway flowers wreaths for the crosses?

Gardening is not only big business, it's a favourite national pastime. No matter if we're green-thumbed or hate getting our hands dirty, it still has great appeal.

The tremendous popularity of Maggie's Garden Show and the annual Ellerslie Flower Show speak volumes. So do the long queues at garden centres on Sunday afternoons.

Driving is also something we're equally passionate about. But, unfortunately, it's not something we approach in quite the same genteel manner.

Transit NZ has planted wildflowers on many of our highways, particularly the long stretch from Auckland to Hamilton. It looks stunning right now. The vibrant blues, purples, reds and yellows would do Givenchy proud.

It's a shame most drivers and their passengers are travelling at such incredibly high speeds that they don't see much more than a blur. They obviously don't take a lot of notice of the roadside shrines, either.

Between Meremere and Taupiri, there's a lumpy patch of highway 40km long. Scattered along the fences that border this length of blacktop are 77 white crosses and one pale green headstone, each one a tribute to a traveller who began the journey in good heart but failed to reach the destination.

The headstone is particularly poignant, a memorial to four youngsters aged between 16 and 20, two of whom share the same family name.

We know each white cross represents a fatality, the loss of someone's husband, wife, brother, sister or child. But we've become so accustomed to seeing them that we hardly give them a second thought any more. Or do we?

A few of them bear names. Many are ornately decorated with bright bunches of plastic flowers, glittering tinsel and spinning windmills. One is draped with a black fabric windbreaker.

As they become more and more elaborately decorated, are they becoming a dangerous distraction in themselves? Should they be allowed?

Or are they a useful deterrent, ominous symbols of greater significance than a "Dangerous Area - You Must Slow Down" warning? Are they meant as such or simply as a sign of their loved ones' remembrance and grief?

Wildflowers and crosses: it seems incongruous to see such beauty and sadness side by side, but it is perhaps appropriate if we think of our roads as an endless cemetery that spans the country. The flowers serve to highlight these tragic reminders, and to highlight the way we drive.

The attitude of many drivers is simple, uncompromising and direct. A sign on the tail of a rapidly overtaking vehicle summed it up succinctly. Below the licence plate was the admonition, "Don't like the way I drive? Phone 0800 EAT S***T"

I guess this message was intended to be humorous, but I gave the male driver plenty of room, just to make sure.

Let's face it. Many of us are ill-mannered, impatient and belligerent when we get behind the wheel. It's no wonder there are so many fatal accidents. And road rage is rife.

Although men love to poke fun at the abilities of women drivers, it's predominantly men who are out there displaying all the worst kinds of behaviour on our roads.

You don't see too many women gesturing rudely, verbally abusing each other and brawling in the street because of real or imagined traffic infringements. No, it's men, and predominantly young men, who cause most of the mayhem. Drive to survive? Not in their vocabulary.

In Ngaruawahia there is a huge roadside billboard. It's part of the STARS (Simple Tips About Road Safety) campaign depicting well-known public figures such as politicians, sportspeople and actors, and it is aimed at highlighting basic road safety messages. This one features Georgina Beyer with the message: "Brake on the Straight (Not Round Corners)."

I assume that it's a play on words, and probably meant to get the message across in a lighthearted way, but I can't help feeling it's ineffectual. The message simply isn't getting across to those who need to heed it most.

October may well have produced the lowest road toll of any October in the past 30 years, but we still have some of the worst accident rates and fatality statistics in the world. A Dunedin study has shown that 516 children were killed in car crashes between 1986 and 1995, and this helped to make New Zealand's child death rate considerably higher than other countries. Many weren't in child seats.

A few months ago an Auckland man was punched, and is now suffering brain injuries, resulting from an assault over a clipped wing mirror. Certainly not an isolated incident - just one with worse consequences than most.

I wonder what it's going to take for us to change our appalling attitudes and aggressive behaviour on the roads?

I saw a television item the other day describing how New Zealanders are beginning to use their cellular phones to report others' dangerous driving to the police. Let's hope they're pulling safely to the side of the road, with their warning lights on, while they do it.

Come to think of it, under cover of a blanket might be safer still.

* Linda Porter is a Hamilton writer.