The arrows on the road were introduced because tourists kept forgetting which side of the road they were supposed to be on and causing accidents! They're usually placed near tourist-heavy attractions, especially at the exits. BTW when you're pumping petrol there's a little clip/switch on the nozzle that you can flick to keep the fuel flowing without having to hold it - it's slightly different at the various petrol stations (eg Caltex vs BP) but they all have it. Also most fuel brands have an ap that you can download to pay in-car without going inside - trying to keep you brand loyal!
Unfortunately some (mostly self serve pumps) have deliberately disabled the lock on the fillers. It makes for a very painful fill if you've let your tank get too low and you have to stand there holding it.
Friendly NZ traffic engineer here. The top highway limit in New Zealand is actually 110km/h, but only applies on 2 different highways, about a 100 km total length. Speedometers are required to read at or over the true speed. Whenever they're low they get corrected, they only get corrected if they're reading way over. One lane bridges are primarily really old bridges. When they get replaced they usually get replaced with two lane bridges on busy roads. We're saving a lot of money by just not replacing bridges. They cause some crashes, but typically only fender benders. Two lane bridges are often worse because people hit the abutments at 100km/h and die. New Zealand has expensive petrol because highways and 50% of local roads are paid for from petrol tax. In the US, roads are paid for mostly by general taxation (and honestly, debt). New Zealand is actually average for wealthy nations, the US is very cheap. The road rules recently changed to allow road controlling authorities to set realistic speed limits on rural roads (I.e. not 100kmh on windy roads). However, almost no e of the south island state highways have had this happen yet.
Thanks for the insight! Any comment on the yellow/white or solid/dashed lines? That was the most confusing part to me, and I feel like there's likely some logic there that I'm just not seeing.
@@tac-com2574 It's a bit of a mess. I think that kiwi drivers are used to it, because we do a lot of driving on two lane rural roads. There are four sets of line: White dashed - just defines your lane, it may be safe to cross, but you need to check White solid - approaching an intersection or hazard in the middle of the road Yellow solid - do not cross Yellow dashed - return to your lane I actually wrote this part of the New Zealand equivalent of the MUTCD (called the TCD Manual) for the government. We found that road controlling authorities were doing a pretty good job marking the dashed and solid yellow lines consistently, but that the solid white lines weren't consistent. This is probably what causes your confusion as you are trying to figure out what it means, but that will change every time you cross an administrative boundary. The Manual says that yellow lines should only be used when it isn't obvious to a driver that it is unsafe to cross (usually a hidden intersection or dip). I didn't agree with that recommendation, but the review panel wanted to retain it. Recently, they have become more common, especially in areas with high tourist volumes. On roads with three or more lanes, the centre line must include either a solid yellow line or solid white line. I would prefer the Manual too say that the centre line should always be solid.
Across Waimakariri most roads were reduced from 100kmph to 80 or less, almost systematically. That is not setting realistic speed limits, its cutting speed because of political decision making. If having cut the speeds they had eliminated or even drastically reduced the numbers of accidents I'd be supportive, but it hasn't. There are other methods of reducing harm on the roads, unfortunately they are even less popular and would have cost implications, but changing speed limits is not the way to do it.
Fun fact, New Zealand's national roading system is predominantly based off the United States. N.Z's very first highways were designed by an engineering firm based in San Francisco (Wilbur Smith Associates), alongside Caltrans/California Department Of Transportation. Soon after that N.Z had adopted U.S styled road signs such as the yellow diamond shaped warning signs, orange diamond shaped temporary warning signs, and green highway direction signs. Additionally, a couple U.S styled road markings were also introduced to N.Z such as the double yellow 'No Passing' lines, thick solid 'Stop' and/or 'Give Way/Yield' lines, along with the U.S styled painted arrow markings. The order in which multi level word markings are positioned on N.Z roads are done using the American format. Some examples such as 'Bus Stop', 'Bus Lane' or 'Keep Clear' road markings in similar countries like Australia and the U.K are painted from top to bottom, whereas in N.Z these messages are painted in reverse just as they would be in the U.S. Another similarity between N.Z and the U.S are the highway designations, more specifically, California's State Highway route shield system. Our highway route shields are the same shape as California's (miner's spade) however flipped upside down, and could also resemble the U.S Interstate route shields as well. Just like with all state specific highway routes in the U.S, our national highway routes here in N.Z are also labeled using the same "State Highway x" format (SH1, SH2, SH3, etc). Australia and the U.K use their own alphanumeric system instead "Motorway x" (M1, M2, M3, etc). When driving in Auckland or Wellington you’ll also notice Californian styled concrete barriers and overpasses which Caltrans used during the 60's/70's. New Zealand's vehicle scene is very diverse, we have cars and trucks from all around the world. We have American, European, and even Asian styled semi trucks. As for cars, we have everything from small Japanese compact cars all the way up to large full-size V8 American pickup trucks. We have it all.
If you're driving on the open road in New Zealand and the road seems to suddenly disappear in front of you, don't panic. Youve come across something we call a corner. Once you've been around a few of these youll get the hang of it.
Glad you enjoyed your stay in our country. Juicy vans drive us nuts too. The painted arrows are there to remind tourists to keep left, since they painted them our tourist accident rate has dropped dramatically.
there is no difference between traffic circle and roundabout, they are exactly the same thing, you give way to the traffic that is already in the roundabout/traffic circle
Oneway bridges are old, probably 50+ years old. There weren't many cars then, so it didn't matter. They're replacing them with two lane bridges, but they're taking their sweet time.
As for why buses and trucks are going way slower than the speed limit, there's actually a separate speed limit for them. In 100 km/h zones, they're only allowed to go 90 km/h, and most of them are tracked via GPS (e.g. fleet management systems like EROAD), so the drivers take it seriously.
@@-aid4084that's mainly because it's hard to enforce a 90km/h speed limit in a 100km/h zone. Speed cameras, as well as radar in police vehicles are typically set to alert when a vehicle is travelling over 100km/h. So trucks will basically never get pulled over unless a cop with a handheld laser is checking all vehicles from the side of a road, which isn't that common, and even then they're more often looking for idiots driving cars well over the speed limit.
@@TheDarkFalcon yeah, thought what gets me is they have these signs saying "radar monitored, MAX speed limit 90 km/h" or something and they're clearly going 100, forcing cars to break the speed limit to pass.
The reason we don't use yellow lines to divide lanes is because yellow is a prohibitive colour, meaning yellow means NO! No passing, no parking, no stopping, no whatever. White simply divides the lanes. You don't need a different colour lane marking to mark two way roads. You automatically know that if there's only two lane's, one goes one way, one goes the other, they're just marked with a broken white line to divide them, passing permitted, or yellow if passing is not permitted. It's really very easy.
@@tac-com2574 These are usually at uphill passing lanes where the two lanes in the same direction (uphill) will be split with a broken white line with the right hand lane having a yellow solid line stating no passing into the incoming lane. The oncoming lane will have a broken white line stating that passing is permitted so long as it can be completed safely.
01:41 The stalks are not swapped. 😂😂 Japanese cars come with those default settings as they are built for the right hand drive market. Windscreen wipers on the left & indicators on the right. Moreover you will find the petrol tank on the left as opposed to cars manufactured for the left hand drive market. We normally have the problem when switching from a German to a Japanese car. 😂😂😂 Cheers.
Just remember it takes much longer to get from A to B because of the smaller, slower roads. Give way signs are not yield signs! Traffic circles are not round abouts. Get your hands on a Road Code book ! You are meant to drive in the left lane unless passing. If you are going slower than the speed limit, you are meant to pull over so people can pass, and if you don't, you can be ticketed, be warned.
On the subject of Google maps: as you said, it's usually pretty good. What you do sometimes have to watch out for is being routed over an unsealed road when set to use shortest route. I had that happen once when driving from Hokitika to Arthur's pass, and while I didn't mind, it can be disconcerting if you're not expecting it.
Excellent video. I am pleased that you enjoyed your time in our country. A few years ago I went to BC Canada via LA. I didn't drive in the USA, but got a rental car and went for a short road trip around BC. Like you, I didn't seem to take too long to adapt to driving on the other side of the car and road. The scariest things for me were roundabouts/traffic circles and as you mentioned, turning onto another road and remembering to stay on the correct side of the road. As for the roundabouts, even though it was obvious that you travel anticlockwise in Canada, to me it seemed so wrong. That took some getting used to, and, yes, I noticed that there were a lot more STOP signs than GIVE WAY signs there. Until then, I had never seen an intersection with STOP signs on every entry. Here in NZ we only have STOP signs on 2 opposing entries and the other direction has GIVE WAY. Another big difference I noticed was turning right on a red light. In Canada, and the USA I believe, you can turn right on red if the way is clear. I remember getting honked at while waiting to turn right at my first red light. LOL.
I really wish we had more "yeild" (or "give way") signs in the US... I don't think I noticed... Are you able to go left on red if the way is clear in NZ?
No. Red means stop here. You have to stop until the light turns green. The free right turn, over there, is a great idea I think. It was something I had not known about but it only took 1 red light in Vancouver to figure it out. I loaded an app on my iPad after that and did a bit more study on the different rules.@@tac-com2574
I know of a 4 way Stop sign in NZ. Witham and Blankney streets, just off Amyes Road, in the Hornby area of Christchurch. I used to go to the Fish-and-Chip shop in the little strip of shops there, beside the park.
You know if you're a pedestrian or one of those workers, a car going 50 is actually very fast when you are stationary. In Australia, it's 40km/hr. New Zealand roads can be a little narrower- may be the road edges are? However, one shouldn't pass those workers more than 30km/hr. It doesn't take much to kill someone. That people that go faster, haven't experienced cars flashing by.
for those happening across this vid in the future and are also confused by the dashed yellow vs solid yellow lines: dashed yellow means those already engaged in an overtaking/passing maneuver may continue the overtake but cannot initiate one during the duration of the dashed yellow lines. The uploader is correct regarding solid yellow lines: no passing (if you're caught overtaking when your side of the road has a solid yellow, expect a pullover and on-the-spot ticket)
Haha, thanks! I loved my trip - favorite vacation I've ever had. There's certainly some things I find different/odd, but that's just because it's not what I'm used to. It seems like most viewers are Kiwis, which is interesting. I sorta intended this to be for tourists who were wondering what to expect. That said, I've been loving the engagement, as I've learned a lot from the comments. I feel like some comments on here are overly defensive because they think I'm complaining or saying NZ is doing something wrong. Also, this trip was over a year ago, and all these recent comments are making me miss the trip :(
@@tac-com2574 It is an old joke that Kiwis will be asking visitors on their first day "So, what do you think of NZ?". In 1996 I did a driving tour in Europe, and I agree, it doesn't take long to get used to the other side of the road. It is not hard to get by in another country if you have an open mind.
