This road is highly dangerous. Can someone tell me why?

[p.dath]

Is there a pub on the road? Or is there a school on the road?

[Ixion]

Can't see either

Really, my point is , that this is clearly not a high speed road. But, given a sensible hand on the throttle, there doesn't seem to be anything about it that a half way competent driver should have any problem with

So, if there is a high accident rate, is it because of drivers, not the road itself. The KiwiRap thing is based around engineering. But if it's including roads as dangerous that are so not because of engineering deficiences, but because of incompetent drivers, then it will be a waste of time

And what we are likely to end up with is totally boring roads with horribly low speed limits, in an attempt to engineer compensation for driver incompetence

[Ixion]

They gave another example of a two star road
http://www.kiwirap.co.nz/pdf/2-Star%...%20example.jpg

I can see some issues with t hat road. It's not bad, but I could understand it getting a low rating

They did find an example fo a one star bit of road, after all
http://www.kiwirap.co.nz/pdf/1-Star%...%20example.jpg

Now, THAT one clearly is dangerous. Spidey went into overdrive just at the sight of the picture.

So, those ones, I can see the rationale. The first example, I can't see it. Which makes me suspect their methodology.

[spookytooth]

its the broken white lines on the otherside of the road,tards think its 3 lanes

[Bender]

SH2 between Clive and Hastings. Lots of orchards, nice straights to speed on. Pedestrians like to walk down there at all hrs and get run over.

I thought it was SH1 just South of Katikati, (near Tauranga) which looks identical and is also an accident black spot. The reason at Katikati is because there is very litle passing opportuniy for a long way either way and cars get stuck behind trucks. The first opportunity they get they're overtaking from impatience and kaboom. The heavy poles holding wind netting are not particularly forgiving either.

[Berries]

Can someone tell me why that stretch of road should be considered as one of the most dangerous in the country. Because I can't any major issues. Just looks like a normal back road to me.

Because if you come off the road where that photo is taken you are either going to hit a thick wooden pole on the left or a thick wooden pole on the right. And thick wooden poles hurt, whether you are sliding along on your arse or sitting in a cage. The ones on the left look fairly regularly spaced, if a bit close to the road. The ones on the right are even closer to the road and more closely spaced. NZTA have an 'ideal' of 9m wide clearzones either side of the road where there are no non frangible objects. Impossible to achieve on the NZ road network granted, but I can't see how that fence on the right was approved and if the road is SH would expect it to be taken down.

The original KiwiRAP was based on crashes per km and crashes per 100milion VKT (vehicle kilometres travelled). It was crude. The new star ratings go further in that they have actually looked at all the roadside hazards and measured how far they are from the carriageway. Still not great, but it's a start. Have a look at page 15 of the Safer Journeys Strategy for an explanantion of why NZ is going this way.

[p.dath]

There is a good explanation of the ratings here:
http://www.kiwirap.co.nz/scoring_bands.html

[p.dath]

Second is the ratings often don't seem to make sense.

Like this one, http://www.kiwirap.co.nz/pdf/2-Star%...xample%202.jpg.

Can someone tell me why that stretch of road should be considered as one of the most dangerous in the country. Because I can't any major issues. Just looks like a normal back road to me.

So it has a two star rating because of the power poles (aka, road side furniture) being so close to the roading edge. Someone coming off the road is highly likely to hit one of those poles. Also the right hand edge has no sealed edge. And the horiculture fence with large posts is in close proximity to the road edge.

So basically the road is ok unless you get into a skid or loose control because if you slide off the road you're probably going to be fucked.

[kave]

MoT have just finished classifying all the roads in the country , in an exercise called Kiwirap (Kiwi Road Assessment Program - don't blame me I didn't invent the stupid name).

What they've done is go through all the raods and grade them from 2 star (dangerous) to 4 stars (very safe).

Two problems though.

First, is that they ignored motorcycles. Intentionally.

Second is the ratings often don't seem to make sense.

Like this one, http://www.kiwirap.co.nz/pdf/2-Star%...xample%202.jpg.

Can someone tell me why that stretch of road should be considered as one of the most dangerous in the country. Because I can't any major issues. Just looks like a normal back road to me.

It pays to note that they didn't rate all the roads in the country, it was purely an exercise in rating the State Highway network. Of course you would expect higher standards of a main arterial route than you would expect from a rural back road, unfortunately (or fortunately for those who enjoy a more technicaly challenging ride) these standards aren't often met in New Zealand.

[p.dath]

First, is that they ignored motorcycles. Intentionally.

That might be a tad harsh Ixion. They appear to have ignored all road users equally, not just motorcycles. This is how they say they form the results:

1.Risk Mapping - uses historical traffic and crash data to produce colour-coded maps which illustrate the relative level of risk on sections of the road network.


2.Performance tracking - involves a comparison of crash rates over time to establish whether fewer - or more - people are being killed or injured, and to determine if measures to improve safety have been effective.


3.Star Rating - road inspections look at the engineering features of a road . Between one and five stars are awarded to road links depending on the level of safety 'built-in' to the road.

[Ixion]

That might be a tad harsh Ixion. They appear to have ignored all road users equally, not just motorcycles. This is how they say they form the results:

No. They say, in their Q&A document

22. Why aren’t cyclists or motorcyclists included in assessing the Star Ratings?

The KiwiRAP model is presently aimed at providing Star Ratings for motorized vehicle occupants as these account for the greatest proportion of road users and crashes on the rural state highway network, where KiwiRAP is initially targeted

Though I didn't intend the stement to be condemnatory. Just that motorcycles weren't taken intot he formula . So, for instance , SH1 north of Auckland gets 4 stars with a "no roadside hazards" , even though theres a steep bank on one side, and cheescutters on the other.

[PirateJafa]

Though I didn't intend the stement to be condemnatory. Just that motorcycles weren't taken intot he formula . So, for instance , SH1 north of Auckland gets 4 stars with a "no roadside hazards" , even though theres a steep bank on one side, and cheescutters on the other.

Don't worry Les, last time I was down there, they appear to have fixed that by putting a cheesecutter on the bank side as well.

[Madness]

I think they may have ignored motorcyclists when they decided cheesecutters are a minor/negligible roadside hazard risk. I'd also be more concerned about all the sections of tar that turn to quicksilver during summer up here than say a ditch or an intersection, just personally.

[duckonin]

Class 2 may get a low KPH sign on it 2=50kph=hazards???

[rastuscat]

Can someone tell me why that stretch of road should be considered as one of the most dangerous in the country. Because I can't any major issues. Just looks like a normal back road to me.

The KiwiRap programs doesn't identify roads, they identify themselves.

It don't specifically blame the road, it identifies the road as a place that a significant number of crashes have happened.

To that end, blame the crashes on that road for bringing the road to the Gremlins attention. For whatever reason they happened (road, driver, rider, Doris the Sheep etc), they happened, and caused the road to be labelled as dodgy.

It's not as if the Gremlins just randomly chose the road.

So there.