That's a pretty big call. There are definitely some high quality stretches of motorway, but I was pretty much talking about highways. Why bother with super high speed motorways? If…

Hard dividers are used on the Autobahn, that most iconic of high-speed roads. They have buffer space between some installations, but that's more to allow for deflection I suspect since the barriers are…

Bollocks we don’t. The new motorways constructed in Auckland with hard dividers are equal in standard to any high-speed roadway in the world. Pretty much all the Auckland motorway…

I don't know about that. A lot of people want speed limits dropped, at least in their area.

Having said that, many local back roads are down to 80k…

So.... people generally drove more safely and had fewer problems, but when things did go wrong they went much…

Totally. Therein is the point here. Of course making the roads better will do the lion's share of the work in bringing down road tolls. But that's not something that people making ads have any influence over, and it's…

Roads with lots of people on them 'saving time'
by going faster get congested and dangerous too...

:- )

It gives you back time. Which is why we build motorways. I can remember when the trip to Whangarei hit suburban roads and horribly dangerous winding highways, at around Albany. The alternate route is still there, and I travelled it…

Which should not be taken as some mad Luddite rant.

None taken – this is something everyone will have a view on.

My experience is that there are many situations where the existing 50km/h – 100km/h limits are unnecessarily low. I know there are situations where they are…

You've asked about the challenges I've experienced around driving at safe speeds. My view is that we should use technology and good design to increase the speeds at which traffic can…

Umm?

If it's not the point, why show it? It's an easy and understandable conclusion to jump to that this would fit the prevailing contextual pattern of focussing on speed as the prime problem.…

Of course it matters. But focussing on speed to the absolute exclusion of all other factors that the driver can control is counter-productive. I can only recall one ad off the top…

But I don’t think being 8km/h above the speed limit is actually the point of the ad. It’s that the through-driver is…

But not at 108 in a 100. More like 108 in a 50. Or 150 in a 50. I struggle to recall a single fatal crash I went to (motor vehicle vs motor vehicle…

The statistics also show that younger drivers are getting a lot safer. That's that demanding testing showing up, the testing of which you are…

So we drive a slightly bigger car, which can go faster quicker. Sometimes it's fun to put your foot down and feel the acceleration (from 0 to 40 kph only!). But fun was NOT the reason we purchased it. The reason was that at that time…

In this advert it doesn't. The reality portrayed in this advert would not be altered by the through driver doing the speed limit instead of 8% above it.
We can inject all…

We've been over this before, and the numbers really don't back up what you're saying here. Most of accidents,…

In India, it is the Morris Oxford of 1957 that continues to be produced, with an immense local knowledge by the roadside on how to fix things when things go wrong. But…

Speed limiters would be useful. You get to 105km/h, and the vehicle starts playing soothing music, pulls over, and…

I've got a good friend who's had 8 car dings/crashes/incidents. And he still considers himself to be one of the better drivers he knows, often attempting to commandeer the driving wherever possible. 8! Given this clear…

It's clear that more advertising over a long period of time will be needed to correct significant…

The one made by the prominent Māori film-maker in partnership with Māori Television?

Nah, Rich meant “ghost chips” and he's entitled to a view on it, but I'm glad he eventually…

A friend of mine at university was a foreign student from Germany. He told me about how soon after he arrived he had driven to the mountain for skiing and was super pissed off that he couldn't find how to get on the motorway and…

You wouldn't be far wrong. In the early-mid 1980s, when all the Auckland motorways were undivided, the Fire Service's rescue tender at Manukau City fire station was the busiest fire appliance…

I little surprised that you were prepared to publicly deem it “racist” without having listened to it.

Would I like…

So have the guy doing under the posted limit! Because bringing in his over-the-limit speed means he's no longer "in the right". Now he's just a bad, speeding driver who's about to kill some innocent kid…

For purposes of comparison, here's NZTA's last speed-themed ad, 'Flying Objects'.

This campaign targets everyday drivers and their passengers. Not the speedsters or hoons who recklessly drive at excessive speeds, but the people whose vehicle speed tends to creep above the limit at a level where they still consider…

And it's not a new issue either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZAZ_xu0DCg

It's also surprising how such roads can lull you into a false sense of security. Two summers back driving out to Beidaihe and back I had to really careful because we were travelling along the Beijing-Harbin Expressway.…

Yeah, me too. It might help a bit. Better roads clearly would (remember when the Harbour Bridge had no barrier down the center? There were fatal crashes every week, it seemed). Enforcing lower speed limits? Probably helped significantly too. I…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLDve40cxlk

wash out for tha innerselection coming, urp.!

