Star ratings released for New Zealand state highways

Kiwi drivers have a new tool for understanding the relative safety of New Zealand’s roads with the release today of new star ratings for our state highways as part of the KiwiRAP programme.

KiwiRAP is a partnership between the Automobile Association and New Zealand government agencies: the Ministry of Transport, NZ Transport Agency, ACC and the New Zealand Police. It is part of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), which also includes Europe (EuroRAP), Australia (AusRAP) and the United States (usRAP).

In January 2008, KiwiRAP published a set of risk maps which rated sections of New Zealand’s state highways based on crash history. The star ratings announced today are the next stage in the KiwiRAP programme, providing an assessment of the relative levels of safety built into our state highways - one star roads have the lowest safety rating and five star roads the highest.

KiwiRAP provides star ratings for 89 percent of New Zealand’s state highway network, covering 10,002kms of rural highways with speed limits of 80km/h or more. KiwiRAP spokesman Mike Noon says providing this information to motorists is important because the road environment is a factor in the number of crashes which occur on our roads and the seriousness of injuries people sustain in crashes.

“The KiwiRAP programme can help improve drivers’ knowledge about the relative safety of the roads they use, as well as help identify roads that will benefit from safety improvements.

“If we can increase public awareness that different parts of the state highway network have different levels of safety, drivers will have a better understanding of how roadside hazards like trees, ditches, poles and narrow shoulders can increase risk. Armed with that knowledge we can all adjust our driving to the conditions and take extra care on higher risk roads.

“While New Zealand should aspire for our busiest roads to be at least four-star, our geography means that this can be difficult to achieve and will not be practical or affordable for all our state highways,” says Mr Noon.

NZ Transport Agency Group Manager Strategy & Performance Ernst Zollner says
KiwiRAP is an important informational tool for New Zealand motorists.

“The KiwiRAP star ratings are a big step forward for New Zealand, putting a new focus on safer roads and roadsides. KiwiRAP supports the government’s new Safer Journeys road safety strategy which has adopted a ‘safe system’ approach to reducing crashes, aiming for safe roads, safe vehicles, safe speeds and safe road use.”

The minimum length of state highway assessed for star ratings is five kilometres. No state highway sections assessed by KiwiRAP are rated as one star or five star. Thirty-nine percent are rated two star, 56 percent are three star, and five percent are four star.

Mr Zollner says KiwiRAP assessments have also shown that of the state highways assessed, 28 percent of vehicle travel occurs on our four star roads, while 40 percent of vehicle travel is on our three star roads, and 33 percent of vehicle travel is on our two star roads.

Given sections of road can change in safety rating over short distances, the KiwiRAP star ratings will not be signposted along roads. Instead the aim is to raise public awareness about the road environment and the risks of roadside hazards.

The KiwiRAP star rating assessments looked at factors like intersection design, roadside environment, median protection barriers, lane and shoulder width, road alignment and line markings.

Over 10,000 km of state highway were videoed by a vehicle equipped with five cameras. The footage was viewed in 100 metre sections and five kilometre road lengths were allocated a rating of one to five stars.

KiwiRAP information is published on www.kiwirap.org.nz and will be available through AA and NZ Transport Agency branches. The KiwiRAP Risk Maps and Star Ratings will be updated as required.