Gas prices are high as there is ~50% tax on it. The tax is used to fund roads (so they say). Also yeah the auto cut off on gas pumps is an art. Some just flow to fast for it to work. But most you can get to work by not putting the nozzle all the way in, allowing plenty of space for the air to come out of the tank as the gas goes in. Taught my kids to drive in the last 10 years and took them a surprisingly long time to learn - not helped because it is habit / intuitive for me, and I couldn't explain what I was doing.
I think you’re charitable to the New Zealand driving culture. As a Kiwi who’s lived and driven overseas, I find drivers here can be polite sometimes, but aggressive in the next moment.
I find the south island overall is far better than the north and the smaller the town the better the driving and the friendlier the people. And tourists in Central otago are the bane of any local or commercial drivers existence
Petrol prices will always be expensive because, among other necessities, we have to import it. Our country is literally in the middle of nowhere so things ain’t as cheap as they would be in the US. Btw those one way bridge systems are also used in urban areas to slow traffic down too. They basically narrow the road down at a point so only one car can pass at a time. There’s a system near where I live.
Missed (??) comments on the ever-present recommended speed signs on country road bends and curves. These consistently understate the actual ideal speed by about 10kph for saftey but are amazingly consistent and a great guide even for Kiwi drivers in areas that they don't know.
In hindsight, those were very helpful! I didn't think to mention them, as I'm used to seeing them in the US as well. I'll be driving in Europe soon, I wonder if those roads will have those signs...
Yeah mostly I consider them to be speeds for large vehicles and campervans. A guaranteed 'no fuckup' speed that you should try to match if it's ones first time driving on a particular road. But you're usually pretty safe in a regular car going 10 or more over the recommended, and if you have a sporty car and good conditions sometimes you can hit them doing almost the road limit.
Speed suggestion signs end in a 5 and speed limit signs and in a zero. They warn you of the ideal speed in less than ideal conditions, say if it's dark and/or inclement weather. I usually test them and find they are about 15kph slower than the speed at which driving becomes unsafe in ideal driving conditions.
And then you get motorcyclists (who do double-check this, they normally do it the second time through that corner not the first): A "recommended speed" sign is doubled, then 20 is taken off. That's the max speed you can do without crossing lanes, supposedly :D (So a 50 kmh recommended corner could be hit at 80) Then there was my brother when younger: Double + 20. (50 kmh corner would be closer to 120)
Great summary of NZ driving. A handy but little known fact about the plastic markers along the side of the road: when driving at night on back roads, the white reflectors on the markers on the left side of the road indicate the road ahead turns to the right. The yellow reflectors on markers on the right side of the road indicate that the road ahead turns to the left. Takes a bit of getting used to reading the sharpness of corners, but it's quite handy once you know how to interpret what the reflectors are showing.
Your lane separation points are on point, rarely, I will not know whether the land next to me is an oncoming land or my way lane when divided by white lines.
Thank you! I wanted to be honest and speak my mind, but I was a bit worried that I was just the "ignorant American". Honestly, maybe I still am - but at least my point may have some validity :p
@@tac-com2574 I have lived in NZ all my life and it's something that annoys me too. Sometimes there are even double yellow lines seperating lanes going the same direction which is pretty odd. It would be better if yellow lines seperated lanes going opposite direction and white lines seperated lanes going in the same direction like in the US.
@@tac-com2574 I've never thought about it, but been driving for about 30 years. I was thinking wait a minute, yellow might be better. One thing about white is that it stands out in bad weather where as yellow may be less visible. We get plenty of bad weather. Not sure if that is a factor
The one-lane bridges are just the result of lack of money spent on the roads. But in quiet rural areas the bridges are quite adequate with some good manners from the drivers using them. As tourist and traffic density increases every Kiwi driver would love to see all one-ways replaced by two-lane bridges. We live in hope.
They are a result of that was required at the time they were built very few people drove the roads where they predominantly are at the time the population of nz was about half what it is now when they were built and tourism and rental cars were basically non existent
Another feature for visitor driving rental cars.. the Police have the authority / permission of the rental car companies to cancel your rental contract, on the spot, if they stop you for a driving offence that is dangerous, like failing to stay on the right side of the road or dangerous driving..
Comprehensive even from perspective from one drives in Australia - same as NZ. Google maps can be downloaded for offline mode - hope this helps for fellow traveller. I'll be in NZ in March.
Very interesting that all the centerlines in America are yellow. This does make sense to quickly show that it is a two-way road but I think one-way roads are so rare and are so clearly signposted here that it isn't an issue. One just assumes it's two-way unless it's signposted otherwise. In the case of a road being 3 lanes where 1 lane is for passing the single lane always has a double yellow to differentiate the lane and show that you can't overtake in that lane Personally I think having yellow lines and dashes only where you can't pass makes them stand out more and is therefore safer but I can see the the benefits of having all centerlines yellow as well.
The microwave speed indicators are accurate - Car speedometers are not. Car speedometers read up to 10 kmh faster that the actual speed. It is a requirement of the EU standard. A speedometer must never show less than the actual speed, and must never show more than 110% of actual speed + 10 kmh.
just don't take them as being a consistently accurate measure of your speed. And I mean that if they tell you that your speed is five over what the speedo says don't speed up to what you think the real limit is. It is no excuse in law to rely on them.
Most of what I wanted to point out has already been covered here. The point about indicators and wiper stalks being reversed is true but only in cars manufactured in Australia or Asia or Japan (where they also drive on the left). If you drive a European brand here in NZ they have the stalks reversed like you are used to in the US. On the speedo accuracy, some brands are more out than others. They are like that from factory though and it isn't just for rental cars. It is also true for those same cars (e.g. Outback) in the US from comments I've read on owner forums. Most petrol or Gas stations want you to go inside the store to pay because you are more likely to also grab something to eat or a coffee. That is where they make their margin as there is barely any profit for the store on fuel itself.
Here in Australia the roads are much wider but the driving habits are the same. If you come to Australia remember that Ford and Holden UTEs always speed or will tailgate you until you let them pass. Most are V6 or V8s.
Yes, on what is called "Open road" which as you guessed means outside of a controlled zone, i.e. not posted limits, you can travel at "What the conditions allow" up to 100 kph. If the road is winding, and limited visibility because of curving lines of sight, you must slow till you can safely stop in the distance you can see. This means, basically, you don't turn the corner faster than you can stop before hitting something that may be ahead of you.
Some Comments regarding your queries regarding our traffic system. Different models of cars have indicators / window wipers on different sides of the car wheel - Japanese / Australian have indicators on the left, European on the right. For most Roads: - Single broken lines (passing allowed) for both lanes, so long as a minimal of 100m of clearance (and you can physically see it) in front of the vehicle you are passing is achieved at all times. - Solid White lines (on the edge =indicates the actual lane location / shoulder, in the middle = coming up to an intersection; denoting an turning lane off the main lane, or in an area where a median lane exists) - Broken Yellow (on the side = no parking, in the middle = solid line ahead (100m)) - Broken White with a Solid Yellow (generally where passing lanes occur, traffic on white side allowed to overtake, if no oncoming traffic, otherwise solid yellow means no passing for that lane) - Double Solid Yellow = no passing from either lane. White is used more often due to the contrast off Asphalt roads being better than yellow. Single lane or rural roads may not have any markings, so it pays to be on the left side and be wary of vehicles on blind corners. The Arrows were introduced in areas of high tourist traffic to reinforce the lanes which tourists are to drive on, as we had collection of high profile accidents where tourists 'forgot' which side of the road to be on. Most rural roads will not have these markings or many at all (generally only occur where a danger presents itself or when required). Single Lane bridges were originally for rural roads where not too much traffic occurs, however, some still exist on the State Highways, and generally in areas where traffic can be seen to allow the lane to yield enough time to safety stop. One lane bridges only get replaced if enough accidents or if the entire section of road is re-built due to the cost involved. Speed limits, most of the 100km/h limits have been a source of contention for many years, however, the Police refer to "Drive to the Conditions" and many roading authorities now have the power to alter the speed limits with community support. However, 30km/h is designed for road construction for several reasons, it is the speed where if you need to stop the degraded surface will allow you to stop quickly, also due to the presence of roadworkers within the road boundary.
The painted arrows on the roads were put there because a number of foreigners (not necessarily tourists) caused fatal accident by driving on the worng side of the road, especially at night. Soem of us refer to camper vans as road maggots.
The rule "drive according to the condition" overrules speed zones. Also, the 5-10km over the limit is know as the tolerance where the police will only issue a warning not a ticket.
Speedometer error is universal and is so manufacturers dont get class action sued for speeding tickets. The rule is it must not indicate less than actual or more than 10% over actual speed and theres also an additional 4km/h margin. Its possible though unlikely that at 100 it could indicate 114. The problem is most people don't seem to know this and all cars are different. Even if everyone tries to drive at the speed limit there will still be a lot of variation. There is no difference in a rental car.
@@terylou-u2i Yes that was a thing and, no it would not affect the speed indication unless the pointer return spring was messed with but that has nothing to do with the odometer. I had a 2000 Holden Berlina wagon and later a 2005 Holden Adventra, 4WD version of the same car, and both had "accurate" speedometers. That is to say they were both within 1km/h of GPS measured speed at 100km/h, e.g. within 1% while running on tyres that were somewhere between new and illegal. Given that the difference in tyre size from new to worn out is typically about 2% that is pretty good. The Australian Design Rules (ADR) governing present day speedo accuracy is as I previously stated. It must not indicate lower than actual and may indicate up to 10% plus additional 4km/h over actual speed. You can actually look this up. The ADRs are just a copy and paste version of other rules applicable in other markets such as EU.
@@terylou-u2i Yes that was a thing and, no it would not affect the speed indication unless the pointer return spring was messed with but that has nothing to do with the odometer. I had a 2000 Holden Berlina wagon and later a 2005 Holden Adventra, 4WD version of the same car, and both had "accurate" speedometers. That is to say they were both within 1km/h of GPS measured speed at 100km/h, e.g. within 1% while running on tyres that were somewhere between new and illegal. Given that the difference in tyre size from new to worn out is typically about 2% that is pretty good. The Australian Design Rules (ADR) governing present day speedo accuracy is as I previously stated. It must not indicate lower than actual and may indicate up to 10% plus additional 4km/h over actual speed. You can actually look this up. The ADRs are just a copy and paste version of other rules applicable in other markets such as EU.
