Tauranga cyclists and motorcyclists will soon be able to tell at glance which areas of the city pose the greatest risk to their safety.
In a world first for developed countries, Tauranga has joined three other big New Zealand cities to develop a star-rated risk system for the busiest stretches of roads and their intersections.
By the middle of next year, people will be able to view maps showing the results of the roading assessment programme called KiwiRAP, with stars to indicate risk, from one star (a bad section of road) to five stars (gold plated).
The risk has been calculated using traffic and crash data to produce colour-coded maps that will also offer advice to pedestrians and drivers.
Council traffic engineer Martin Huang said the maps would cover 200km of Tauranga's arterial and collector roads, showing overall risk and personal risk.
Personal risk was the likelihood of a road user being involved in a crash as they travelled along a particular section of road or through an intersection. The overall or collective risk measured the number of severe crashes per kilometre of road or at a high-risk intersection per year.
Mr Huang said KiwiRAP was not only a useful tool for roads users, it ensured the council spent money where it had the biggest impact.
The risk maps and star ratings were the next urban network stage of KiwiRap, building on the success of the 30 per cent drop in the number of fatal and serious crashes on high-risk inter-city highways.
A China-based contractor has just finished videoing Tauranga's high risk roads, with the project now moving to star-rate these roads and intersections.
The good news to emerge from a recent KiwiRAP presentation to council was that Tauranga was much safer than New Zealand's other main centres, and on a par with much smaller cities carrying less traffic.
Statistics showed the overall risk of death and serious injury was lower in Tauranga than many other New Zealand cities because its rapid growth meant its roads were newer and consequently better engineered.
This translated into significantly fewer deaths and serious injuries in Tauranga than comparable-sized cities like Dunedin and Hamilton.
The New Zealand Transport Agency's chief safety adviser, Colin Brodie, said Tauranga had lower-than-average numbers of cyclists and pedestrians.
Tauranga's KiwiRap partners were the NZ Transport Agency, the Automobile Association, the Accident Compensation Corporation, the Ministry of Transport and police. The city's contribution to the programme was $7500 this year and $20,000 next year.