driving skills or lack of......

[mcnamg]

hello to all the sau members in japan.

just wanted to ask what the general quality of drivers is like in japan. i remeber when i was in japan on exchange my okaasan drove us to school a few times and i was in fear for my life she was doing almost 80 down a road that looked like it hadnt been resurfaced in 20 years and was only wide enough for a bicycle even though there was two cars going in opposite directions trying to play chicken. :throwup:

is everyone this crazy or is it just crazy japanese housewives who have such a dull life that they drive like a kamikaze

[Demon Dave]

In a word:

BAD

[Demon Dave]

I better back up that statement with a few observations....

Japanese drivers routinely run red lights. And not just as the light has turned red, but sometimes a fair few seconds after. And it isn't just men, everyone does it like it some kind of accepted thing/national rule.

They undertake.

They'll weave through traffic.

They'll cut you up whenever they can.

Most women seem to feel that holding a phone conversation is a normal part of driving.

Men will quite happily shave while cruising along, many also read the paper of have their head burried in some manga...

and my pet hate - they just love to tailgate and in my experience the women are way worse than men for this...

*rant over*

But, car drivers have nothing on high school kids on bicycles - seems to me like those lot all have death wishes!

[mcnamg]

sounds to me like it might be a good idea to make sure my life insurance is paid up before i do any driving in japan.

so do pedestrians and people on bikes seem to think that a cars fair game when they decide to play chicken then?

i notice a lot of cars on auction sites all say that they have had some sort of panel damage so i am assuming that there a lot of accidents then.

whats the national road toll like is it high or are the speeds low enough that people only injure themselves and dont often manage to kill themselves or others

[Rezz]

Yep... running Red lights and a lack of common sense/lazy attitude... nuff said.

[Revhead]

My host family were fairly quiet, unassuming people... put them into the van though, and they suddenly became psychotic! We went up to one of their rellies' places out the back of Gifu, which involved going up a single lane road with two-way traffic, a cliff face on one side, and a stone wall that would've been no more than 50cm tall preventing you from going over the rather large drop on the other side. I have no idea how fast they were going, probably about 100, but they'd get to oncoming traffic and squeeze up against the stone wall, the other car would do the same against the cliff face, and they'd zoom past eachother without a second thought to the miniscule room for error that was left. I kid you not, there would have been no more than 5cm between the mirrors of oncoming cars and the van's. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the back wondering if I'd see tomorrow, with the rest of the family laughing at me for being the only one in the car who was wearing a seatbelt... :eek: The worst bit was jumping back in for the return trip, DOWN the mountain, and knowing exactly what to expect...

[T0nyGTSt]

But let me ask you this...

For the guys who fancy themselves as 'top guns', that is the circuit guys, the drifters, drag racers, the bosozoku... are these guys any good?

I get the feeling that unlike in Australia, where the ricers and bogans get together, they can't drive for shit.

But for the Japanese guys who fancy themselves as quite 'a playa', they got the goods to back it up.

True?

T.

[Parag0n]

That said, there are many unique japanese traits that piss me off: #1 = small kids and (no) seatbelts - it's a disgrace

Man Seatbelts for kids tsk tsk, you need a Takata Harness and a Recaro to keep one of them under control

[4150]

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned the scooter/moped drivers who seem to think laws of the road don't apply to them. I managed to take one out a few months ago at the expense of a door mirror and a Buddy Club rim. I was taking a left turn in the left lane with my turn signal on well in advance into a parking lot and this little bastard decides he wants to try to pass me by going all the way over to the left side, it didn't work out and I got to see him flying through the air and land on the sidewalk. Luckilly for both of us he was okay with the exception of a cut up finger so he grabbed his scooter and hauled ass, on the bright side I talked the wife into letting me get a set of aero mirrors to replace what was broken off. I'm suprised I hadn't hit one of them sooner, I've had plenty of close calls with these idiots since I've returned to Yokohama, never really had a problem with them up north.