The solid white lines also mean no stopping on the side of the road unless you can fully cross it so no part of the car is inside the lane , on the road blocking cars to freely pass. If there is a solid white line between lanes on a multi-lane/intersection it means no changing lanes. Stay in your given lane until you have broken whites again. Another solid whiteline scenario is when lanes merge; 2 into 1 or entering a motorway. Which ever car is in front(the nose, hood,bonnet, front bumper,grill) when the solid white line finishes and broken white starts , they have the right of way and the other car should yield. The broken white is not a free lane to see how many cars you can pass and cut in.
Remember that all petrol in NZ is imported, even though there is a limited oil industry, and with NZ being remote it has to i port from quite a distance away.
A large part of the fuel cost is tax to pay for roading. We have a relatively small population and a lot of roading to maintain. We also have very few toll roads.
The one lane bridges are extremely old, they get replaced by 2 lane bridges once they are the end of the of their life. I've never really found 1 lane bridges dangerous, saying that even if I have the right of way I still tend to slow down a bit so I have time to stop if someone doesn't follow the rules (I never had that happen).
As a Kiwi driving on the right side for a couple of years, like you I found T intersections in the country and shopping mall car parks are where I struggled with which side of the road was the correct. Good video.
As a Kiwi driver (and having driven in the USA a lot and some in Europe), this is a pretty fair summary! Those campers (mostly driven by tourists), that don't allow traffic to pass, are a constant source of frustration to other drivers. Another frustration is those drivers (sometimes the same campers) that speed up when they get to passing lanes - making it difficult to safely pass. 25 years ago, tourism was minimal (and population less) which meant traffic was much less, so narrow roads / one lane bridges didn't really matter much. Unfortunately 30 - 40 years or so ago our road death toll was also pretty bad, peaking in 843 deaths in 1973 and now its down to about 320 deaths despite a huge increase in the number of vehicles on the road. I think the improvement has come from safety improvements to cars, higher volume traffic (forcing drivers to consider others and limiting how fast they can go!), better driver licensing requirements (much better driving standard required now than when I got my license - which was crazy simple to get), improvements to roads (like straightening roads and safety barriers) and also increased policing has likely had an impact. We used to have a lot less road markings, but now with a lot more overseas drivers, more road markings have been added for safety (there is still the occasional head on crash from a driver driving on the wrong side of the road).
Using the fear factor with numbers of deaths on the road. If they were truthful and used the percentages of deaths by the number of vehicles or licensed drivers verses deaths, you would see how small it really is( I am not justifying deaths.) Just the proportional costs and fear verses actual fatalities. They seem to justify fear and speed for ticketing. Trying to achieve Zero deaths is (a lie) impossible and the costs to try and achieve it is unreasonable and impractical.
One lane bridges won’t be replaced anytime soon , in fact they’ve become a bit of a cultural thing now , just slow down for them , enjoy the view and give the oncoming driver a wave😊
Most of NZ bridges were built after ww2 when investment in infrastructure was a key thing govt did. Thus they are narrow (if two lane) and one lane if on roads that are not major traffic roads. Now the cost of building a new bridge is mind blowingly expensive. I don't bore with as to why, but we have a nasty one lane bridge in our town. Right next to a quarry and over the bridge goes the national walking trail (the one that goes from top to bottom of NZ). So its a problem. Costs in the 10's of millions to make two lanes. Local population in our county (Waikato district council) only has 90 000 people in it, and this is one of many one lane bridges. We can't afford to spend that much on just one bridge. We have painted ourselves into a corner with infrastructure or development. We expect exceptional enviromental protections, on top of an already high build costs, but don't have the productivity / GDP to sustain it.
The speedometer thing is done by all manufacturers. Not distinct to NZ. Also the dotted white lines do not mean it is safe to pass. It means you can, if safe to do so and if you have 100m clear of oncoming traffic once finished the maneuver.
Well done, I think a very fair assessment. The speedo on your rental should be about 7% over-reading like all the cars in NZ, who would now why they do it but they do !. Glad you enjoyed it, Cheers Worm.
The fuel nozzles not staying on is a safety thing. As a result it’s unheard of for someone to drive off with the hose still attached to car, unlike in US.
I have a Korean car, built for the European market with the indicators on the left, and a Japanese work vehicle built for the local market with the indicators on the right. When I switch between vehicles I always hit the wrong stalk.
For a while I had an Opal (European based) as a work car and a Japanese Mazda for my personal car. Indicators and wioers weree reversed and I always seemed to hit the wrong one.
Years ago I had to drive a neighbour's European car home from the airport, I was used to a Japanese car. They warned me about the different stalk controls. By the time I had that one short drive in their car, my brain had successfully "flipped". Years later, now I drive my own European car weekly, indicator stalk on left, and a Japanese car (more often) , indicator on the right. Some days I even drive them both in the same day. I hardly ever* use the wrong stalk. So, in my brain at least, it can do the mental gymnastics of knowing which side is the indicator stalk ! (* Yes very occasionally I do use the wrong stalk, but not very often !)
@KiwiCatherineJemma when I was in France/Scotland earlier this year, I think that at least one of those was flipped for me (side of the road certainly was in Scotland). And I didn't really have any issues there. I think that NZ really helped me get used to it. Hopefully future locations will be easy to adapt to.
@@KiwiCatherineJemma congratulations! My brain is missing that ability. Fortunately I never made the same type of mistake on a motorcycle when switching from geared bike to scooter. The clutch lever on a motorcycle is the rear brake lever on a scooter. Operating that could have caused a more significant issue than turning on the wipers.
Headed to NZ Sunday! How long did it take you to feel comfortable driving (i.e. 2nd day, 3rd??). Appreciate the info as the whole driving thing is likely my biggest concern for my trip. I opted for $0 deductible on the rental insurance anticipating I'm going to suck at it!! One other thing you could add is you rental experience. A lot of folks don't understand that your credit card rental insurance doesn't cover countries like New Zealand, Italy, and Australia. Thanks for publishing this!
I didn't drive much the 1st day, but in the 2nd day I was fairly used to it. Even at the end, I still occasionally turned on the windshield wiper shem trying to turn though :p The biggest thing was having a car with lane assist. In the first few days it was a HUGE help in getting used to where I'm supposed to be in the lane. I definitely drifted to the left for a few days. I'll also note that there weren't a ton of cars around for most of the driving, so it was pretty relaxing. I'm also naturally comfortable driving. My wife would have been miserable driving in NZ because she would get super nervous. The road signs are easy to follow - you'll get used to everything in no-time! Enjoy the trip. Not sure if you saw any of the other Vids I did about the trip, but it truly had some of the most amazing views and some really fun experiences!
One thing I'd like to say (if it hasn't been said already) is that the reason Google Maps probably hasn't provided a speed limit of the road you're on may be that you're supposed to pay attention to the signs on the outside of the car, not just the screen on the inside of the car - this especially holds true when local conditions have changed so that there are lower speed limits enforced (road works, accidents) that Google Maps may not know about within a reasonable time (30 minutes after imposition). Therefore, keep your eyes on the road signs for the right speed. That's my take on it, anyhow.
Oh, I love them. I have a few that I drive by daily - they're just rare in the states. I was really caught off guard by how there are in NZ, but it was a pleasant surprise. Though, I'm sure they'd give soke Americans a bit of trouble :p
Our fuel prices are sky high because we do not produce oil. It has to be imported. We also do not manufacture cars, we import from Europe, Japan, Korea etc
I knew about importing the cars, and I found that so cool seeing such a variety. I hadn't considered the imported fuel though; interesting. NZ was my first "real" taste of being out of the US, and even then, I feel like I just scratched the surface. Looking forward to future travels now that my mind/eyes have opened a bite more!
MMM... camper vans are a nuisance... Most speedometers read a little bit fast...the auto radars on the roadside are pretty accurate... good way to check your speedo error. A lot of the one way bridges are very old and are often replaced with better ones as they finally wear out. The gas pumps have a little latch you have to engage. Glad you enjoyed my pretty country, and managed on our roads. Driving on the opposite side than you are use to is tricky... 🙂
Yellow = do not cross the line White = you may cross the line to pass So therefore if there are only two lanes, of opposing direction traffic, the centreline must be white to allow passing.
I think the reason that Google maps is so crazily accurate might be that your phone is sending information back to Google about your progress and adding it to the algorithm that handles the heaviness of the traffic on that road. So your car, added to all the other cars on the same road using Google maps makes for super accurate predictions.
As a new zealander i will say: if youre coming to nz please hire a local driver. Way too many times hav i seen foreigners driving on the wrong side, not indicating or blowing red lights. Red = stop Yellow = slow down to stop Green = go There is no in-between
One way bridges are not prone to causing accidents and occur only on secondary or tertiary roads with light traffic. The Highway Code (road rules) stipulates that slow traffic cannot hold up other vehicles and must stop or pull over to the left to let traffic pass. A fine can be issued.I note you make no mention of even glancing at a rule book before setting off -like all other tourists. The white lines are fine and are more visible at night than yellow . I have driven for over 60 years with one minor accident sliding on a "metal" (unsealed road of corrugated loose stones) but able to drive on over a thousand km.
Heavily congested neighborhoods in Auckland City made me nervous. It was common for cars to be parked on both sides of the road, and barely enough space for two way traffic to pass through. But I was fine driving on the left.
Hilly windy back country roads are sort of open road speeds meaning up to but not exceeding the open road speed limit, generally 100km/h. In those areas the speed signs are a white circle with a black diagonal line typically indicating that you can drive any speed most comfortable and safest for you and the conditions while maintaining a courtesy to other road users who might be going faster or slower. Obviously some parts of those roads you can't actually go 100km/h but that falls more into common sense. Most of the main highways have designated speed signs ranging from 30 to 50km/h (middle of town/heavy pedestrian areas) 60 and 70km/h (slightly outside of town) and 80 to 100/110km/h (open road).
Thanks for this! From the US. My only worry still is driving through Auckland... am i going to have a hard time? Driving through the countryside doesnt scare me, but auckland Im a bit worried about.
