As part of the Visiting Drivers Project, 1500 drivers will be surveyed this week on three key routes in the project’s three regions – the West Coast, Southland and Otago.
The Visiting Drivers Project(external link) is led by the NZ Transport Agency on behalf of the Government, an ongoing collaboration between the road safety and tourism sectors – both private and publicly funded.
“The aim is to identify the proportion of visiting drivers using these routes at this time of the year as well as get some anecdotal information about visitors’ perceptions of the road and safety issues,” said the Transport Agency’s Southern Regional Director Jim Harland.
“The results of the surveys across all three sites, Tarras, Central Otago, Fox Glacier on the West Coast and the Eglinton Valley on the Milford Sound highway, Southland, will feed into the Transport Agency’s much wider detailed analysis of what could be improved on these routes.
“This overall analysis will inform a proposed programme of works for the State Highway network, which is being funded through the National Land Transport Plan as announced in December 2015.”
The survey will have questions for overseas visiting drivers, domestic visitors (ie from outside of that region), and locals.
The survey team will stop vehicles travelling in one direction on these routes and if the driver is willing to participate they will be asked the short survey questions.
The current programme for the surveys is:
Monday 7 March 2016 - SH8, Tarras, Central Otago
Wednesday 9 March 2016 - SH6, Fox Glacier, West Coast
Friday 11 March 2016 - SH94, Eglinton Valley, Milford Route, Southland
