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Star ratings for hundreds of thousands of kilometres of interstate roads have been released publicly for the first time today, with RAA now calling on the SA Government to follow suit.
Following several years of campaigning by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) and motoring clubs such as RAA, State Governments including Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia have today released safety ratings for many major roads as assessed by the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP).
Each road assessed by AusRAP is rated on a scale of one to five stars – with five-stars being the safest – taking into account risk factors such as lane and shoulder width, speed limit, presence of barriers or rumble strips and more.
The release of AusRAP star ratings will provide an important benchmark for the road network and help road users understand why funding decisions are made.
South Australia’s ratings have not been included in the initial release – with RAA today asking the State Government to provide an indicative timeline for its crucial data.
It comes after the Federal Government required all states to provide road safety data to the Commonwealth, under a new five-year intergovernmental road funding agreement.
Previously the AusRAP star ratings were not publicly available.
RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain said the state’s peak motoring body welcomed the release of the safety ratings nationally.
“Publicly available AusRAP star ratings will help us save lives on our roads by helping to identify where investment on the network should be prioritised for maximum safety benefit,” Mr Mountain said.
“We therefore welcome the release of this data interstate which will help authorities to identify which roads are in the most need of safety upgrades to reduce the risk of serious crashes.
“Australian drivers should have information on the safety ratings of the roads they drive on each day – the roads they pay for – so this is a fantastic outcome.
“We are disappointed South Australia’s data has not been made available at this time, and are asking the State Government when we can expect it to be available for all road users.
“RAA would like to see as many of our major roads as possible upgraded to a minimum of three-stars, so we look forward to analysing the data and seeing where investment needs to be prioritised.”
In 2023-24, hundreds of thousands of Australians publicly backed the AAA’s Data Saves Lives campaign, which called for the release of road safety ratings and for the ratings to help guide funding decisions.
AusRAP’s inspection protocols are based on measuring and evaluating risk factors such as average daily traffic; speed limit; number of lanes in each direction; lane width; shoulder width; presence or absence of roadside barriers and rumble strips; gradient and curvature; quality of line makings; skid resistance; whether roads are single or dual carriageway; and provisions for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
AusRAP data is being published by Austroads, the association of Australian and New Zealand transport agencies, at Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) | Austroads