What is AusRAP?
The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) is a globally recognised risk-rating system designed by the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP). Used in about 130 countries, the iRAP protocols help road authorities identify safety upgrades that will reduce road deaths and injuries. AusRAP ratings show where the risk of fatal or serious injury is greatest across the road network. Roads rated as five-star are the safest, while one-star roads present the greatest risks.
Each additional star rating halves the risk of deaths or serious injuries. Upgrading a road from two stars to three stars halves the number of serious crashes likely to occur.
AusRAP ratings are calculated using a range of risk factors and information, such as average daily traffic; speed limit; number of lanes in each direction; lane width; shoulder width; resence or absence of roadside barriers and audio tactile line markings (rumble strips); gradient and curvature; quality of line-markings; skid resistance; and provisions for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. This information can be overlaid with crash data to understand how infrastructure contributes to crashes and crash outcomes, enabling road authorities to identify potential road works that will reduce risk of crashes and prioritise corrective investment.
About 500,000km of Australian roads have been assessed using AusRAP’s protocols. But this information is not made available to the public, despite Australian governments agreeing in 2024 to publish the star safety ratings.
How does it work?
Five-star rated roads are the gold standard for road safety. But the greatest number of lives saved and serious injuries avoided per dollar invested will most often be achieved by upgrading low-star roads to at least 3-star safety standard – a point made by Transport Minister Catherine King early in 2025 when she announced federal funding for Queensland’s Bruce Highway.
Both divided and undivided roads can be rated as three stars depending on their other safety features. High-speed roads with 4 and 5-star ratings are typically multi-lane, divided motorways with a full range of safety treatments such as barriers, wide lanes and shoulders, and interchanges rather than intersections.
Queensland’s RACQ recently ran a “Fix the Bruce” campaign, calling on the Queensland and Australian governments to upgrade the Bruce Highway. Almost half of the highway’s length is rated at just 2 stars for safety. Upgrading sections of the Bruce Highway to 3 stars or above could mean widening lanes and shoulders; removing roadside hazards; installing safety barriers or widening centre lines to separate oncoming traffic; and adding overtaking lanes.
This RACQ graphic shows examples of typical design features on dierent star-rated sections of the Bruce Highway.
Data equals political accountability
State and territory governments use AusRAP to assess the relative safety of roads, yet none have published the results. In 2024, they agreed to share this information with the Federal Government for public release. But as yet, no AusRAP ratings appear on the Federal Government’s National Road Safety Hub, and AusRAP ratings are not required as part of the application and decision-making process for Federal infrastructure funding. The AAA wants to see AusRAP ratings not only published but used by governments to prioritise road funding allocations.
Keeping road safety data secret denies Australians their chance to assess politicians’ road funding decisions from a safety perspective. Using AusRAP road ratings will increase transparency and clip the wings of politicians who seek to prioritise spending to win votes in marginal seats, rather than to invest in saving lives.
Overseas
IRAP star ratings are used across the globe and in many countries are embedded in road funding decision-making processes.
Australia’s National Road Safety Strategy and its associated action plan mention an aspiration to increase the share of traffic on roads rated three stars but list no concrete targets. Countries that have produced road safety plans that set targets for increasing their road networks’ star ratings include Gambia, Uganda, Malawi, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Croatia, the Cayman Islands, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and Greece.
In addition, the Board of the Asian Development Bank requests star ratings as part of its financing assessments.