Roads are marked pretty clearly. I got used to things pretty quickly. But you do need to be cautious and attentive. I hate city driving, but at least there's plenty of cars around to remind you of which way to go.
An answer about corners in areas which you couldn't do the speed limit: I don't know if you saw the yellow signs indicating turns all had numbers under them! This indicates a safe speed to travel around the corner. So while we won't be going the speed limit per say, we've got a fair idea of the speeds at which we can talk corners
yes many roads, particularly the not so busy winding roads have the yellow speed advisory signs on the bends and corners along the road. They are not official speed limit signs, but the recommended speed for going through that particular corner. I think the Automobile Assn (AA) puts these in, all over the country. They also have the yellow signs for loose gravel, slippery when wet, ice, rockfalls etc.. these yellow signs are all simply advisory signs.
Nearly half the price of fuel in NZ is tax, including GST. Most of the tax goes to building and maintaining roads in NZ. That means the user pays for the roading system.
Hate those camper vans , have seen so many on the wrong side of the road. Road to zero what a load of tripe…the government thinks it will magically happen with out any effort but all those deaths on the road , people think it won’t happen to them and it’s not a nice way to die !
Out of our various trips the past few years, NZ keeps coming back as our favorite. We really wanna go back - but the long flight time is a killer. Hopefully some day :)
Kiora mate, hope you had an amazing time here in Aotearoa New Zealand. One correction, driving on the left is not the wrong side, in fact another 75 countries do, including India, the most populated and Japan. Hence why you'll see many Japanese imported cars.
Stop vs Yield/Give-Way. I have been living in a provincial town for nearly thirty years after living in Auckland for the other half of my life. I can count on just one hand the number of times I've seen cars stop at stop signs here when they have not been required to do do by oncoming traffic. Ironically, behaviour at Give Way signs is erratic and people regularly stop when there is no traffic.
I'm a kiwi that spent several years in USA (mostly Michigan). Here's a few extra comments. NZ doesn't have the 'turn right on red' rule (which would be turn left on red in NZ). Michigan only has two seasons... Winter, and road construction. Having said that, the MI arterial roads are SERIOUS roads!!! 12 inches of concrete with 1 inch rebar in it! When NZ creates a new road, it's largely just slapped down over whatever terrain is present (thus winding roads). In USA, it's more likely to have flat & straight roads. If there's a mountain in the way, then tunnel through it. If there's a big ravine, then a huge bridge! (Vehicles use less fuel when they're on flat / straight roads) Road cones... NZ seems to have 95% or more of the worldwide inventory of these bloody cones!!! Worse still, they don't bother removing them from construction sites for a month or two AFTER construction is completed!. In MI USA, there were precious few cones, and the majority of them were more 'barrel shaped' than cone shaped. Despite having lived in USA for many years, there were still many times where I'd notice someone had STOLEN the steering wheel. (So I had to walk around to the OTHER side of the vehicle to locate it...). I never got used to the fact that I could buy a slab of beers at the gas station! Think yourself lucky that you weren't in NZ a few years earlier. We had a WEIRD rule where left turning traffic had to give way (a.k.a. yield) to oncoming traffic that was turning right. The 'theory' was that the vehicle turning right was in a 'less safe' location in the middle of the road while the left turning vehicle was 'safely' on the side of the road where cars were parking. This 'experiment' lasted over a decade before it got thrown out (largely because it was so 'foreign' to tourist drivers) There are a few things that seem almost universal. For example, BMW drivers don't know how to indicate. Asian drivers will get lost and then just STOP in the middle of the road to figure out where they are.
Always interesting to hear an outsider's perspective on driving motor vehicles in New Zealand. 🤔 Having driven in many countries outside of NZ I'm not exactly impressed with standards here. We can, and must, do better.
#9:30 when you press the handle all the way, it releases a metal bit near where your thumb would be, you can then push that towards the nozzle to "lock" the handle. I won't recommend that though, sometimes the autostop doesn't work and you end up splashing your pants with petrol.
I've never driven in Europe or America so cannot say how I'd adapt to RH driving. I do know this though, that if a fast moving emergency vehicle loomed up behind me with lights and siren at the high port, my wired-in knee jerk reaction is to swerve to the left to make way, a recipe for disaster on an RH road. Col (77).
Aoteoroa actually has a really high road death rate. It is around 30% higher than countries with similar populations e.g. Finland, Norway etc. The arrows painted on the roads are because of the high number of head on crashes sometimes caused by overseas drivers driving on the wrong side of the road however overall most are caused by Kiwis who are terrible drivers compared to Europeans. The higher speedo reading has been common on Japanese, European and Sth Korean new cars for some years now. Interestingly my 1 year old Chinese MG4 EV shows the exact speed so I have to be careful after years of knowing that I can be 4 kph over.
Yellow center lines are something I never really thought about but I can understand what you're saying. It makes sense. Most roadside signage follows international standards so why not road markings. I wish we drove on the left so we could import US cars.
It's interesting that in the US, we get foreign cars. The manufacturers make both left and righ-drive versions, so in the US, we import left-drive. So, it's odd that the US doesn't make right-drive for export.
All cars have a tolerance in the speedos and read high. Means drivers keep to the speed limits. It's world wide so I'm surprised to hear the comment. And arrows on the roads are solely for the guidance of tourists. Several major (multi fatality) accidents have been caused by tourists in NZ. Easy enough to deal with the indicator/wiper thing when you drive a mix of cars in NZ.
I find Google maps quite accurate for time but on occasion, it's offered roads to travel by that didn't actually exist as shortcuts some of which were dangerous or trespassing or just not there. If you don't mind a detour though you should be fine
Thanks for your comments - tis nice to hear how others see us - the indicator / wipers steering column stalks placement is vehicle make dependent - basically based on where the vehicle was designed / built etc - it is a common issue for us kiwi drivers to use the wrong lever and have wipers going instead of indicator - most vehicles speedo reads slightly higher than what the GPS systems state you are doing - I think this is world wide and not just NZ vehicles and I thought is was to stop the car manufacturer being sued by USA drivers who had been ticketed for exceeding the speed limit - ta
For the same reason nz has so many two lane roads. Cost. Nzs land area is roughly the same as the UK with 1/12th the population. Nz is also geologically very active and very hilly. The cost of constructing dual carriage ways and two lane bridges particularly in rural areas is way beyond the means of both our territorial authorities and or the central govt. Fun fact the us offered to both four lane state highway one and double track our main train artery after the 2nd world war. We refused. Nz did however modify the us army corps plans to create the southern moterway into auckland. The modifications included stupidly shortening the on and off ramps thus contributing to aucklands traffic woes😂
Come back for Summer in Surfing, Raglan Beach, like Elvis Surfed in Hawaii, that is a 4 movie chick flicks weekend. The Currency rate is still very low as it will be. =Mount Te Aroha is a Wedding theme lookout.
All cars have speedometers that are slightly fast. This is a measure against potential litigation should the speedometers read wrong and result in people getting tickets.
The arrows on the road were introduced because tourists kept forgetting which side of the road they were supposed to be on and causing accidents! They're usually placed near tourist-heavy attractions, especially at the exits. BTW when you're pumping petrol there's a little clip/switch on the nozzle that you can flick to keep the fuel flowing without having to hold it - it's slightly different at the various petrol stations (eg Caltex vs BP) but they all have it. Also most fuel brands have an ap that you can download to pay in-car without going inside - trying to keep you brand loyal!
Unfortunately some (mostly self serve pumps) have deliberately disabled the lock on the fillers. It makes for a very painful fill if you've let your tank get too low and you have to stand there holding it.
Now it's only the locals that drive on the wrong side of the road. But Kiwis aren't good at following rules or looking at signs or road markings.
In Europe they put nice shaped arrows everywhere. Not just the odd busy area. Ever noticed how when you drive somewhere you don't stay in one area?
@@mystarafilmsjust stick your fuel cap under lever in will still cut off
and the black handle is Diesel
Friendly NZ traffic engineer here.
The top highway limit in New Zealand is actually 110km/h, but only applies on 2 different highways, about a 100 km total length.
Speedometers are required to read at or over the true speed. Whenever they're low they get corrected, they only get corrected if they're reading way over.
One lane bridges are primarily really old bridges. When they get replaced they usually get replaced with two lane bridges on busy roads. We're saving a lot of money by just not replacing bridges. They cause some crashes, but typically only fender benders. Two lane bridges are often worse because people hit the abutments at 100km/h and die.
New Zealand has expensive petrol because highways and 50% of local roads are paid for from petrol tax. In the US, roads are paid for mostly by general taxation (and honestly, debt). New Zealand is actually average for wealthy nations, the US is very cheap.
The road rules recently changed to allow road controlling authorities to set realistic speed limits on rural roads (I.e. not 100kmh on windy roads). However, almost no e of the south island state highways have had this happen yet.
Thanks for the insight!
Any comment on the yellow/white or solid/dashed lines?
That was the most confusing part to me, and I feel like there's likely some logic there that I'm just not seeing.
@@tac-com2574
It's a bit of a mess. I think that kiwi drivers are used to it, because we do a lot of driving on two lane rural roads.
There are four sets of line:
White dashed - just defines your lane, it may be safe to cross, but you need to check
White solid - approaching an intersection or hazard in the middle of the road
Yellow solid - do not cross
Yellow dashed - return to your lane
I actually wrote this part of the New Zealand equivalent of the MUTCD (called the TCD Manual) for the government. We found that road controlling authorities were doing a pretty good job marking the dashed and solid yellow lines consistently, but that the solid white lines weren't consistent. This is probably what causes your confusion as you are trying to figure out what it means, but that will change every time you cross an administrative boundary.
The Manual says that yellow lines should only be used when it isn't obvious to a driver that it is unsafe to cross (usually a hidden intersection or dip). I didn't agree with that recommendation, but the review panel wanted to retain it. Recently, they have become more common, especially in areas with high tourist volumes.
On roads with three or more lanes, the centre line must include either a solid yellow line or solid white line. I would prefer the Manual too say that the centre line should always be solid.
@@tac-com2574I invite you to come and drive in New South Wales, where all the lines painted on the road are white.
NZ a wealthy nation?!!.. It's seems our tax burden pays for everything.
Across Waimakariri most roads were reduced from 100kmph to 80 or less, almost systematically. That is not setting realistic speed limits, its cutting speed because of political decision making. If having cut the speeds they had eliminated or even drastically reduced the numbers of accidents I'd be supportive, but it hasn't.
