How does a Road Assessment Programme Work?

Road Assessment Programmes internationally consist of three 'protocols':

Risk Mapping – uses historical traffic and crash data to produce colour-coded maps illustrating the relative level of risk on sections of the road network
Performance Tracking – involves a comparison of crash rates over time to establish whether fewer – or more – people are being killed or seriously injured; and to determine if countermeasures have been effective
Star Rating – road inspections look at the engineering features of a road (such as lane and shoulder width or presence of safety barriers). Between 1 and 5 Stars are awarded to road links, depending on the level of safety 'built-in' to the road (the higher the star rating, the better the road).

The first KiwiRAP Risk Maps were published in 2008 and used crash data from 2002-2006.

In 2010 the first KiwiRAP Star Ratings were published.

In 2012 the KiwiRAP report included risk maps and performance tracking for the New Zealand (80+km/h) state highway network, comparing crash data for 2007-2011 to that from 2002-2006. It was the first time performance tracking was done.