NZ roads to get star ratings

A safety star system for the country's state highways may offer the Government a basis for reviewing speed limits according to roading standards.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said yesterday that the issue of variable speed limits would be addressed in a national road safety strategy, for which he expects to present recommendations to the Cabinet next month.

A Ministry of Transport discussion paper emphasises reducing speed limits on high-risk rural roads and estimates that cutting open-road mean speeds by 5km/h would save 60 lives a year.

The safety strategy is being finalised as a working group of Government organisations and the Automobile Association is busy allocating star ratings to the country's 10,900km-long state highway network.

Each stretch of highway will be allocated between one and five stars, identifying which routes need upgrading, and giving guidance to drivers on which roads may require extra care.

AA spokesman Mike Noon acknowledged last night that the rating system could prove useful for any review of speed limits.

But he hoped it would not lead to any great variations of limits which he believed would risk confusing motorists. His preference was for roads to be engineered to the extent that motorists would automatically drive to the conditions presented to them.

He said that if unrealistic limits were applied to particular roads, motorists would simply drive to the speeds they felt were appropriate to the conditions, risking fines and demerit points.

But Traffic Institute vice-president John Gottler said his organisation of consultants and local government transport politicians and engineers was opposed to blanket speed limits, which it believed were outdated in many instances.

The institute was calling for a scientific basis for setting limits according to the characteristics of each road.

He believed there may even be a case for raising speed limits on particular roads, where the engineering standards warranted it, although he had reservations about the abilities of drivers and the age of their vehicles.

Mr Joyce said the Government's review was "unlikely to result in the speed limit of 100km/h being raised on any highway".

The star rating exercise is being conducted as the second stage of a road assessment programme called KiwiRAP, and has involved videotaping the country's state highways to provide in-built safety ratings for them all.

Mr Noon said many of their features, including camber, width and edges were being assessed for the allocation of ratings by the middle of this year.

The five-star idea had been borrowed from Australia where no road had earned more than four stars.