Media Release
Sunday 27 January 2008

New Zealand’s Latest Road Safety Tool Launched

New Zealand’s latest road safety tool has been launched today by the AA and government transport agencies.

KiwiRAP is an internationally recognised road assessment programme (RAP) that aims to raise awareness of the risk of being involved in a crash on New Zealand’s state highways. KiwiRAP uses different methods to measure road safety, including risk maps based on the crash history of a road and five-star ratings based on a road’s engineering features.

KiwiRAP spokesman Mike Noon says the KiwiRAP risk maps being published today are based on crash statistics from 2002 to 2006. The crash history has then been used to grade our state highways into five different categories of risk: High, Medium-high, Medium, Low-medium and Low.

Road risk maps are either collective or personal. Collective risk maps are based on the total number of crashes on a road, while Personal risk maps are based on the likelihood of an individual being involved in a crash on that road.

The percentage and kilometres of New Zealand state highway within each risk category are:

High Medium-high Medium Low-medium Low
Collective Risk 8% 14% 22% 27% 29%
Personal Risk 21% 25% 28% 15% 11%

“The purpose of KiwiRAP really is to increase public awareness that not all roads are the same. Motorists who are aware of the higher risk roads can then adjust their driving to take extra care. Similarly, KiwiRAP allows us to identify safety shortcomings that can then be addressed with practical road safety measures.”

“New Zealand’s unique geography poses special challenges both for road builders and motorists. KiwiRAP takes an internationally recognised road assessment formula and applies it to New Zealand roads.”

“Reducing our road toll will require safer drivers, in safer vehicles, on safer roads. KiwiRAP provides an excellent way of measuring the safety of our roads.”
“It’s fantastic that so many organisations with an interest in road safety have worked together to produce this new road safety tool. Transit has already committed funding for the next stage of KiwiRAP - the production of star-ratings for New Zealand’s state highways. The star ratings will be published next year.”

KiwiRAP is a partnership between the AA and New Zealand’s main transport agencies: Transit, Ministry of Transport, ACC, Land Transport New Zealand, and New Zealand Police. It is part of an international road assessment programme that has already been undertaken in Europe (EuroRAP), Australia (AusRAP), and the United States (usRAP).

Drivers wanting to see the KiwiRAP risk maps for their region and the roads they drive should visit www.kiwiRAP.org.nz

ENDS

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