[Streeter]

Meh you guys are a worse bunch of whingers than even me!!! road deaths arent THAT bad... I find it really interesting that the shocking amount of brain washing the australian government has been doing has actually even got car enthusiasts believing!!! Pffft speeding fines... what a joke, man if you cant see that is just a blatant revenue raiser you got issues

I LOVE driving in Japan! its SOOOO much more relaxing knowing that you arent going to be pulled up for doing absolutely NOTHING and given fines and defects from power tripping cops. You need to keep a look out for a little more "unorthodox" driving styles from time to time but you also dont have to worry about road raging ****heads either. So yeah give me Osaka roads any day of the week over Melbourne roads.

4150 - OI! leave us scooter boys alone! we can only do 60k odd so we need to make up for the lack of top end by making sure we never slow down!

TonyGTST - Generally the "wog" element isnt nearly as bad here. Japanese seem to prefer actions over words so generally (at least in terms of drifting) they are light years ahead of aussies, they have had a fair bit more practice though.

[akeenan]

ive seen some shocking driving

ive seen some good driving

a man in a truck tried to run me down on my bike on purpose

my friends mum asked me to drive her to the store because she wasnt confident she could make it....

ive been in a car and weve squeezed through places i never would have attempted...

one of my other friends is an awesome parker ....

theres good and bad drivers everywhere

but the red light stories are true.

[Evo_Lee]

I have to agree with Jess, Japan is no better or no worst than Australia or anywhere else. Stop your whinning biatches, how they drive is all dependent on the culture. You get use to it and that's it, highways are great and the cops leaving you alone given you haven't been a complete tool is already a pray from heaven. Only complaint I have is the poor coordination between all their traffic lights----> which is why red light runners are more apparent. But that just makes you more aware of the road conditions.

[DaiOni]

When everyone does it, then it isn't such a problem. Yeah, it's illegal and bad and all that - but you're always aware of it.

[4150]

While we're on the subject of driving skills in Japan here's what happened to me a couple hours ago. I was stopped in the left lane waiting to pull into my driveway on the right side for a good ten seconds when a car decided to hit the car waiting behind me which caused them to run into my rear. Here's the good news, neither of the drivers had any insurance and one of the cars shaken had been expired for two years! Looks like full coverage is going to pay off. The boot lid wont stay closed now, gotta duct tape it down....... :cuss:

Both of the drivers got rides home from the police and their cars towed away since they had no insurance/shaken so that made me feel a little better. I'm looking forward to driving/beating a rental for the next couple weeks. Sorry...just had to vent..

[Revhead]

4150 - damn, I know exactly how you feel... it takes every bit of self control not to go mental at the idiot whose inattention has damaged your pride and joy!

I would be interested to know what the insurance quote is though, if you're happy to share it. I've heard Japanese panel shops charge like wounded bulls. My tail ender cost the other driver's insurance company a couple of dollars shy of AU$1500 to fix, with very similar damage to yours, though it looks like yours was a harder hit.

[4150]

I'm pretty sure it's going to be a pretty high bill, the insurance company is going to love me. The lady who actually caused the accident said she would pay the repairs for both cars out of her pocket, but seeing as how she is too cheap to buy insurance for herself I'll have my insurance company go after her. This isn't the first time I've gotten hit by an idiot driver, about two years ago I got hit by an old man who came into my lane while trying to pass a car. 800,000 Yen in damages, had to replace the dash, windshield, airbags, Trust oil cooler, 1 rim, and a bunch of other stuff besides the obvious front end damage. Lucky for him he just missed the FMIC.

I'll let you guys know how much it costs, here's some pics from my first accident. I'm sure you all know what I think of Japanese drivers now

[Evo_Lee]

Dude sorry to hear...it's always a pain in the ass.

Rev: Repairs shouldn't be too expensive considering the amount of spare parts around.

