FINALLY.... some sense.

[Esprit]

I've long been a fan of Allan Dick's writing, but it's nice to see this now reported in the mainstream media:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id...

[GravelBen]

Mostly a breath of fresh air, though the comment from Mr Dog-and-lemon guide seems a bit of bollox (similar to his book really).

article said:

Dog and Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said the German transport system was set up around public transport, while New Zealand's focus was on the car.

Not only wrong, but irrelevant to the rest of the article.

[Esprit]

Exactly... he should stick to what he knows.... and that's nothing

[Kylie]

Nice read and so true

Were still better than places like America, Italy, China and also India to put things into perspective. We arent the bottom of the barrel yet.

[Kiwi XTR2]

Lane discipline and open-road courtesy if you get a queue behind you would be a great start. Those are my two favourite gripes of attitude problems rather than any technical driving deficiency.

Would take away whatever excuses there may be for tail-gating.

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Looks like the readers agree :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1...

Definitely the worst overall driving I've experienced in the western world (and many parts of the 3rd world, too)

[carbonhed]

Ewan Oozarmy said:

Looks like the readers agree :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1...

Definitely the worst overall driving I've experienced in the western world (and many parts of the 3rd world, too)

Boy that's so weird isn't it? Page after page of people saying everybody else is crap

I wonder what percentage of writers have ever done any kind of post license training or even tried to objectively look at what they're doing on the road?

[Esprit]

Welcome in Carbonhed You posted in the NZ forums before?

[carbonhed]

Esprit said:

Welcome in Carbonhed You posted in the NZ forums before?

Thanks very much. No I don't think I've posted down here before

Stirred up a hornets nest of self righteousness on The Herald hasn't Mr Dick? I'd have never guessed there were that many good drivers in the whole country

[Kylie]

Or a little slide on a roundabout and doing nearly twice the legal speed limit just to pass a car on a Sunday, def makes a bad driver Whoooops

[Kiwi XTR2]

Kylie said:

Or a little slide on a roundabout and doing nearly twice the legal speed limit just to pass a car on a Sunday, def makes a bad driver Whoooops

60 in a 30 km/h zone. I'm shocked

[Bull1t]

carbonhed said:

Boy that's so weird isn't it? Page after page of people saying everybody else is crap

I wonder what percentage of writers have ever done any kind of post license training or even tried to objectively look at what they're doing on the road?

Same as when they do surveys some rediculously high percentage (90%?) of people consider themselves better than average drivers.

[Kiwi XTR2]

Bull1t said:

Same as when they do surveys some rediculously high percentage (90%?) of people consider themselves better than average drivers.

Didn't someone really upset secondary school teachers last year by suggesting that half of them were performing below average ?

Although mathematically it must be true, and any decent teachers should have known that, nobody likes the idea that they might be below average.

Can't imagine half the population believing they have an IQ below 100 either.

I think the PC way of doing things these days is that the bottom 5% are below average, the middle 90% are average, and only the top 5% are above average.

[Bull1t]

Not half of all teachers have to be below average, only helow the median. As long as there are some really terrible teachers to skew the average down.

[Kiwi XTR2]

Bull1t said:

Not half of all teachers have to be below average, only helow the median. As long as there are some really terrible teachers to skew the average down.

OK If we're getting picky - although the Mean is often referred to as the Average it is actually only one of four different Averages. The Median is another.

The psychology of this kind of stuff is very interesting. Like all the people who worry about the minimum wage & average household income. While these are important in macro-economic terms the best advice for any individual would be to forget the averages and set your sights higher.

[jamieheasman]

As I've said before I'd love to see a national courtesy-on-the-road campaign set up and publicised to the same degree of the rather crass series of 'Bloody-idiot' adverts.

If we could just get half the people on the roads to try it out they might just realise that it has a huge benefit to getting somewhere you want to go to in a timely fashion and getting out at the other end in a good mood!

Perhaps we should organise a Pistonheads campaign in NZ?

[GravelBen]

Kiwi XTR2 said:

Bull1t said:

Not half of all teachers have to be below average, only helow the median. As long as there are some really terrible teachers to skew the average down.

OK If we're getting picky - although the Mean is often referred to as the Average it is actually only one of four different Averages. The Median is another.

Isn't it shocking that around 50% of New Zealanders have a below average grasp of statistics?

[jamieheasman]

As Vick Reeves once said '75% of all statistics are just made-up!'.