Wet road surveys an ‘effective safety strategy’

A specially adapted Sideway-force Coefficient Routine Investigation Machine (SCRIM) manufactured by UK company WDM and used by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to survey the country’s road network has been, says NZTA ‘a very efficient and effective safety strategy’. SCRIM measures wet road resistance and uses lasers to scan the road surface. Video technology helps delivers a complete set of highway asset data. WDM has also helped NZTA develop the first state highway skid resistance policy. As a r
January 30, 2014 Read time: 1 min
A specially adapted Sideway-force Coefficient Routine Investigation Machine (SCRIM) manufactured by UK company WDM and used by the 6296 New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to survey the country’s road network has been, says NZTA ‘a very efficient and effective safety strategy’.

SCRIM measures wet road resistance and uses lasers to scan the road surface.  Video technology helps delivers a complete set of highway asset data. WDM has also helped NZTA develop the first state highway skid resistance policy. As a result, up to 250 crashes are estimated to have been prevented, saving the economy around US$132 million.

NZTA says the return on investment is between 13 and 35 times and the two organisations have renewed their partnership, enabling WDM to continue to develop SCRIM technology.
Air Quality & Weather Systems

Related Content

  • June 20, 2016
    Regulating rural road use
    David Crawford looks at problems facing indigenous communities and those unfamiliar with driving in rural areas. While it is well known that the fatality rate for road crashes in rural areas is higher than in towns and cities, some groups suffer far more than others. For instance, the rates of death and serious injury from vehicle accidents is much higher for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI and AN) populations living in rural tribal lands than for any of the country’s other ethnic populations. Crashes
    Read More
  • March 16, 2012
    Weigh in motion technology aids overweight vehicle reduction
    Innovative use of truck weighing technology is growing as strategies aimed at reducing numbers of overweight vehicles gather momentum. Business is generally good at present in the truck weighing sector in general, and weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology in particular, according to leading suppliers of systems serving to help reduce overloading. Strategies aimed at deterring excessive truck loading – cutting damage to road networks and risks to safety – vary considerably worldwide, with some governments draggin
    Read More
  • January 24, 2012
    In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
    Read More
  • May 30, 2014
    The Asia-Pacific poses a multitude of ITS challenges
    The Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland, New Zealand, provided a focus for the region’s ITS Associations. Mary Bell reports. In late April, ITS New Zealand hosted the 13th Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland. Around 350 delegates from 24 nations gathered to share and advance ITS applications on both strategic and technical levels and to discuss the differing and various challenges faced in the region.
    Read More

Highlighted Content