Friday 24 November 2023: The Australian Roads Assessment Program (AusRAP) has today revealed only 0.3 per cent of the 18,805 kilometres of roads across NSW received the highest safety rating of five stars.
The most up-to-date available data of the AusRAP has provided a one-to-five star safety rating for roads in NSW and revealed 48 per cent of the network was given a three-star rating.
Alarmingly, 15 per cent of the network received a one-star rating. The lowest safety rating was recorded across more than one-quarter of the road network across the South Coast (28%), New England (25.5%) and the North Coast (25.5%).
AusRAP is an internationally recognised road safety rating assessment system, which operates in more than 100 countries.
The most current AusRAP is now more than two years old, highlighting the importance of the Australian Automobile Association’s (AAA) campaign to make road safety data readily available to the public.
NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said the fact that the total length of NSW roads to receive the maximum five-star safety rating is less than a rounding error should concern policymakers.
“Australians will contribute over $23 billion to the Federal Government through the Fuel Excise this year alone – they have earnt the right to drive on safe roads and to have real-time data and information on the safety features of the roads they drive on every day,” Mr Khoury said.
“As the Australian Government looks to re-focus its infrastructure funding priorities there are two critical statistics it must keep in mind only 0.3 per cent of the state’s roads are deemed to be truly safe and the national road toll is seven per cent higher than the same time last year."
“More of the fuel excise must go back into building safer roads and all available data on road safety must be made publicly available in real-time, because if we don’t have a clear and current grasp on the problems how do we expect, as a nation, to fix them?”
Total rated road length and AusRap rating proportions by NSW regions
| Region | 5-star | 4-star | 3-star | 2-star | 1-star | NA | Total length (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Central Coast NSW | 0.5% | 5.6% | 46.9% | 29.9% | 16.9% | 0.3% | 1,317.1 |
| New England North West NSW | 0.1% | 3.0% | 33.6% | 37.8% | 25.5% | 0.1% | 2,842.6 |
| North Coast NSW | 0.1% | 17.5% | 39.2% | 17.6% | 25.5% | 0.0% | 2,808.6 |
| Greater Sydney | 0.6% | 13.9% | 66.0% | 15.1% | 4.3% | 0.2% | 1,184.7 |
| South Coast NSW | 0.0% | 2.3% | 25.5% | 44.6% | 27.6% | 0.0% | 1,455.9 |
| Western NSW | 0.1% | 4.8% | 56.1% | 31.1% | 7.8% | 0.1% | 5,507.9 |
| South West NSW | 0.8% | 6.6% | 57.3% | 26.8% | 8.4% | 0.0% | 3,686.6 |
| NSW Total | 0.3% | 7.2% | 48.0% | 29.2% | 15.2% | 0.1% | 18,805.6 |
Contact: Peter Khoury
