Ask anyone charged with providing a weekly comment on issues within their domain, and the chances are you'll learn that it is much easier to turn out negative comment every week than it is to set a positive tone.
I'm opting for the positive approach this week, and finding it quite easy thanks to the recent Safer Journey announcements from the Ministry of Transport. The announcements, which cover a raft of intended and possible changes to improve road safety in this country, are the culmination of a review in which public submissions were the final stage before settling on an agreed set of actions for the future.
By and large, I think the ministry has got it right, with measures that target the age of beginning driving, the standard of driver training, ways of restricting young drivers' access to more powerful vehicles, and some of the oddities of our road rules (most notably the turning rules for traffic). Just about everything that is proposed in the list of probable first actions strikes me as sensible, and it seems that others - ranging from the AA to V8 supercar driver Greg Murphy - are happy to go on the record and say they agree.
There are several other reasons to feel positive in the motoring world this week as well.
Internationally, the Geneva Motor Show has been in full swing, with many new models and concept cars that will influence our motoring futures revealed. You can read about some of them in this issue of Drivesouth.
New Zealand passenger-car sales continued their 2010 recovery, with the February 2010 figures representing a 13.3% gain over the same month last year. While numbers are still well down on 2008, year-to-date passenger-car sales are now up 8.9% on 2009 for new cars and a massive 35.2% for used imports. Seeing the Suzuki Swift top the new-car charts ahead of the Mazda 3 came as a big but interesting surprise, though the Toyota Corolla (fourth for the month) is still the best-selling new car for the year so far.
There's been some good news on the sporting front too, with South Canterbury's Hayden Paddon embarking on the first part of an extensive 2010 international rallying campaign that has the potential to launch him into the big-time of the sport. The last time I felt a Kiwi rally driver was heading overseas with a similar level of potential to Paddon was way back in the mid-1980s. That driver's name was Possum Bourne.
One cloud looming on the horizon is the future of Rally New Zealand, which has, since it first gained world championship status back in 1977, been this country's highest-profile international motor sport event. Though it is back in the championship in 2010 after taking a year out in 2009, it appears to be proceeding without a main sponsor, and it has not been listed on the draft world championship schedule for 2011.
Government support is likely to be required to ensure the event regains its place in the world series for 2012. I hope it is forthcoming.
David Thomson
Editor
Drivesouth
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