There are other methods of reducing harm on the roads, unfortunately they are even less popular and would have cost implications, but changing speed limits is not the way to do it.
Fun fact, New Zealand's national roading system is predominantly based off the United States. N.Z's very first highways were designed by an engineering firm based in San Francisco (Wilbur Smith Associates), alongside Caltrans/California Department Of Transportation. Soon after that N.Z had adopted U.S styled road signs such as the yellow diamond shaped warning signs, orange diamond shaped temporary warning signs, and green highway direction signs.
Additionally, a couple U.S styled road markings were also introduced to N.Z such as the double yellow 'No Passing' lines, thick solid 'Stop' and/or 'Give Way/Yield' lines, along with the U.S styled painted arrow markings. The order in which multi level word markings are positioned on N.Z roads are done using the American format. Some examples such as 'Bus Stop', 'Bus Lane' or 'Keep Clear' road markings in similar countries like Australia and the U.K are painted from top to bottom, whereas in N.Z these messages are painted in reverse just as they would be in the U.S.
Another similarity between N.Z and the U.S are the highway designations, more specifically, California's State Highway route shield system. Our highway route shields are the same shape as California's (miner's spade) however flipped upside down, and could also resemble the U.S Interstate route shields as well. Just like with all state specific highway routes in the U.S, our national highway routes here in N.Z are also labeled using the same "State Highway x" format (SH1, SH2, SH3, etc). Australia and the U.K use their own alphanumeric system instead "Motorway x" (M1, M2, M3, etc). When driving in Auckland or Wellington you’ll also notice Californian styled concrete barriers and overpasses which Caltrans used during the 60's/70's.
New Zealand's vehicle scene is very diverse, we have cars and trucks from all around the world. We have American, European, and even Asian styled semi trucks. As for cars, we have everything from small Japanese compact cars all the way up to large full-size V8 American pickup trucks. We have it all.
The solid yellow line used to mean "no passing", but since about 1985 passing has been allowed, provided that you do not cross the yellow line.
Yeah I’m seeing more of those Ram, GMC and Ford 150 utes here now, not sure why they would own one when they can’t fit inside car parks properly.
@@bertmeinders6758 The "passing" refers to passing over the line.. you're not allowed to cross the centre line.
If you're driving on the open road in New Zealand and the road seems to suddenly disappear in front of you, don't panic. Youve come across something we call a corner. Once you've been around a few of these youll get the hang of it.
Yeah!😂😂😂
The direction arrows on the lanes are for tourists, Kiwis know what side of the road to drive on, overseas tourists ,don’t always remember
or in the case of some asians - even have driving licenses ...
Glad you enjoyed your stay in our country. Juicy vans drive us nuts too. The painted arrows are there to remind tourists to keep left, since they painted them our tourist accident rate has dropped dramatically.
We don't have traffic circles, we have roundabouts, totally different beast. Traffic circles are the reason roundabouts are unpopular in the US.
there is no difference between traffic circle and roundabout, they are exactly the same thing, you give way to the traffic that is already in the roundabout/traffic circle
@@nfwolf20yes, but you also give way to the right so people can enter/exit and not get stuck.
Oneway bridges are old, probably 50+ years old. There weren't many cars then, so it didn't matter. They're replacing them with two lane bridges, but they're taking their sweet time.
more like 100+
@@zpe1200 Bridges are usually 75 years expected. Most of these one ways are 1945-1970
Anyway nothing wrong with taking a quick breather and to slow down waiting for a car to cross.
Not in central Otago. We have them everywhere.
Yeah, cause bridges are extremely expensive.
As for why buses and trucks are going way slower than the speed limit, there's actually a separate speed limit for them. In 100 km/h zones, they're only allowed to go 90 km/h, and most of them are tracked via GPS (e.g. fleet management systems like EROAD), so the drivers take it seriously.
Even then I constantly see semi trucks on the road breaking 100 kmph on the highway
Campervans over a certain size also are limited to 90km/h. Typically if it looks like it's large enough for 4 people, it'd be limited to 90.
@@-aid4084that's mainly because it's hard to enforce a 90km/h speed limit in a 100km/h zone. Speed cameras, as well as radar in police vehicles are typically set to alert when a vehicle is travelling over 100km/h. So trucks will basically never get pulled over unless a cop with a handheld laser is checking all vehicles from the side of a road, which isn't that common, and even then they're more often looking for idiots driving cars well over the speed limit.
@@TheDarkFalcon yeah, thought what gets me is they have these signs saying "radar monitored, MAX speed limit 90 km/h" or something and they're clearly going 100, forcing cars to break the speed limit to pass.
@@-aid4084 If a truck is going 100 km/h then you shouldn't be passing it.
The reason we don't use yellow lines to divide lanes is because yellow is a prohibitive colour, meaning yellow means NO! No passing, no parking, no stopping, no whatever. White simply divides the lanes. You don't need a different colour lane marking to mark two way roads. You automatically know that if there's only two lane's, one goes one way, one goes the other, they're just marked with a broken white line to divide them, passing permitted, or yellow if passing is not permitted. It's really very easy.
What if it's a 3 lane road?
2 lanes in one direction and 1 lane in the other?
That's the situation that seems unclear to me.
The line separating the oncoming lanes will be solid
@@tac-com2574 These are usually at uphill passing lanes where the two lanes in the same direction (uphill) will be split with a broken white line with the right hand lane having a yellow solid line stating no passing into the incoming lane. The oncoming lane will have a broken white line stating that passing is permitted so long as it can be completed safely.
01:41 The stalks are not swapped. 😂😂 Japanese cars come with those default settings as they are built for the right hand drive market. Windscreen wipers on the left & indicators on the right. Moreover you will find the petrol tank on the left as opposed to cars manufactured for the left hand drive market.
We normally have the problem when switching from a German to a Japanese car. 😂😂😂 Cheers.
Chevy gas filler on the right Dodge filler is on the left
this is really comprehensive. thank you!
Nice video, much appreciated. I'm heading to NZ for 5 months starting in November, so videos like you are a nice way to bridge the gap.
I hope you enjoy your visit here. It's easy getting from A to B as there is little traffic compared to Europe and the US.
Just remember it takes much longer to get from A to B because of the smaller, slower roads. Give way signs are not yield signs! Traffic circles are not round abouts. Get your hands on a Road Code book ! You are meant to drive in the left lane unless passing. If you are going slower than the speed limit, you are meant to pull over so people can pass, and if you don't, you can be ticketed, be warned.
On the subject of Google maps: as you said, it's usually pretty good. What you do sometimes have to watch out for is being routed over an unsealed road when set to use shortest route. I had that happen once when driving from Hokitika to Arthur's pass, and while I didn't mind, it can be disconcerting if you're not expecting it.
Excellent video. I am pleased that you enjoyed your time in our country. A few years ago I went to BC Canada via LA. I didn't drive in the USA, but got a rental car and went for a short road trip around BC. Like you, I didn't seem to take too long to adapt to driving on the other side of the car and road. The scariest things for me were roundabouts/traffic circles and as you mentioned, turning onto another road and remembering to stay on the correct side of the road. As for the roundabouts, even though it was obvious that you travel anticlockwise in Canada, to me it seemed so wrong. That took some getting used to, and, yes, I noticed that there were a lot more STOP signs than GIVE WAY signs there. Until then, I had never seen an intersection with STOP signs on every entry. Here in NZ we only have STOP signs on 2 opposing entries and the other direction has GIVE WAY. Another big difference I noticed was turning right on a red light. In Canada, and the USA I believe, you can turn right on red if the way is clear. I remember getting honked at while waiting to turn right at my first red light. LOL.
I really wish we had more "yeild" (or "give way") signs in the US...
I don't think I noticed... Are you able to go left on red if the way is clear in NZ?
No. Red means stop here. You have to stop until the light turns green. The free right turn, over there, is a great idea I think. It was something I had not known about but it only took 1 red light in Vancouver to figure it out. I loaded an app on my iPad after that and did a bit more study on the different rules.@@tac-com2574
@@tac-com2574 No.
I know of a 4 way Stop sign in NZ. Witham and Blankney streets, just off Amyes Road, in the Hornby area of Christchurch. I used to go to the Fish-and-Chip shop in the little strip of shops there, beside the park.
The reason its 30 is for resealing so the new seal can set properly and not get ripped up by speeding drivers
He doesn't understand "tar and grit", as In the USA it's mostly all asphalt - which is a word we Kiwis pronounce in a very strange way.
What tar and grit? Dont you mean tar-seal 😁
@@gaylewhauwhau3972 No it is black top
@@KarenJensen-i2v oh ok over here in NZ growing up, we called it tar -seal. 😁
The reason it's 30kph is for the safety of the road workers and the condition of the road at the time.
You know if you're a pedestrian or one of those workers, a car going 50 is actually very fast when you are stationary. In Australia, it's 40km/hr. New Zealand roads can be a little narrower- may be the road edges are? However, one shouldn't pass those workers more than 30km/hr. It doesn't take much to kill someone. That people that go faster, haven't experienced cars flashing by.
for those happening across this vid in the future and are also confused by the dashed yellow vs solid yellow lines: dashed yellow means those already engaged in an overtaking/passing maneuver may continue the overtake but cannot initiate one during the duration of the dashed yellow lines.
The uploader is correct regarding solid yellow lines: no passing (if you're caught overtaking when your side of the road has a solid yellow, expect a pullover and on-the-spot ticket)
A very tolerant and moderate assessment. Well done!.
Haha, thanks! I loved my trip - favorite vacation I've ever had.
There's certainly some things I find different/odd, but that's just because it's not what I'm used to. It seems like most viewers are Kiwis, which is interesting. I sorta intended this to be for tourists who were wondering what to expect. That said, I've been loving the engagement, as I've learned a lot from the comments.
I feel like some comments on here are overly defensive because they think I'm complaining or saying NZ is doing something wrong.
Also, this trip was over a year ago, and all these recent comments are making me miss the trip :(
@@tac-com2574 It is an old joke that Kiwis will be asking visitors on their first day "So, what do you think of NZ?".
In 1996 I did a driving tour in Europe, and I agree, it doesn't take long to get used to the other side of the road. It is not hard to get by in another country if you have an open mind.
Gas prices are high as there is ~50% tax on it. The tax is used to fund roads (so they say). Also yeah the auto cut off on gas pumps is an art. Some just flow to fast for it to work. But most you can get to work by not putting the nozzle all the way in, allowing plenty of space for the air to come out of the tank as the gas goes in. Taught my kids to drive in the last 10 years and took them a surprisingly long time to learn - not helped because it is habit / intuitive for me, and I couldn't explain what I was doing.
