Safer Journeys action plan - safe roads and roadsides FAQs

Don’t we already focus safety improvements on high-risk rural roads and urban roads?

Yes, to a certain extent, but we can always improve the ways we target and treat these roads. The government is making a record investment in State highways over the next 10 years. Safety features are an integral part of the planned improvements. However, there are still many opportunities to further improve the safety of our roads.

Both central and local government can look to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our existing safety management systems, safety audits, crash reduction studies, and so on.

More could be done to ensure that the treatments carried out on rural and urban roads specifically address factors that are more likely to lead to fatal and serious crashes.

What are demonstration projects?

A demonstration project is where a range of engineering approaches that have proven successful overseas can be trialled here to see if the same benefits are obtained.

A demonstration project is where a range of Safe System interventions that may be new, or may have proven successful overseas, can be trialled here to see , whether they are suitable in the New Zealand context, what benefits can be obtained and to showcase them to the NZ public.

An example of a demonstration project is the trial of the Swedish 2+1 system (passing lanes separated from opposing traffic by a wire rope median barrier) , which has significantly reduced head-on and other high severity crashes along a 9km length of State Highway 1 near Rangiriri, north of Hamilton.

How do you decide if a road is high risk?

The initial focus will be on high volume rural roads (carrying over 12,000 vehicles per day) which have a high crash risk. These roads can be identified through the KiwiRAP initiative, which generates crash risk maps and safety ratings for State highways based on their road engineering features. In addition, the NZ Transport Agency is developing a High-Risk Rural Road Guide to assist all Road Controlling Authorities’ to identify safe system initiatives to treat these.

For urban roads, local authorities will need to provide advice and data from the Crash Analysis System to identify crash risk, plus the likely cost-effectiveness of initiatives in high risk areas.

What is the Crash Analysis System (CAS)?

CAS is a tool that manages, analyses and maps traffic crash and related data. It is a computer system used by road safety professionals to:

• enter road crash data
• select crashes for analysis
• map crashes
• view images of crash reports and crash diagrams
• report on crashes
• locate, map and report on crash clusters
• produce collision diagrams
• monitor trends at crash sites
• identify high-risk locations.

What is KiwiRAP?

KiwiRAP is a road assessment programme developed by the AA, Ministry of Transport and the NZ Transport Agency. It provides an assessment of the relative levels of safety built in to our State highways.

What are the changes to the give way rules?

The changes to the give way rules were proposed in the Safer Journeys strategy and were confirmed by Transport Minister Steven Joyce in September 2010. The changes will apply to the left turn-right turn give way rule and the T-intersection give way rule.

Left turn-right turn give way rule

Currently if you are turning left you have to give way to right turning traffic coming towards you. The planned change will reverse this to require traffic turning right to give way to traffic turning left into the same road (see figure below).

T-intersection rule

The T-intersection rule applies when there are conflicting right-turns at a T-intersection. At present, the right-turning vehicle on the terminating road (the base of the ‘T’) has priority over the right-turning vehicle on the through road (the top of the ‘T’).

The T-intersection is a very common intersection in New Zealand, and often the through road is the higher volume (or major) road. The current T-intersection rule gives the vehicle entering from a minor road priority over a vehicle travelling on the major road.

The planned change is to require traffic from an uncontrolled terminating road to give way to traffic on a continuing road (see figure below).

The give way rules are part of the Land Transport (Road User Rule) 2004. Consultation on an amendment to this rule will be released on 13 May 2011. The date for the Rule to come into effect will be April 2012. This date was selected to allow the NZ Transport Agency to plan the associated publicity campaign and road controlling authorities to plan for changes to the layout of intersections.

What are the Roads of National Significance?

The Roads of National Significance or RoNS are seven essential State highways that the government has identified as linked to New Zealand’s economic prosperity.

The seven RoNS projects are based around New Zealand's five largest population centres. The focus is on moving people and freight between and within these centres more safely and efficiently. The RoNS are ‘lead infrastructure’ projects – that is, they enable economic growth rather than simply responding to it.

More information on the Roads of National Significance is available on the NZ Transport Agency's website.

How will the roads and roadsides actions be funded?

Funding for roads and roadsides comes from the NLTP.

Will all of the safe roads and roadsides actions happen in 2011-2012?

All will be advanced. However, as infrastructure and roading changes take time it will not be possible for all to be completed in this period.