on the road
We went to Hawkes Bay for the weekend.
(Taking the opportunity of a long weekend, we failed to realise it was Harvest Hawkes Bay weekend, a kind of big wine festival thing; we just had a nice family time with Becky’s grandmother and family. No wine, no restaurants, no adventures. But very restful.)
Anyway, driving there and back made me think how much slower everyone drives these days. Not so long ago, I would drive everywhere at 120 km/h, passing lots of slower cars and in turn being passed by others faster.
A lot of that sort of thing has gone now: traffic seems to go between 100 and 105 km/h pretty steadily, and for some reason there are far fewer of those frustrating 80 km/h Sunday drivers making everyone else slow down then do risky passing manoeuvres. The bell curve of speeds seems to be narrower, clustered more closely around the limit than it used to be.
Some of this is me: I have kids now; I’m older and not in so much of a tearing hurry; I have a car that can cruise at the same speed (almost) regardless of the road; and of course there is the fear of being caught.
But more and more people seem to be content to be in a long line of traffic, so long as it’s travelling on the limit.
Which means that it doesn’t seem to actually take any longer to go places, despite me never getting to 120km/h now (except occasionally when passing) and according to police, and statistics, this should be a safer thing.
stephen
7 February 2006, 08:23 #
Yeah, I’ve been noticing this the past year or two as well. Can’t say I’m sorry, either.
Brena
7 February 2006, 11:07 #
Driving has become more enjoyable with everyone flowing along nicely. I also used to be a constant overtaker a long time ago but finally learnt all that happens is you get there (if lucky) using a ton more gas in probably the same time but a lot more stressed out.
Also the thought of hurting someone coming from the opposite direction really got the better of me :-)
Alan
7 February 2006, 20:49 #
It’s certainly less stressful these days.
Even so, I do prefer roads with no traffic on them: Highway 50; Highway 8; etc etc…
hers
8 February 2006, 08:34 #
I’ve noticed exactly the same thing. I’m hoping the same trend extends to our urban roads. I live on a road that seems to invite speeders. Despite regular police presence and speed cameras (those jobs that remind you to go 50km) there are still idiots who zoom noisily past.
Llew
8 February 2006, 16:39 #
And the roads are a lot straighter & dare I say it… better than they used to be.
dodderyoldfart
12 February 2006, 22:07 #
It’s all go Llew!