They call it the Kings Highway but the steep, winding plunge down the Clyde Mountain is anything but regal.
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It's a potentially deadly section of highway but doesn't get the rich road funding of the Bruce Highway in Queensland, which carries far more traffic and has an even worse safety reputation.
The true and safe condition of all Australia's highways and major arterial roads will be exposed to public scrutiny through a new star rating by 2025, circumventing road funding pork-barrelling tactics which have endured across successive state and federal governments for decades.
Set up with multiple cameras and specialised software, a fleet of vehicles are scanning major roads around the country and identifying problem areas under the expanded AusRAP (Road Assessment Program). Various and different scanning techniques have been attempted but ultimately, driving the road is the most accurate assessment.
![If you spot a vehicle like this one festooned in cameras and scanning equipment, it's a vehicle 'mapping' the safety of the road. Picture supplied If you spot a vehicle like this one festooned in cameras and scanning equipment, it's a vehicle 'mapping' the safety of the road. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ZBtA3uhzm786CWHKXPpjK4/13b9a042-46fe-4b51-a3d4-3a880554512d.jpg/r0_14_1024_769_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Road condition assessment is seen as a key missing element in the national road safety strategy, which is already beginning to fracture badly in the face of rising road deaths in Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
The current strategy aims to halve national road fatalities by 2030.
However, over the past 12 months to the end of January 2024, road deaths nationally have increased by almost 6 per cent compared with the same period in 2022-23.
Over 100,000 kilometres of roads and highways will be rated between one star (for poor safety) to five stars (for excellent safety). The assessment will include such detail as road surfacing and shoulders, line marking and safety barriers; even where the trees are located to the road and how large they are.
![Sections of the Kings Highway are perilous to inexperienced drivers. Picture by Sagi Biderman Sections of the Kings Highway are perilous to inexperienced drivers. Picture by Sagi Biderman](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ZBtA3uhzm786CWHKXPpjK4/466a16c0-049c-462b-a1fa-57843a4ad515.jpg/r0_0_2828_1716_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Road improvement options range from low-cost shoulder rumble strips that alert drivers they are leaving the road and crash barriers which reduce run-off-road and head-on crashes, to higher-cost intersection upgrades and full highway duplication.
Results will begin to appear on a new online dashboard by the end of this year.
![If you see an unusual vehicle like this driving around, it's mapping the road. Picture supplied If you see an unusual vehicle like this driving around, it's mapping the road. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ZBtA3uhzm786CWHKXPpjK4/d052a091-cb68-47cb-ad5d-696ffe0d55f3.jpg/r0_0_886_632_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Updated Australia-wide maps - showing Australia's good, bad and indifferent roads - are promised by early 2025.
The goal is to achieve a national road average of three stars.
Each of the jurisdictions will be funding their own data collection. Some, like NSW, are well progressed while others, like South Australia, haven't updated their road network mapping for 10 years.
Commitment to transparency on road conditions is a win for Australia's automobile clubs which have been conducting a Data Saves Lives campaign to urge data sharing on road funding, as politicians of various stripes have manipulated the billions of federal dollars available to help bolster their re-election chances.
The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) introduced AusRAP to Australia in 2001 and has been a strong promoter of the value of road safety data and road star ratings.
The program has since been onpassed to Austroads, which has diplomatically described it as contributing "to an overall improvement in road safety by supporting the optimisation of investment in the safety of roads".
Logically, accurate road assessment should assist getting road funding grants and assistance spent where it is most needed, not in electorates where a local member needs votes.
The new National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects, currently being negotiated with the states and territories, will dictate how $50 billion in federal road funding is allocated over the five years beyond July 2024.
In the ACT region, sections of the Kings Highway and the Monaro Highway have been repeatedly highlighted in crash reports as requiring major upgrades.