Tauranga roads to be put under microscope

From left: KiwiRAP Assessment Programme members Gina Waibl, Rui Wang and Xiaoyi Mi. Photo/supplied

A special vehicle is driving Tauranga roads examining their levels of safety.

People may see a modified van with cameras attached to it driving throughout the city to record a range of data about the roads. This is part of a new road safety initiative called KiwiRAP Urban.

KiwiRAP is a world-leading road assessment programme that has been measuring the safety of New Zealand's state highways since 2008. KiwiRAP Urban is a new step which will use the same methods to rate the safety and crash risks on a selection of local roads.

Tauranga City Council traffic engineer Martin Huang said KiwiRAP Urban would give the city a much clearer picture of where road safety risks are highest so safety measures can be targeted where they are needed most.

Mr Huang said this was another step towards having safer roads and, ultimately, fewer people hurt from crashes.

The KiwiRAP van will video its journeys over Tauranga roads and the data will then be analysed to give roads a rating from 1 to 5 stars. The ratings will measure things like the lane width of a road, the size of its shoulder, how much visibility drivers have, and any roadside hazards like power poles, ditches or trees. Ratings will also be produced for a road's safety for people walking, on bikes and on motorcycles.

Tauranga is the first local area to introduce KiwiRAP Urban along with Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. The first KiwiRAP Urban crash risk maps for these areas are due to be released in November.

"KiwiRAP Urban is a ground-breaking development that will help local authorities make their roads safer," NZTA director of safety Ernst Zollner said.

"The Government's Safer Journeys strategy has set us a clear vision of creating a road system increasingly free of serious injuries and deaths by 2020. Improving the safety of roads and roadsides is a key focus for Safer Journeys, and KiwiRAP is helping us make it a reality."

For example, the KiwiRAP highway assessment programme identified a number of roads that were New Zealand's highest risk routes in its first report in 2008.

Authorities then used this information to target measures that saw a 30 per cent reduction in fatal and serious crashes on these high risk highways over the next 5 years.