Everyone in this country thinks they are a good driver, I see their amazing skills on the road every single day (yes, I am being sarcastic).

Learned to drive on the farm at age 6. If you can drive a tractor you can drive anything.

Won't claim to be an awesome driver, but have done a couple of defensive/awareness/skills courses, make an effort to stick to the speed limit, keep a good following distance, drive to the conditions and be hazard aware, and keep the important bits of my car roadworthy. I have a few bad habits but at least I make an effort and don't have an 'It won't happen to me' attitude (because it did once), unlike it seems a lot of drivers I see.

Defensive enough? :)

I reckon im a good driver too. I actually stop at a stop sign (when most people just pause) i never speed and i never use my cell phone (i get so annoyed at my friends that text while driving!) I also cant stand drivers that go through traffic lights but cant make it completely through the intersection coz cars are banked up so they block everyone coming through! idiots!

If there is one thing I hate, it's someone who makes "gross sweeping generalisations"... ;-)

I predict many replies to this blog, 90% of which will be along the lines of "I am a great / safe / careful driver too!". It will be a minor miracle of statistics that 90% of people who reply here are above average. Either that, or people simply have no idea about their own driving abilities (I'm not shooting at you here Jane, I've never been in a car with you so therefore I don't have an opinion).

In my observation about 75% of people behind the wheel of cars should not be there (other than as comedy value, or an object lesson in how not to operate heavy machinery). They don't have the faintest inkling of how stuff happens in a car (we're talking things like weight transfer, momentum, looking where you want the car to go, looking ahead, using peripheral vision effectively, planning ahead, we're not talking about how a piston works). They don't treat a car as if it were a 1 ton projectile that can end a life in an instant. They think that "cars lose control", not "drivers don't know how to drive". They believe "I haven't had a crash" is a direct reaction to how awesome their talents are, as compared to simply that the odds of crashing a car are very low, and their dice haven't come up snake eyes, yet.

Oh god, I'm starting to sound like that motoring guy, and the various people who foam at the mouth in that blog. I'll run away now.

In direct reply to Jane and the brakes ... yes, different cars have different brake feel. Some brakes are more touchy than others. It has zero to do with the size of the car, it's all down to the lovely metal linkages between your foot and the braking material, and how the brake assistance is configured. Go drive a 1960s Mini, and tell me again that little cars have sensitive brakes as you desperately use both feet on the pedal to try to get the wee bastage to stop :-). Different cars have different clutch pedal feel, different steering weight, different throttle response too. Thus why when you aren't driving your usual car it feels funny.

BAHAHA, it's me Amy's thinking of - I've driven her in that car and confessed heavy braking... Amplified by sensitive brakes meant for an uncomfortable ride. Probably just as likely that Universal girls can't drive.

When I did a required defensive driving course at work the examiner called me a very confident and competent driver with my two (minor?) faults being that I had a habit of driving one-handed and I occasionally exceeded the speed limit by 5ks. The first I'll cop to but the second I thought was a little unfair - I mean doesn't everybody?

I really don't like to assess my own driving - most of the time I think I'm a reasonably good driver (after all I have been doing it a long time) and then I have a lapse of attention or make an error in judgement and suddenly I feel really stupid and incompetent.

The best I will say about my driving is that about 95% of the time I am not a particular danger to myself and/or others.

Like any complex activity, you improve by practicing. But only by practicing the right aspects. As many of you are aware, my hobby is motorsport. Obviously some aspects of this hobby are not applicable to the public roads (outright speed, driving on the limit etc) but some aspects certainly are transferable and helpful.

Reactions are improved along with knowing how best to react to situations and knowing what the car is likely to do when you do react. Having more awareness of what is going on around you also helps.

Also having more knowledge of the limits of my car and myself means I am less likely to drive outside those limits. After all, whether racing or driving on the roads, accidents still hurt and cause damage which I would have to pay to fix. I'd rather put my money into improvements and entry fees than to fix damage that I could have prevented.

@ Jane Yee

I've tried to console Amy after her "educational" experience of your driving. It took me THREE private lap-dances to stop her shaking ;-)

p.s. I'm a crap driver. I have no problem admitting I'm a bad driver. I just wish Kiwis didn't rate driving mistakes as crimes worse than leaving the toilet seat up (which is less of a crime and more of a fight for male liberation! lol).