The good oil: Make all left turns free turns

The woman was perhaps in her early 40s. Shortish, neatly dressed, handbag on her arm, standing two back from the fines counter in the Auckland District Court, on Albert St. She had tears in her eyes. At the head of the queue was another woman. Born in 1944, she told the male cashier. He looked at her traffic fine. "You've come to the wrong place. You have to pay your fine at the city council," he said. She trudged off. Her face and her feet were tired. The woman with tears in her eyes shuffled forward, opened her handbag, handed the cashier some money and stuff ... and began to sob. "I don't even have enough money left for food for the week," she cried. "I'm sorry about that," said the cashier. Later, wiping the tears from her eyes, she told the Good Oil she was paying off $1500 in parking fines. "It's just all too hard," she said. She pushed her way through the glass doors and walked out into the rain.

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David writes in support of the New Zealand road rule requiring traffic turning left to give way to traffic turning right. It "was introduced because it is a logical rule that speeds traffic through an intersection. The logic is simple. Left-turning traffic has more opportunities to turn safely than right-turning traffic. If the right-turning vehicle has the chance to turn, it should do so first and the left-turning vehicle should wait for the next opportunity. It is, in fact, similar in concept to 'left turn on red', which is common around the world. The vehicle turning left at a red light has to give way to all other traffic, unless the way is clear."

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Not quite, David. Putting aside the obvious differences between left- and right-hand-drive countries ... Turning left on red is pretty much only allowed when entering a one-way street. Turning right on red, however, has been legal in most US western states for more than 50 years. Some eastern states adopted the rule in the early 1970s to save fuel. In Canada, you can turn right on a red, but only after coming to a stop. In the European Union, it is illegal to turn on red unless a road sign says otherwise.

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Wellington driving instructor Cathy writes: "The easiest way to fix the problem of left-turn vehicles giving way to right-turn vehicles would be to make all left turns free turns. A free left turn would allow following straight-through traffic to proceed. I see many people turning left stop for a vehicle turning right in a position that stops the traffic flow."

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Child restraints in vehicles will become compulsory for all children aged up to 7 across Australia under new national laws that will be introduced first in Victoria. However, child-seat manufacturers are concerned that parents could be confused by the new age-based laws and manufacturer recommendations based on other criteria, such as height and weight.

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Jason Durant dragged himself out of his car and into a hospital in New Milford, Connecticut, with a broken leg and cuts and bruises to his upper body. The 32-year-old's story didn't make sense, so hospital staff called police. Turned out Durant had just robbed a bank, ducking out the back door with the loot and running down a steep street to his getaway car. But he fell, losing the money, his handgun, breaking his leg - and tumbling into a snowplow blade lying against the kerb. He had $2 in his pockets when nurses cut off his pants.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz