We are so good at driving - aren't we?

By Warren Gamble

New Zealanders reckon they are pretty accomplished behind the wheel – more than two-thirds think they are very good or above average drivers.

But a second part of a New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey shows 15 per cent of people questioned, mainly men, admitted to driving while suspecting they were drunk.

The survey showed 28.4 per cent of drivers classed themselves as very good, and 40.4 per cent considered they were above average – a total of 68.8 per cent.

A further 30.2 per cent think they are average, and only 0.6 per cent admit to being below average or poor on the road.

A third of drivers aged 19 to 39 classed themselves as very good, compared with 24 per cent aged over 40.

Almost two-thirds of Maori questioned (64 per cent) rated themselves very good or above average, compared with 68.5 per cent of New Zealand Europeans and 88.8 per cent of Pacific Islanders.

Men and women both had similar opinions – 69.8 per cent of men and 67.7 per cent of women thought they were very good or above average.

In the question on drink-driving, answered by a smaller sample of 334 people, 22.7 per cent of men suspected they had been driving over the limit in the past two years, compared with only 7.7 per cent of women.

More Act (26.9) and National (23.6) supporters suspected they had driven drunk, than New Zealand First (16.7), the Alliance (13.3), and Labour (10.7).

Twenty per cent of Maori surveyed suspected they had been over the limit, compared with 16.8 per cent of European New Zealanders, and no Pacific Islanders.

More than a fifth (22.3 per cent) of lower North Island motorists admitted drink-driving, as did 18.8 per cent of Waikato-Bay of Plenty drivers, compared with only 8.7 per cent of Northland motorists, and 15 per cent of Aucklanders.