KiwiRAP, the programme that assesses the safety of New Zealand's rural highways, has won a prestigious Global Road Achievement Award.
The International Road Federation awards recognise excellence and innovation in road development worldwide. An independent, international panel of judges chose KiwiRAP to receive the 2013 global safety achievement award.
KiwiRAP was developed in partnership by the NZ Transport Agency, NZ Automobile Association, Ministry of Transport, NZ Police and ACC and has played a role in reducing the number of fatal and serious crashes on our highways.
Ernst Zollner, Director Road Safety at the NZ Transport Agency said it was an honour for New Zealand to receive this award.
“The KiwiRAP team has done an excellent job in helping us better understand risk on our roads so we can target efforts to the highest risks first and make the greatest gains in reducing deaths and serious injuries.”
AA Motoring Affairs General Manager Mike Noon says KiwiRAP has been an important factor in the significant fall in our road toll that has taken place in recent years.
“KiwiRAP is setting the standard globally for road assessment programmes. A huge number of crashes have been prevented and lives saved because of this work.”
Like all Road Assessment Programmes, KiwiRAP comprises three protocols: risk mapping, star rating and performance tracking. The KiwiRAP project began in 2006, with the launch of the first risk mapping results in 2008; the star rating results in 2010, and initial risk map performance tracking in 2012.
KiwiRAP risk mapping has been highly successful. It uses historical traffic and crash data to produce color coded maps illustrating the relative levels of personal and collective risk over the road network.
The latest KiwiRAP report showed that targeting high collective risk routes (identified in the 2008 Risk Maps) by the NZ Police and the Transport Agency achieved a 30% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes on those lengths of highway.
KiwiRAP also allocates a star rating from 1 star (poor) through to 5 stars (excellent) for the safety levels of rural highways. The rating is based on 18 road infrastructure features which have an increased impact on the likelihood or severity of a crash.
KiwiRAP has been incorporated in a wide range of policies and plans and is a key tool for the Transport Agency’s prioritisation of resources. It is being used to prioritise safety works nationally and star rating policy targets have been developed to ensure new road designs meet target safety levels.
KiwiRAP risk maps and star ratings are available on-line at www.kiwirap.org.nz(external link)