I think you’re charitable to the New Zealand driving culture. As a Kiwi who’s lived and driven overseas, I find drivers here can be polite sometimes, but aggressive in the next moment.
I've lived in Sydney since the 70's. Home is like everyone is on drugs.
I find the south island overall is far better than the north and the smaller the town the better the driving and the friendlier the people. And tourists in Central otago are the bane of any local or commercial drivers existence
Petrol prices will always be expensive because, among other necessities, we have to import it. Our country is literally in the middle of nowhere so things ain’t as cheap as they would be in the US.
Btw those one way bridge systems are also used in urban areas to slow traffic down too. They basically narrow the road down at a point so only one car can pass at a time. There’s a system near where I live.
It didn't help when Comrade Ardern sabotaged our only Oil Refinery!!!
Missed (??) comments on the ever-present recommended speed signs on country road bends and curves. These consistently understate the actual ideal speed by about 10kph for saftey but are amazingly consistent and a great guide even for Kiwi drivers in areas that they don't know.
In hindsight, those were very helpful! I didn't think to mention them, as I'm used to seeing them in the US as well.
I'll be driving in Europe soon, I wonder if those roads will have those signs...
Yeah mostly I consider them to be speeds for large vehicles and campervans. A guaranteed 'no fuckup' speed that you should try to match if it's ones first time driving on a particular road. But you're usually pretty safe in a regular car going 10 or more over the recommended, and if you have a sporty car and good conditions sometimes you can hit them doing almost the road limit.
Speed suggestion signs end in a 5 and speed limit signs and in a zero.
They warn you of the ideal speed in less than ideal conditions, say if it's dark and/or inclement weather.
I usually test them and find they are about 15kph slower than the speed at which driving becomes unsafe in ideal driving conditions.
And then you get motorcyclists (who do double-check this, they normally do it the second time through that corner not the first): A "recommended speed" sign is doubled, then 20 is taken off. That's the max speed you can do without crossing lanes, supposedly :D (So a 50 kmh recommended corner could be hit at 80)
Then there was my brother when younger: Double + 20. (50 kmh corner would be closer to 120)
Great summary of NZ driving. A handy but little known fact about the plastic markers along the side of the road: when driving at night on back roads, the white reflectors on the markers on the left side of the road indicate the road ahead turns to the right. The yellow reflectors on markers on the right side of the road indicate that the road ahead turns to the left. Takes a bit of getting used to reading the sharpness of corners, but it's quite handy once you know how to interpret what the reflectors are showing.
The closer the spacing the tighter the bend meaning the more you need to slow down on a straight road they're roughly 100m apart on average
Your lane separation points are on point, rarely, I will not know whether the land next to me is an oncoming land or my way lane when divided by white lines.
Thank you!
I wanted to be honest and speak my mind, but I was a bit worried that I was just the "ignorant American". Honestly, maybe I still am - but at least my point may have some validity :p
@@tac-com2574 I have lived in NZ all my life and it's something that annoys me too. Sometimes there are even double yellow lines seperating lanes going the same direction which is pretty odd. It would be better if yellow lines seperated lanes going opposite direction and white lines seperated lanes going in the same direction like in the US.
@@tac-com2574 I've never thought about it, but been driving for about 30 years. I was thinking wait a minute, yellow might be better. One thing about white is that it stands out in bad weather where as yellow may be less visible. We get plenty of bad weather. Not sure if that is a factor
It's common to see card machines on the pump now 2024
The one-lane bridges are just the result of lack of money spent on the roads. But in quiet rural areas the bridges are quite adequate with some good manners from the drivers using them. As tourist and traffic density increases every Kiwi driver would love to see all one-ways replaced by two-lane bridges. We live in hope.
They are a result of that was required at the time they were built very few people drove the roads where they predominantly are at the time the population of nz was about half what it is now when they were built and tourism and rental cars were basically non existent
Another feature for visitor driving rental cars.. the Police have the authority / permission of the rental car companies to cancel your rental contract, on the spot, if they stop you for a driving offence that is dangerous, like failing to stay on the right side of the road or dangerous driving..
Um, is that meant to be "... failing to stay on the left side of the road ..."?
Failing to stay on the "correct" side of the road
@@roygroves5983 Yah. English is funny like that.
Comprehensive even from perspective from one drives in Australia - same as NZ. Google maps can be downloaded for offline mode - hope this helps for fellow traveller. I'll be in NZ in March.
Very interesting that all the centerlines in America are yellow. This does make sense to quickly show that it is a two-way road but I think one-way roads are so rare and are so clearly signposted here that it isn't an issue. One just assumes it's two-way unless it's signposted otherwise.
In the case of a road being 3 lanes where 1 lane is for passing the single lane always has a double yellow to differentiate the lane and show that you can't overtake in that lane
Personally I think having yellow lines and dashes only where you can't pass makes them stand out more and is therefore safer but I can see the the benefits of having all centerlines yellow as well.
The microwave speed indicators are accurate - Car speedometers are not.
Car speedometers read up to 10 kmh faster that the actual speed. It is a requirement of the EU standard. A speedometer must never show less than the actual speed, and must never show more than 110% of actual speed + 10 kmh.
Interesting - thanks for the info!
just don't take them as being a consistently accurate measure of your speed. And I mean that if they tell you that your speed is five over what the speedo says don't speed up to what you think the real limit is. It is no excuse in law to rely on them.
Most of what I wanted to point out has already been covered here. The point about indicators and wiper stalks being reversed is true but only in cars manufactured in Australia or Asia or Japan (where they also drive on the left). If you drive a European brand here in NZ they have the stalks reversed like you are used to in the US. On the speedo accuracy, some brands are more out than others. They are like that from factory though and it isn't just for rental cars. It is also true for those same cars (e.g. Outback) in the US from comments I've read on owner forums.
Most petrol or Gas stations want you to go inside the store to pay because you are more likely to also grab something to eat or a coffee. That is where they make their margin as there is barely any profit for the store on fuel itself.
Here in Australia the roads are much wider but the driving habits are the same. If you come to Australia remember that Ford and Holden UTEs always speed or will tailgate you until you let them pass. Most are V6 or V8s.
One lane bridges are being replaced by 2-lane, but usually only as the bridge approaches it's end of life
Thank you for the information, very helpful! :]
Yes, on what is called "Open road" which as you guessed means outside of a controlled zone, i.e. not posted limits, you can travel at "What the conditions allow" up to 100 kph.
If the road is winding, and limited visibility because of curving lines of sight, you must slow till you can safely stop in the distance you can see. This means, basically, you don't turn the corner faster than you can stop before hitting something that may be ahead of you.
Some Comments regarding your queries regarding our traffic system.
Different models of cars have indicators / window wipers on different sides of the car wheel - Japanese / Australian have indicators on the left, European on the right.
For most Roads:
- Single broken lines (passing allowed) for both lanes, so long as a minimal of 100m of clearance (and you can physically see it) in front of the vehicle you are passing is achieved at all times.
- Solid White lines (on the edge =indicates the actual lane location / shoulder, in the middle = coming up to an intersection; denoting an turning lane off the main lane, or in an area where a median lane exists)
- Broken Yellow (on the side = no parking, in the middle = solid line ahead (100m))
- Broken White with a Solid Yellow (generally where passing lanes occur, traffic on white side allowed to overtake, if no oncoming traffic, otherwise solid yellow means no passing for that lane)
- Double Solid Yellow = no passing from either lane. White is used more often due to the contrast off Asphalt roads being better than yellow.
Single lane or rural roads may not have any markings, so it pays to be on the left side and be wary of vehicles on blind corners. The Arrows were introduced in areas of high tourist traffic to reinforce the lanes which tourists are to drive on, as we had collection of high profile accidents where tourists 'forgot' which side of the road to be on. Most rural roads will not have these markings or many at all (generally only occur where a danger presents itself or when required).
Single Lane bridges were originally for rural roads where not too much traffic occurs, however, some still exist on the State Highways, and generally in areas where traffic can be seen to allow the lane to yield enough time to safety stop. One lane bridges only get replaced if enough accidents or if the entire section of road is re-built due to the cost involved.
Speed limits, most of the 100km/h limits have been a source of contention for many years, however, the Police refer to "Drive to the Conditions" and many roading authorities now have the power to alter the speed limits with community support. However, 30km/h is designed for road construction for several reasons, it is the speed where if you need to stop the degraded surface will allow you to stop quickly, also due to the presence of roadworkers within the road boundary.
I think your first point is back to front every Japanese eye car I've ever driven the indicators are on the right. And the European cars on the left
The painted arrows on the roads were put there because a number of foreigners (not necessarily tourists) caused fatal accident by driving on the worng side of the road, especially at night.
Soem of us refer to camper vans as road maggots.
The rule "drive according to the condition" overrules speed zones. Also, the 5-10km over the limit is know as the tolerance where the police will only issue a warning not a ticket.
Speedometer error is universal and is so manufacturers dont get class action sued for speeding tickets. The rule is it must not indicate less than actual or more than 10% over actual speed and theres also an additional 4km/h margin. Its possible though unlikely that at 100 it could indicate 114. The problem is most people don't seem to know this and all cars are different. Even if everyone tries to drive at the speed limit there will still be a lot of variation. There is no difference in a rental car.
I always sit on 115km/hr on my motorbike cause the speedo is 10k over so I'm actually doing 105, safe enough to not get pulled over.
My understanding is that some Japanese imports used to get their Speedos wound back. This would give an error in the speed reading
@@terylou-u2i Yes that was a thing and, no it would not affect the speed indication unless the pointer return spring was messed with but that has nothing to do with the odometer.
I had a 2000 Holden Berlina wagon and later a 2005 Holden Adventra, 4WD version of the same car, and both had "accurate" speedometers. That is to say they were both within 1km/h of GPS measured speed at 100km/h, e.g. within 1% while running on tyres that were somewhere between new and illegal. Given that the difference in tyre size from new to worn out is typically about 2% that is pretty good.
The Australian Design Rules (ADR) governing present day speedo accuracy is as I previously stated. It must not indicate lower than actual and may indicate up to 10% plus additional 4km/h over actual speed.
You can actually look this up. The ADRs are just a copy and paste version of other rules applicable in other markets such as EU.
@@terylou-u2i Yes that was a thing and, no it would not affect the speed indication unless the pointer return spring was messed with but that has nothing to do with the odometer.
