Dialogue: Sensible limits answer to cowboy road culture

The publication of comparative road death statistics for New Zealand and a number of other countries has elicited another bout of suggested remedies.

However, amid all this there is little to suggest any appreciation of the true nature of the problem.

It lies within our culture.

Just as it is difficult for individuals to see themselves as others do, so it is with cultures. Attitudes we absorb as we grow up are seen as normal. As one who spent the first few years of his driving life overseas, I, therefore, feel qualified to comment on the road toll debate.

Why is the New Zealand road death rate more than double that of Britain? The answer is as clear as it is unpalatable. Tolerance of poor driving is deeply engrained in our society. One has only to drive along an Auckland motorway to see the contempt with which a high proportion of drivers treat the law.

The notion of not overtaking on the left (undertaking is an apposite term) has evidently not yet reached us from those parts of the world where road safety is taken seriously.

The mysterious concept of lane discipline, with different lanes reserved for different speeds, is a normal part of driving in Britain and the rest of Europe but is as incomprehensible to the average New Zealand driver as Einstein's theory of relativity.

Speed limits are wantonly, and on some stretches of road almost universally, flouted. It is perfectly normal for more than half the drivers on some roads to be exceeding the speed limit, in some cases by a considerable margin.

Tolerance of bad driving is difficult to deal with because it permeates every level of society, including the media and even the road transport authorities.

The media must stop the practice of using language that appears to exculpate the driver. How many times, for example have we heard it reported that the car lost control?

An article in the Herald stated that one of the country's most lethal roads was being upgraded. Freudian slips such as these betray a deep unwillingness to place the blame where it belongs - on the driver.

While the media can be accused of fostering a lack of personal responsibility, the road transport authorities and police can justifiably be charged with actively (albeit unintentionally) encouraging contempt for speed limits.

For example, the announcement that speed cameras will be set to snap drivers travelling more than 110 km/h on motorways is tantamount to saying we would like you to travel slower than 100km/h, but it's actually okay to do 110 km/h.

My particular bete noir, and a case that encapsulates the New Zealand malaise, is the road past Middlemore Hospital, where there are signs indicating that the speed limit is 25 km/h (at present reduced temporarily to 20 km/h).

Before the upgrading of the hospital and accompanying road works, I drove along that stretch of road hundreds of times. Never once did I see a driver travelling at less than 30 km/h - and that includes ambulances and police cars. The average speed was between 35 and 40 km/h.

And it gets worse. South of Middlemore Hospital there is a sign indicating a temporary 20 km/h speed limit, but one has to drive almost another kilometre past the hospital before the 50 km/h sign appears. Well before this, most cars are travelling at 60 km/h, three times what the sign says is the limit.

It is all too clear from these examples that even the traffic authorities do not appear to understand the concept of a speed limit. It is not a recommendation, or an optimum, but a maximum, above which no one should be allowed to go.

Speed camera area signs are yet another source of ambiguity. Do these signs mean there are no speed cameras in other areas? If it does not mean this, what is the purpose of the signs?

If New Zealanders are to obey speed limits, the limits must mean what they say. Limits along many stretches of road could safely be raised from 50 to 60 km/h, but drivers should be penalised for exceeding these more realistic limits by as little as 1 km/h. Rigid enforcement of more sensible speed limits would do more to change the cowboy culture on our roads than any other measure.

The fundamental reason New Zealand's road toll is so much worse than in many other countries is the widespread misunderstanding of what the law is for. Until our lawmakers and law enforcers understand this, our road death statistics will continue to be a source of shame.

* Martin Hanson is a South Auckland science teacher.

Herald Online feature: Cutting the road toll

Do you have a suggestion for cutting the road toll?

E-mail Scott MacLeod. Please supply your name and address.

Links:

Are you part of the dying race?

Take an intersection safety test

LTSA: Road toll update

Massey University: Effectiveness of safety advertising