Last week was one small example of why this is so.
My wee family were packed into our car to visit one of our favourite places for playing, swimming and picnicking.
There wasn’t a huge amount of traffic around, quite surprising for the day before a major celebration. Where were all the people rushing to stock up on booze and strawberries before the apocalypse ... ahem, sorry, I mean public holiday?
Despite the lack of traffic, our car and three others like it were travelling frustratingly slowly along a downhill stretch of road on which I usually see people well exceeding the 60km/h speed limit.
The leader at the front was sticking religiously to the aforementioned limit by riding the brakes, hard. That speedometer didn’t move an inch.
Then, suddenly, as we approached the merge, a white SUV came rushing up from behind us in the neighbouring lane. At least, it felt fast compared with our leisurely pace.
The centre lines vanished and the two lanes became one, then the white SUV picked up a bit more speed and nudged ahead of us in the queue before promptly slowing down and joining the rest of us in following our faithful, brake-riding leader.
Then we noticed the blue-and-yellow markings on the SUV and the blue uniforms of the two individuals inside. That was … surprising, to say the least.
Another mild anecdote to add to the collection.
I bet most New Zealand road users have similar stories about our pet driving hates.
Passing lane accelerators. Tailgaters. Overtakers. Speeders. Dawdlers. Lane hogs. People who choose not to use the sticks by the steering wheel that turn on the flashing external lights. People who can’t maintain a consistent following distance. Phone users. Nose pickers.
The list goes on and on, ranging from the deadly to the just plain annoying.
Why are we such terrible drivers?
Not me, you’re thinking. It’s everyone else who is the problem.
But the stats would beg to differ.
I had a quick look at police ticketing data for 2022 that covers January to September.
Looking purely at speeding tickets (including both static and mobile speed cameras as well as police issued), Bay of Plenty people appear to have heavy feet. There were 33,698 tickets issued in our region from January to September.
The region had an estimated population of just under 350,000 in 2022, according to Stats NZ projections.
That means the number of speeding tickets issued is equivalent to about one-tenth of our total population. Not to mention the figures for drink-driving, red-light runners, mobile phone users and people without seatbelts.
Even discounting the actual lawbreakers, we seem to have a lot of inconsiderate drivers. In that category, I count the behaviours that aren’t always illegal or life-threatening, but do negatively impact other people’s driving experience.
I’m talking about the people who drive under the speed limit in the right-hand lane. The ones who drive at 80km/h until they reach a passing lane and then are somehow doing 110km/h. The ones that are too lazy to use their indicators, or think it’s obvious to everyone where they’re going through, I don’t know, psychic ability? The ones who think tailgating the person in front of them will miraculously cause a line of traffic to speed up.
The selfish drivers.
I know it’s not just me who thinks New Zealanders are, in general, terrible drivers. We have a reputation overseas for being, and I quote: “aggressive”, “arrogant” and “rude” on the roads. Those were all words from the top results of a “why are New Zealand drivers so bad” Google search.
Our road toll leaves a lot to be desired.
In 2022, at least 378 people died on New Zealand roads. Every single one of those deaths is a tragedy. Every single one.
Frankly, we need to do better. Each and every single one of us that gets behind the wheel of a car needs to do better.
Vehicles are machines with the power to kill. The way we drive them literally gives us the power of life and death over others. We need to take that responsibility with the seriousness it deserves, and start being far less selfish on our roads.
By thinking of the others around us, we can help make our roads a safer place.
Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.
