When vehicles burn fuel they don’t do it efficiently and it creates undesirable compounds which we call pollution. Vehicle manufacturers are constantly striving to make their engines more efficient with the optimum goal of burnt fuel just producing water, nitrogen…
Back in the day if you slammed on your brakes your wheels would lock up causing a skid. Once you’re skidding you have no control over your vehicle. Today we see far fewer skid marks on the roads and that’s because…
The minimum distance you are allowed to park from a vehicle entrance is one metre. Any closer than this and it makes it difficult for people in larger vehicles to get in and out of the driveway, and you could…
A brain injury need not mean the end of driving. Some skills can be regained or relearned, including driving. Getting back on the road again can improve independence for people who have suffered a brain injury. Driving requires a number of…
In order to have a driver’s licence you must also pass an eyesight test. You can either do this at the testing station or you can go to an optometrist and get a certificate that is valid for up to…
You used to be able to get a driver’s licence on your 15th birthday just by sending away for it. Now, though, the number of people is gradually falling for these reasons: It’s much more difficult: the graduated driver licence process…
Are cheap driving lessons really going to save you money? Are budget driving lessons the best value in the end? It’s important that you use a qualified driving instructor, but prices vary. A qualified driving instructor has an I endorsement…
Temperature changes affect the pressure of the air in your tyres, and it’s not your tyres that support your vehicle, it’s the air within the tyres. Four factors change tyre pressure: the ambient temperature (i.e. the air temperature outside the tyre),…
With a smaller size and profile, motorcyclists and cyclists are much less visible than cars and heavy vehicles, especially in low light and at night. Equipment designed to improve visibility is readily available, though, even if the bike itself is…
40kph variable speed limits are becoming more common around schools since they were first introduced in 2000. Busy roads that run past schools are considered dangerous for children who are easily distracted. A vehicle travelling at 40kph produces significantly less…
Merging into fast-flowing traffic on a motorway is something a huge number of people seem to have great difficulty with. They try to merge at 60kph when the traffic is doing 100kph, holding people up and causing a danger. When…
The low cost of screens is revolutionising the design of vehicle instrument panels in cars and trucks. It’s also becoming necessary for all the information related to the car to be displayed in an interface with multiple layers rather than…
New Zealand police vehicles including cars, utes, motorbikes and vans, use either yellow and blue Battenberg markings or standard unmarked factory colours. There are still some remnant orange and blue vehicles but these are being phased out. Cars have the…
Information for teachers and parents It’s possible to get up to eight NCEA credits for passing driver licence tests. It can be recognised as prior learning by an education organisation holding consent to assess, and lists on their Record of…
One quarter of all accidents and a third of all fatal accidents occur at intersections. The accidents themselves cause loss of life, and the resulting traffic problems cause loss of productivity and an increase in traffic pollution. Traffic lights are…
Police can order your vehicle off the road if they suspect it’s not roadworthy or it’s unsafe by issuing a green or pink sticker. If a vehicle has been abandoned on the motorway then a yellow sticker indicates to other…
When traffic lights are installed on motorway on-ramps this is for ramp metering or ramp signalling. It’s used to control the rate at which traffic can enter a motorway by holding traffic back at a set of lights on the…
Two wheels are obviously much less stable than four wheels yet stability control has been available on cars since 1992. KTM was the first to introduce Bosch’s MSC (Motorcycle Stability Control) to a bike in 2013. The processing that a motorbike…
Gap selection occurs when the driver looks at approaching traffic and decides that there’s enough space to complete a manoeuvre or action. For example, chooses to turn, overtake, make a u-turn or change lanes into a gap in the traffic, or…
You can take your learner licence test as young as your sixteenth birthday. Will I get my learner licence immediately after the test? If you pass the test you will be given a temporary learner licence which is valid for…
