Safe Roads
Last week in Parliament I attended the launch of a major study on the safety of our roads.
The KiwiRAP star ratings have been developed by the AA and the NZ Transport Agency, using vehicles with five onboard cameras to study our roads.
A rating of one to five stars is then calculated, based on things like roadside conditions, lane and shoulder width, and the placement of intersections.
Around the country most of our roads are in decent shape, but it will be no surprise to locals that SH1 around Levin and Otaki has only a two star rating.
The road between Waikanae and Paraparaumu gets a three star rating, which could be better considering it carries over 20,000 vehicles a day.
We’ve known for years that improvements are needed and I’ve campaigned strongly on this issue.
Over the last five years there have been 59 serious or fatal crashes on the stretch of road between Paraparaumu and Levin.
This reinforces how important it is to upgrade SH1 between Levin and Wellington.
Thankfully the National government has made this route a Road of National Significance, with $2.2 billion in funding to build an expressway including Transmission Gully.
Earlier this year we launched Safer Journeys, which is a 10 year plan with a range of ideas to cut the road toll.
As part of this, the driving age will be raised from 15 to 16. We have a terrible record of youth safety on the roads, one of the worst in the world. 15 to 24 year olds make up 37% of all fatalities despite being just 15% of the population.
The other issue being considered is lowering the adult drink drive limit, from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50mcg. Cabinet will consider this soon, along with the option of doing more research.
Already we’ve passed new laws on cellphone use in the car while driving, drugged driving and illegal street racing.
We’ve also given local councils the power to create by-laws banning “cruising” by boy racers, which come into force in Christchurch this week.
You can find more information on the road safety ratings at www.kiwirap.co.nz
From left to right, Transport Minister Steven Joyce, AA Motoring general manager Mike Noon, Associate Transport Minister Nathan Guy