There should be a "normal" way of doing the fundemantal things and those shouldn't be changed... E.g. rules on who yeilds to whom on a junction.
Why is the NZ parliament trying to change the rules? To bring NZ into normal international standards?
If it's moving away from the usual way of doing things all that will happen is loads of tourists won't have a clue and you'll have rental cars being involved in nasty accidents. It's bad that many tourists have to cope with driving on the opposite of the road to what they're used to, couple that with weird rights of way on junctions and you've a very dangerous situation.
I remember getting off a flight from the USA at Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland and seeing all these little old ladies from LA picking up their low budget tiny manual (stick shift) Renault Clios and driving to the Southwest (single carriage narrow highway mostly, and really narrow countryroads if you get off the beaten track) at 5:00am on a mistly foggy morning with extreme jet lag.
(they were all wearing stripy green clothes and singing Irish eyes are smiling.. even more worrying!!)
The perfect recipe for disaster!
We regularly have head on high speed collisions in rural areas caused by US and European drivers who have completely forgotten themselves and are driving at full speed on the right!! It can happen in rural areas that you won't meet very much other traffic, particularly early in the morning so it's quite possible to drive for several KM without meeting anything.
Or, more commonly, US / Euro drivers who turn a corner and end up driving straight into on coming traffic as they end up on the wrong side of a junction.
or on the wrong side of a road driving at speed when a tractor / local resident turns out of their driveway looking in the direction they'd expect on-coming traffic to be moving!
There are regular signs reminding (in several languages) that you need to drive on the left! complete with pictograms.
European drivers tend to cause more accidents in general as they are more likely to actually drive here (via the car ferry from France) so will be driving their own left-hand drive cars.
Overtaking in a car with the driver on the wrong side is both difficult and very dangerous!
(Unlikely scenario in NZ!!)
[This message has been edited by djk (edited 04-03-2005).]