Here's a breakdown for 2012 fatalities from Statistics Germany by transport mode (car, 2 wheeled motorised, bike, pedestrian) and road type (open road, motorway, town.
Anything comparable from Stats NZ?

What about the one about the guy constantly speeding driving his family to the holiday house, and when his son eventually starts driving the same route…

middle aged men

Ah, the speeding demographic. Perhaps NZTA could comment, but isn’t middle-aged drunk-driving on the wane due to the supposed success of efforts to make DUI socially unacceptable? Whereas the older male driver is still more likely to maintain “I’m in control, don’t tell me what speed is…

Well, I'll admit to not listening to all the words until I played it back just now, and there is a difference between the narrative message and the surface impression.

Would I like such an ad being pointed at my ethnic class…

That said, of course it’s not the only factor. It’s pretty hard to be sure which factors are the most significant in this country.

Watch the ad.

To be honest, watching it, when I see the other…

'Fraid not! The money goes into the Consolidated Fund.

But... I know that I often make mistakes, and I'm just lucky that they've never ended up seriously. I try to be a…

My last speeding ticket was about 14 years back, and my last crash (which was my fault, but not speed related) further back than that.…

I hope so. It would be nice to think that voluntary taxation was going to a good home. ... but let's not get too political.

One day I hope…

Also, some GPS receivers use doppler measurements for speed, which doesn't suffer from sampling artefacts as you turn corners.

I hadn’t realised how widespread this was until I drove around with a SatNav for a few weeks in the UK, and it displayed the actual speed compared with the speed limit for the section of…

I don't know. Those fancy roadside displays that tell you what your speed is and my speedo agree very well, though.

Is that 50 according to your speedo, or 50 as measured correctly ? Modern car's speedos seem to read about 8% lower than the car's actual speed. This has probably been the main contributor to the lowering of average speeds. However, a lot…

And that energy is spread over twice the material (ie 2 cars as opposed to 1), so from a car's occupant's perspective, a…

Actually, not so much,

The UK has no unsealed roads, but a lot of one lane roads, sunken in a ditch and with mud all over the surface

All three countries have modern motorways, but also many secondary roads just like ours and many urban…

In terms of released energy, yes, it’s four times as bad thanks to the “squared” in the theory of relativity.

*cough* Not quite – it's…

Roughly two car lengths into another person's car?

Over the last decade the vehicle fleet has got safer and many of the worst roads have been improved. The annual road toll at Pukerua Bay has dwindled to somewhere around zero instead…

Let's take a look at that using physics.

All else being equal, stopping distance at 100km/h = 49.2m, while stopping distance at 108km/h = 57.4m

8.2 metres is actually quite a long way into another person's car.

A message that might be less-controversially got across by having the through driver do something that does not carry connotations of blatant fault and risk-taking, like looking down to change the…

You know, I've never thought of the CF Bedford in quite…

As Matthew has just said I think the…

Cars sold in the EU have had pedestrian impact standards as part of their safety testing since the early 2000s, and I…

Coupled with the new car/ute/SUV front design which seems higher and blunter these days, no more 'cow-catching' of struck pedestrians and sweeping them over the bonnet, it seems...

I always remember that monthly…

Yes, but the difference between 100km/h and 108km/h is negligible. You're not suddenly going to die because of that extra 15%. It's not the difference between 40km/h and 50km/h to a pedestrian hit…

In which case, put the speedo on 100km/h.…

Yes this is…

Which is exactly the thinking the ad is getting at. Whoever bears "primary responsibility", there's going to be a bloody…

Fixing offending black spots doesn't have to cost a mint. Unfortunately, those in charge of the transport funds seem more interested in empire building. Case in point: the contrast…

This is false. Two cars hitting head on is the same for the car occupants, as a single car hitting an large stationary object. Assuming both cars are…

In terms of released energy, yes, it’s four times as bad thanks to the “squared” in the theory of relativity.
In terms of actual outcomes,…

Tradesmen are the worst. Courier drivers are either really bad or pretty decent when you're cycling, in my experience.

I'd like to see more of a focus on overtakers. I identify (more or less) with the man in the white shirt; I do a reasonable amount of driving around the Lower North Island for work. I try and stay close to the limit, or a…

Not four times as bad? Or some other even higher number? I'd have thought driving/crashing at 100km/h was much more dangerous than driving/crashing at 50km/h.

I see this all the time. As a regular cyclist, it's freaky how people voom up to T junctions and stop…

And rather different roads, too.

Then there is the factor that many drivers want to drive in an exuberant/stupid fashion, but know that speeding will likely…

Driving a car, especially outside a city, does not, I am afraid, generally occupy or get a driver's full attention. They have radio, passengers, scenery and…