As for resprays, cost I've found to be OK considering Japan. I've had almost all the panels on my car resprayed except the doors for a fresh new look removing some minor car park scratches when I bought the car.

---

Since we are ranting here...I will share one over the weekend.

Driving along minding my own business in the left lane (there is a merging lane up ahead to a set of lights where the right lane becomes a turning lane for right turns)...next thing I notice a bloody Ipsum comes screaming pass and cuts into my lane as there is a truck in the right lane. Followed right behind was a AE101 Sprinter sedan who does the same and cuts in front of me...fark me dead!!! They were both going at least 90kph on a 50kph road and the gap between me and the truck wasn't exactly big for them to pull such a dangerous manoeuvre. The Sprinter just makes it in front of me before the gap closes, an Altezza tries to follow but slams the brakes and backs off though still trying to get in.

At this point I am very pissed off at how wreckless they were driving. I noticed them all especially the Altezza at the last traffic lights where I moved off and had a good 50m ahead of them. Surely they could have gone behind me instead of cutting in front of me creating a dangerous situation.

I sped up abit to keep the Altezza from cutting in before I reached both the Ipsum and Sprinter who were caught behind a slow car at the lights. I immediately pulled right out from behind the Sprinter after the lights as it goes back to 2 lanes. I boxed the Ipsum with the slow car in front of him to see who the driver was and to exchange some friendly hand signals...farking tool! After which the Sprinter and Altezza seem to have backed off I guess they understood the international sign for fark off!!!

However the Ipsum decided it was a good idea to tailgate me, I pointed to him to pull over several times but he refused to. So at the next set of stop lights I looked out my window behind and told him to get out. The Ipsum then went around me and ran the red light. I took down his plates and reported to the local Koban, they called his house straight away and told his wife to tell him to come down to the station straight away.

I also exaggerated the story a bit more before I left the station that he almost hit a few pedestrains . Though he may just get a slap across the wrist it will still be in the records, a few more complaints by others or in an event of an accident he may find it hard to fight an insurance claim with a reported record like that.

I also suspected the Ipsum must have pissed off the Sprinter and Altezza earlier prompting them to chase him.

[4150]

You're right, if you know where to go getting the odd panel repainted here and there really isn't too expensive. However since I'm going to take advantage of my full coverage insurance I'm taking it to the same place I had my front end damage repaired, really expensive but the quality they do is top notch. Just like last time I'm going to demand that new parts from Nissan are used, that's going to bump the price up. One bit of advice for you guys that don't know is to change your insurance companies when you're up for renewel after you've gotten in an accident, the Japanese insurance companies don't have a "blacklist" going around or communicate with other companies so they have no way of knowing if you have made any claims or had any accidents. That's exactly what I did after my first accident and actually ended up getting better rates with my current company.

That's a crazy ass story Evo, hopefully that guy got some kind of a ticket. But then again Japanese police can be kind of lazy about giving out tickets sometimes, back when I was living up north I got pulled over for doing around 120 in a 50 on a country road in the middle of nowhere. I faked that I couldn't speak any Nihongo so he got frustrated and pointed at my speedo and said "safety driving, ok?!?" to which I replied "ok!" with a thumbs up He then hopped on his bike and drove away

[Demon Dave]

4150 - sorry to hear about your car mate. Hope it's all fixed up as good as new. :)Our Nissan cube has been hit several drives by drivers who should be paying more attention, the last time was by someone without insurance. She offered to pay for repairs by cash, but stuff that since half the time people refuse to pay so we got the police involved. They turned up and she later changed her story - she was covered by insurance, she just didn't want to use it...I wonder why

Cutting it front of me and tailgating are 2 things that really piss me off about driving here

[Evo_Lee]

4150, if they don't check for records does that mean you start again with a zero driving history with the next insurance company?

I'm already very tolerant with how people drive, you don't want to see me when I'm pissed off