Skip to main content

Road-weather information aids New Zealand road safety measures

As part of their efforts to reduce the number of people killed and injured in road crashes, the New Zealand Government and NZ Transport Agency have recently installed a MetService decision support service for the Transport Operations Centres (TOCs) in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. TOC staff, as well as key Agency staff and road network contractors, are now receiving Severe Road-Weather Advisories prepared by MetService meteorologists, warning of weather events that could impact road safety, traf
March 10, 2017 Read time: 1 min
As part of their efforts to reduce the number of people killed and injured in road crashes, the New Zealand Government and NZ Transport Agency have recently installed a MetService decision support service for the Transport Operations Centres (TOCs) in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

TOC staff, as well as key Agency staff and road network contractors, are now receiving Severe Road-Weather Advisories prepared by MetService meteorologists, warning of weather events that could impact road safety, traffic flows and mobility.

The advisories include warnings of high wind events, heavy rain, floods and slips, tidal inundation, reduced visibility and the likelihood of freezing conditions and ice formation. The advisories enable TOC staff and other teams to proactively make informed decisions about their assets and the safe operation of the State Highway network.

Related Content

  • Huawei opens door to new opportunities in transport & logistics
    December 18, 2024
    By addressing the four key elements of a transportation network’s composition with a state-of-the-art digital solution, Huawei is bringing significant performance uplifts to all aspects of railway operations
  • Deriving data to tackle tribal road crashes
    June 14, 2017
    David Crawford looks at a new initiative to deal with high crash and fatality rates on America’s tribal roads. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, on average two members of the country’s indigenous communities - American Indians or Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) - die every day in motor vehicle crashes. This represents a far higher percentage than that of the country’s general population. Historically, the US states with the worst records are Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakot
  • Bluetooth real time traffic information on trial in New Zealand
    July 12, 2016
    New Zealand companies HMI Technologies and rental car company GO Rentals are trialling a real time traffic information system in 50 rental cars travelling between Christchurch and Queenstown. RouteTIP roadside beacons send simple, location-specific messages to the hands-free RouteTIP app on the user’s smartphone to provide drivers with information on hazards and traffic congestion ahead, alerts about road conditions, reminders of speed restrictions, journey time information and much more.
  • Communications redundancy increases VMS reliability
    December 17, 2014
    Hybrid communications to variable message signs increase resilience to natural disasters and enable deployment in remote areas, as Alan Allegretto explains. Variable Message Signs (VMSs) are a common sight and a well-proven means to improve public safety on our roads and highways. ITS professionals rank the VMS as second only to interoperable radios as the most important technology to improve effectiveness during emergency incidents and evacuations. Ironically, however, current systems suffer from one criti