I had a 2000 Holden Berlina wagon and later a 2005 Holden Adventra, 4WD version of the same car, and both had "accurate" speedometers. That is to say they were both within 1km/h of GPS measured speed at 100km/h, e.g. within 1% while running on tyres that were somewhere between new and illegal. Given that the difference in tyre size from new to worn out is typically about 2% that is pretty good.
The Australian Design Rules (ADR) governing present day speedo accuracy is as I previously stated. It must not indicate lower than actual and may indicate up to 10% plus additional 4km/h over actual speed.
You can actually look this up. The ADRs are just a copy and paste version of other rules applicable in other markets such as EU.
The solid white lines also mean no stopping on the side of the road unless you can fully cross it so no part of the car is inside the lane , on the road blocking cars to freely pass. If there is a solid white line between lanes on a multi-lane/intersection it means no changing lanes. Stay in your given lane until you have broken whites again.
Another solid whiteline scenario is when lanes merge; 2 into 1 or entering a motorway. Which ever car is in front(the nose, hood,bonnet, front bumper,grill) when the solid white line finishes and broken white starts , they have the right of way and the other car should yield. The broken white is not a free lane to see how many cars you can pass and cut in.
Remember that all petrol in NZ is imported, even though there is a limited oil industry, and with NZ being remote it has to i port from quite a distance away.
A large part of the fuel cost is tax to pay for roading. We have a relatively small population and a lot of roading to maintain.
We also have very few toll roads.
The one lane bridges are extremely old, they get replaced by 2 lane bridges once they are the end of the of their life. I've never really found 1 lane bridges dangerous, saying that even if I have the right of way I still tend to slow down a bit so I have time to stop if someone doesn't follow the rules (I never had that happen).
As a Kiwi driving on the right side for a couple of years, like you I found T intersections in the country and shopping mall car parks are where I struggled with which side of the road was the correct.
Good video.
As a Kiwi driver (and having driven in the USA a lot and some in Europe), this is a pretty fair summary! Those campers (mostly driven by tourists), that don't allow traffic to pass, are a constant source of frustration to other drivers. Another frustration is those drivers (sometimes the same campers) that speed up when they get to passing lanes - making it difficult to safely pass. 25 years ago, tourism was minimal (and population less) which meant traffic was much less, so narrow roads / one lane bridges didn't really matter much. Unfortunately 30 - 40 years or so ago our road death toll was also pretty bad, peaking in 843 deaths in 1973 and now its down to about 320 deaths despite a huge increase in the number of vehicles on the road. I think the improvement has come from safety improvements to cars, higher volume traffic (forcing drivers to consider others and limiting how fast they can go!), better driver licensing requirements (much better driving standard required now than when I got my license - which was crazy simple to get), improvements to roads (like straightening roads and safety barriers) and also increased policing has likely had an impact.
We used to have a lot less road markings, but now with a lot more overseas drivers, more road markings have been added for safety (there is still the occasional head on crash from a driver driving on the wrong side of the road).
Using the fear factor with numbers of deaths on the road. If they were truthful and used the percentages of deaths by the number of vehicles or licensed drivers verses deaths, you would see how small it really is( I am not justifying deaths.) Just the proportional costs and fear verses actual fatalities. They seem to justify fear and speed for ticketing.
Trying to achieve Zero deaths is (a lie) impossible and the costs to try and achieve it is unreasonable and impractical.
One lane bridges won’t be replaced anytime soon , in fact they’ve become a bit of a cultural thing now , just slow down for them , enjoy the view and give the oncoming driver a wave😊
Most of NZ bridges were built after ww2 when investment in infrastructure was a key thing govt did. Thus they are narrow (if two lane) and one lane if on roads that are not major traffic roads. Now the cost of building a new bridge is mind blowingly expensive. I don't bore with as to why, but we have a nasty one lane bridge in our town. Right next to a quarry and over the bridge goes the national walking trail (the one that goes from top to bottom of NZ). So its a problem. Costs in the 10's of millions to make two lanes. Local population in our county (Waikato district council) only has 90 000 people in it, and this is one of many one lane bridges. We can't afford to spend that much on just one bridge. We have painted ourselves into a corner with infrastructure or development. We expect exceptional enviromental protections, on top of an already high build costs, but don't have the productivity / GDP to sustain it.
The speedometer thing is done by all manufacturers. Not distinct to NZ.
Also the dotted white lines do not mean it is safe to pass. It means you can, if safe to do so and if you have 100m clear of oncoming traffic once finished the maneuver.
Well done, I think a very fair assessment. The speedo on your rental should be about 7% over-reading like all the cars in NZ, who would now why they do it but they do !. Glad you enjoyed it, Cheers Worm.
At last, a seemingly polite, quietly spoken , intelligent American person. They are few and far between as tourists in my experience.
The fuel nozzles not staying on is a safety thing. As a result it’s unheard of for someone to drive off with the hose still attached to car, unlike in US.
I've never actually seen someone drive off with one before, but I've seen the pictures.
Honestly, I don't know how people even do that...
I have a Korean car, built for the European market with the indicators on the left, and a Japanese work vehicle built for the local market with the indicators on the right. When I switch between vehicles I always hit the wrong stalk.
For a while I had an Opal (European based) as a work car and a Japanese Mazda for my personal car. Indicators and wioers weree reversed and I always seemed to hit the wrong one.
Years ago I had to drive a neighbour's European car home from the airport, I was used to a Japanese car. They warned me about the different stalk controls. By the time I had that one short drive in their car, my brain had successfully "flipped". Years later, now I drive my own European car weekly, indicator stalk on left, and a Japanese car (more often) , indicator on the right. Some days I even drive them both in the same day. I hardly ever* use the wrong stalk. So, in my brain at least, it can do the mental gymnastics of knowing which side is the indicator stalk ! (* Yes very occasionally I do use the wrong stalk, but not very often !)
@KiwiCatherineJemma when I was in France/Scotland earlier this year, I think that at least one of those was flipped for me (side of the road certainly was in Scotland). And I didn't really have any issues there. I think that NZ really helped me get used to it. Hopefully future locations will be easy to adapt to.
@@KiwiCatherineJemma congratulations! My brain is missing that ability. Fortunately I never made the same type of mistake on a motorcycle when switching from geared bike to scooter. The clutch lever on a motorcycle is the rear brake lever on a scooter. Operating that could have caused a more significant issue than turning on the wipers.
Headed to NZ Sunday! How long did it take you to feel comfortable driving (i.e. 2nd day, 3rd??). Appreciate the info as the whole driving thing is likely my biggest concern for my trip. I opted for $0 deductible on the rental insurance anticipating I'm going to suck at it!! One other thing you could add is you rental experience. A lot of folks don't understand that your credit card rental insurance doesn't cover countries like New Zealand, Italy, and Australia. Thanks for publishing this!
I didn't drive much the 1st day, but in the 2nd day I was fairly used to it. Even at the end, I still occasionally turned on the windshield wiper shem trying to turn though :p
The biggest thing was having a car with lane assist. In the first few days it was a HUGE help in getting used to where I'm supposed to be in the lane. I definitely drifted to the left for a few days.
I'll also note that there weren't a ton of cars around for most of the driving, so it was pretty relaxing. I'm also naturally comfortable driving. My wife would have been miserable driving in NZ because she would get super nervous.
The road signs are easy to follow - you'll get used to everything in no-time!
Enjoy the trip. Not sure if you saw any of the other Vids I did about the trip, but it truly had some of the most amazing views and some really fun experiences!
Quick tip if you can look out your side window at the centreline, you're on the right... (left) ... side .... served me well when I went from NZ to US
@@napierite2186 A good tip from ,Worlds fastest Indian lol
Don't go feeling safe, ever.
We have lots of drivers on methamphetamine.
One thing I'd like to say (if it hasn't been said already) is that the reason Google Maps probably hasn't provided a speed limit of the road you're on may be that you're supposed to pay attention to the signs on the outside of the car, not just the screen on the inside of the car - this especially holds true when local conditions have changed so that there are lower speed limits enforced (road works, accidents) that Google Maps may not know about within a reasonable time (30 minutes after imposition). Therefore, keep your eyes on the road signs for the right speed. That's my take on it, anyhow.
Once you get use to them round about are awesome, its always faster than a stop light.
Oh, I love them. I have a few that I drive by daily - they're just rare in the states. I was really caught off guard by how there are in NZ, but it was a pleasant surprise. Though, I'm sure they'd give soke Americans a bit of trouble :p
@tac-com2574 these are nothing compared to the UK. Just google the magic roundabout in Swindon. That'll hurt your head.
@@empee82 I grew up in Gloucester and used the Magic Roundabout and Spaghetti Junction...no problem if logic is applied. Now I live in NZ.
The lines on the road are simple when you grow up with them.
But as he mentioned, the color in the middle is a great visual aid.
Our fuel prices are sky high because we do not produce oil. It has to be imported. We also do not manufacture cars, we import from Europe, Japan, Korea etc
I knew about importing the cars, and I found that so cool seeing such a variety.
I hadn't considered the imported fuel though; interesting.
NZ was my first "real" taste of being out of the US, and even then, I feel like I just scratched the surface. Looking forward to future travels now that my mind/eyes have opened a bite more!
@@tac-com2574Also, our gas is taxed very high. I think slightly over 50% of the cost is tax. In theory that pays for the roads.
You're right, in theory the tax pays for the roads. In real terms it's more like pay for the mp's wages@@waynerobertson511
MMM... camper vans are a nuisance... Most speedometers read a little bit fast...the auto radars on the roadside are pretty accurate... good way to check your speedo error.
A lot of the one way bridges are very old and are often replaced with better ones as they finally wear out. The gas pumps have a little latch you have to engage.
Glad you enjoyed my pretty country, and managed on our roads. Driving on the opposite side than you are use to is tricky... 🙂
Yellow = do not cross the line
White = you may cross the line to pass
So therefore if there are only two lanes, of opposing direction traffic, the centreline must be white to allow passing.
I think the reason that Google maps is so crazily accurate might be that your phone is sending information back to Google about your progress and adding it to the algorithm that handles the heaviness of the traffic on that road. So your car, added to all the other cars on the same road using Google maps makes for super accurate predictions.
Some places will place crashed vehicles off the side of the road to remind drivers to be careful, mainly around holidays like Xmas and Easter
As a new zealander i will say: if youre coming to nz please hire a local driver. Way too many times hav i seen foreigners driving on the wrong side, not indicating or blowing red lights.
