How come Aucklanders are such awful drivers?

Question

Thanks for all your answers, good points have been made. I have to say though, I've lived and driven a lot in big cities like London and Paris - these are even more congested than Auckland and you seldom see this sort of behaviour - people have to drive rationally, admittedly quite aggressively at times, but on the whole road users are predictable and follow an unspoken road ethic. I'm not a slow driver, I actually meant when in congested traffic and you have nowhere else to go as you're behind the car in front and then some lunatic crams up behind your rear bumper. I guess I'm extra protective of my car as it usually contains my kids.

Answer 1

Having never been to Auckland often enough for long enough to have to drive while I'm there (not being a big fan of Auckland n all) I can only imagine the craziness you've been encountering!  I hate to admit though that as a country, we are pretty average drivers at best.  You only have to look at Germany's autobahn for example.  Germany's motorways have no speed limit but they have about half the road deaths per capita compared to us ... for such a small country, our roll tolls say a lot for the state of New Zealand's driving and drivers!

Answer 2

Because they root sheep and are a tad unbalanced afterwards..

-Proud Aussie!

Answer 3

thats for many reaons

one is that pepole that live there are usually the office working rushed business men that are very ignorant

another (that is a bit racist) that is where all the asians move to when they move to new zealand hahaha and they are known for their shocking driving

hahaha hope that helped =]

Answer 4

I think it is partly a mentality of each doing for themselves.Wanting to get somewhere in a hurry.Somehow people that in other walks of their life are polite , friendly pleasant people, change into this monster behind the wheel.

Some of it is also caused from the frustrations of 1) People who will insist on driving ( slowly) in the outside passing lane.2) People who will not indicate so those who could have made a move can't because they don't know or know to late what others plan to do.3) Trying to do many things at once 4) With the time it takes to get places people often have to leave really early and get home late meaning they are just concentrating on themselves and the rest of their schedule.6) Some of the phasing of traffic lights is really bad only allowing 2 or 3 people through.And if a person at the front is asleep maybe not even that.7) When the motorway is bumper to bumper, some people hold way back ( several car lengths) which causes a longer queue and holdup, as others jump into this space.So people pull into the next lane , move around them and then back in front.

Yes we do have aggressive drivers who try to bully people into moving faster, into another lane etc.Sometimes I think this is warrranted if they are in the fast lane blocking traffic because they are going slow.They usually seem oblivious to the problem they are creating.How else to get them to move over so the traffic can flow, especially if a car is travelling at the same speed beside them.

I also think having lived in several parts of New Zealand that many other cities have certain problems. I remember in Christchurch for example they used to shoot half a car length out of a side street.Very dangerous.But it happened all the time.Bad habits seem to be catching.

As Auckland is made up of a mix of people from many countries and all over New Zealand there seems no reason why they should be worse drivers, so maybe the conditions create a poor attitude.

Answer 5

I've lived in Auckland and know what it's like. I don't think they're generally 'that' bad to be honest. The morning and afternoon rush hour does bring out the worst in people (myself included). I think you'd probably class me as one of the drivers you're talking about, however I put it to you that maybe you need to be more 'aggressive' on the roads. That doesn't mean breaking the law either.

I'm going to stand up for that person above about asians drivers. No racism intended, but Auckland has a higher proportion of asian drivers than the rest of NZ and in my personal experience they are terrible drivers (maybe not in their own country). They drive slow, dont indicate, slow down suddenly, take ages to accelerate from red lights etc. Of course this is VERY general. But in the past when i've seen these things being done, 8/10 I can guarantee it's an asian driver. Sorry.