Red = stop
Yellow = slow down to stop
Green = go
There is no in-between
As a New Zealander, I must say the locals are equally capable of blowing red lights.
One way bridges are not prone to causing accidents and occur only on secondary or tertiary roads with light traffic. The Highway Code (road rules) stipulates that slow traffic cannot hold up other vehicles and must stop or pull over to the left to let traffic pass. A fine can be issued.I note you make no mention of even glancing at a rule book before setting off -like all other tourists. The white lines are fine and are more visible at night than yellow . I have driven for over 60 years with one minor accident sliding on a "metal" (unsealed road of corrugated loose stones) but able to drive on over a thousand km.
Just noting that I did indeed look up the rules before my trip. Reading and watching videos can only get you so far though.
Heavily congested neighborhoods in Auckland City made me nervous. It was common for cars to be parked on both sides of the road, and barely enough space for two way traffic to pass through. But I was fine driving on the left.
Hilly windy back country roads are sort of open road speeds meaning up to but not exceeding the open road speed limit, generally 100km/h.
In those areas the speed signs are a white circle with a black diagonal line typically indicating that you can drive any speed most comfortable and safest for you and the conditions while maintaining a courtesy to other road users who might be going faster or slower.
Obviously some parts of those roads you can't actually go 100km/h but that falls more into common sense.
Most of the main highways have designated speed signs ranging from 30 to 50km/h (middle of town/heavy pedestrian areas) 60 and 70km/h (slightly outside of town) and 80 to 100/110km/h (open road).
thank you this was so helpful!
Thanks for this! From the US. My only worry still is driving through Auckland... am i going to have a hard time? Driving through the countryside doesnt scare me, but auckland Im a bit worried about.
Roads are marked pretty clearly. I got used to things pretty quickly. But you do need to be cautious and attentive. I hate city driving, but at least there's plenty of cars around to remind you of which way to go.
An answer about corners in areas which you couldn't do the speed limit: I don't know if you saw the yellow signs indicating turns all had numbers under them! This indicates a safe speed to travel around the corner. So while we won't be going the speed limit per say, we've got a fair idea of the speeds at which we can talk corners
yes many roads, particularly the not so busy winding roads have the yellow speed advisory signs on the bends and corners along the road. They are not official speed limit signs, but the recommended speed for going through that particular corner. I think the Automobile Assn (AA) puts these in, all over the country. They also have the yellow signs for loose gravel, slippery when wet, ice, rockfalls etc.. these yellow signs are all simply advisory signs.
Nearly half the price of fuel in NZ is tax, including GST. Most of the tax goes to building and maintaining roads in NZ. That means the user pays for the roading system.
Our NZ fuels are taxed more than once, then GST ( VAT) is added !!
7:57 to be fair it is a speed limit not a speed requirement :)
would also be fair if people were considerate. A lot of our traffic issues would be solved by consideration from both slow and fast drivers.
@@ryderoreilly9807 to be fair this is also true
Yes but it’s stupid because the powers of be are stupid and tied up in red tape!
Hate those camper vans , have seen so many on the wrong side of the road. Road to zero what a load of tripe…the government thinks it will magically happen with out any effort but all those deaths on the road , people think it won’t happen to them and it’s not a nice way to die !
Thanks for the great feedback. I love NZ too.
Out of our various trips the past few years, NZ keeps coming back as our favorite. We really wanna go back - but the long flight time is a killer. Hopefully some day :)
Kiora mate, hope you had an amazing time here in Aotearoa New Zealand. One correction, driving on the left is not the wrong side, in fact another 75 countries do, including India, the most populated and Japan. Hence why you'll see many Japanese imported cars.
Stop vs Yield/Give-Way.
I have been living in a provincial town for nearly thirty years after living in Auckland for the other half of my life.
I can count on just one hand the number of times I've seen cars stop at stop signs here when they have not been required to do do by oncoming traffic.
Ironically, behaviour at Give Way signs is erratic and people regularly stop when there is no traffic.
Speed limits are pretty basic here and it's not very big, we usually just know the speed limit of an area
Here in NZ If you had a European car like I have vw golf, the turning signals are on the left! Took me awhile to get used to lol 😂
I'm a kiwi that spent several years in USA (mostly Michigan). Here's a few extra comments.
NZ doesn't have the 'turn right on red' rule (which would be turn left on red in NZ).
Michigan only has two seasons... Winter, and road construction. Having said that, the MI arterial roads are SERIOUS roads!!! 12 inches of concrete with 1 inch rebar in it!
When NZ creates a new road, it's largely just slapped down over whatever terrain is present (thus winding roads). In USA, it's more likely to have flat & straight roads. If there's a mountain in the way, then tunnel through it. If there's a big ravine, then a huge bridge! (Vehicles use less fuel when they're on flat / straight roads)
Road cones... NZ seems to have 95% or more of the worldwide inventory of these bloody cones!!! Worse still, they don't bother removing them from construction sites for a month or two AFTER construction is completed!. In MI USA, there were precious few cones, and the majority of them were more 'barrel shaped' than cone shaped.
Despite having lived in USA for many years, there were still many times where I'd notice someone had STOLEN the steering wheel. (So I had to walk around to the OTHER side of the vehicle to locate it...). I never got used to the fact that I could buy a slab of beers at the gas station!
Think yourself lucky that you weren't in NZ a few years earlier. We had a WEIRD rule where left turning traffic had to give way (a.k.a. yield) to oncoming traffic that was turning right. The 'theory' was that the vehicle turning right was in a 'less safe' location in the middle of the road while the left turning vehicle was 'safely' on the side of the road where cars were parking. This 'experiment' lasted over a decade before it got thrown out (largely because it was so 'foreign' to tourist drivers)
There are a few things that seem almost universal. For example, BMW drivers don't know how to indicate. Asian drivers will get lost and then just STOP in the middle of the road to figure out where they are.
Always interesting to hear an outsider's perspective on driving motor vehicles in New Zealand. 🤔
Having driven in many countries outside of NZ I'm not exactly impressed with standards here. We can, and must, do better.
No overtaking on any yellow lines broken or solid, Cheers 👍
#9:30 when you press the handle all the way, it releases a metal bit near where your thumb would be, you can then push that towards the nozzle to "lock" the handle. I won't recommend that though, sometimes the autostop doesn't work and you end up splashing your pants with petrol.
I've never driven in Europe or America so cannot say how I'd adapt to RH driving. I do know this though, that if a fast moving emergency vehicle loomed up behind me with lights and siren at the high port, my wired-in knee jerk reaction is to swerve to the left to make way, a recipe for disaster on an RH road. Col (77).
Aoteoroa actually has a really high road death rate. It is around 30% higher than countries with similar populations e.g. Finland, Norway etc.
The arrows painted on the roads are because of the high number of head on crashes sometimes caused by overseas drivers driving on the wrong side of the road however overall most are caused by Kiwis who are terrible drivers compared to Europeans.
The higher speedo reading has been common on Japanese, European and Sth Korean new cars for some years now. Interestingly my 1 year old Chinese MG4 EV shows the exact speed so I have to be careful after years of knowing that I can be 4 kph over.
Yellow center lines are something I never really thought about but I can understand what you're saying. It makes sense. Most roadside signage follows international standards so why not road markings. I wish we drove on the left so we could import US cars.
It's interesting that in the US, we get foreign cars. The manufacturers make both left and righ-drive versions, so in the US, we import left-drive.
So, it's odd that the US doesn't make right-drive for export.
As NZ imports all cars the indicators on the right is an Asian thing. European and British cars have the indicator on the left.
Very helpful, thanks!
All cars have a tolerance in the speedos and read high. Means drivers keep to the speed limits. It's world wide so I'm surprised to hear the comment. And arrows on the roads are solely for the guidance of tourists. Several major (multi fatality) accidents have been caused by tourists in NZ. Easy enough to deal with the indicator/wiper thing when you drive a mix of cars in NZ.
3:56 the arrows on the road are simply to remind tourists to drive on the left, nothing to do with lane marking
I find Google maps quite accurate for time but on occasion, it's offered roads to travel by that didn't actually exist as shortcuts some of which were dangerous or trespassing or just not there. If you don't mind a detour though you should be fine
Thanks for your comments - tis nice to hear how others see us - the indicator / wipers steering column stalks placement is vehicle make dependent - basically based on where the vehicle was designed / built etc - it is a common issue for us kiwi drivers to use the wrong lever and have wipers going instead of indicator - most vehicles speedo reads slightly higher than what the GPS systems state you are doing - I think this is world wide and not just NZ vehicles and I thought is was to stop the car manufacturer being sued by USA drivers who had been ticketed for exceeding the speed limit - ta
I'm utterly astounded that simple things we have here seem confusing to you.
Are you guys ok over there?
Like what?
"Traffic circles" are called "roundabouts"
For the same reason nz has so many two lane roads. Cost. Nzs land area is roughly the same as the UK with 1/12th the population. Nz is also geologically very active and very hilly. The cost of constructing dual carriage ways and two lane bridges particularly in rural areas is way beyond the means of both our territorial authorities and or the central govt.
Fun fact the us offered to both four lane state highway one and double track our main train artery after the 2nd world war. We refused. Nz did however modify the us army corps plans to create the southern moterway into auckland. The modifications included stupidly shortening the on and off ramps thus contributing to aucklands traffic woes😂
I'm from NZ the tomtom app works well gives you speed and speed limit
The spedometer being 5km lower things is the car manufacturer thing. Maybe all Japanese cars are like this?
Come back for Summer in Surfing, Raglan Beach, like Elvis Surfed in Hawaii, that is a 4 movie chick flicks weekend. The Currency rate is still very low as it will be. =Mount Te Aroha is a Wedding theme lookout.
All cars have speedometers that are slightly fast. This is a measure against potential litigation should the speedometers read wrong and result in people getting tickets.
Our stop signs have very clear yelliw lines on the ground. We dont have ridiculous 4 way stop signs, and no right on a red.
There's at least 2 sets of 4 way stops in the country. (Which rather underscores your point)
It's only confusing to tourists, being driven in Germany is scary,so I get what you're alluding to.
Most cars here are 5kph over clocked. Helps not get a speeding ticket.
The cops don't tend to give you a ticket for 10 over the speed limit. 11 they will 100%. theres a jump in fine amount between doing 10 over and 11
Most one lane bridges are relics of days gone by,