Wagga driving instructors have expressed concern at a proposal to give the nation's roads a star rating, with one describing it as a "waste of time" that will have no impact on road safety.
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The federal Joint Select Committee on Road Safety's final report was tabled in Parliament late last month and contained 61 recommendations designed to reduce the nation's road toll.
The report, which looks closely at the factors contributing to fatal and serious incidences on Australian roads, has one recommendation that roads be rated out of five stars to allow drivers to plan their routes better.
Wagga driving instructor Glen Gaudron said if the federal government implemented the recommendation to give each road a rating then it would need to be transparent about how it arrived at the ratings.
He said the idea was a "waste of time" as "kids are going to drive on the roads regardless" of any star rating.
"I'd be dead against it if they are planning on changing the speed limits, we need to look at standardising the roads," Mr Gaudron said.
"Drivers are already too busy looking at the speedometer than they are on the roads."
Mr Gaudron said rating the roads would be a mammoth task that he believes would rob money from road repair funds.
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"They need to look at putting money towards repairing roads and not waste it on ratings," he said.
"I don't think it will change anything and it will be a mammoth exercise to achieve, it's not worth the money."
A "waste of time" sums up Mr Gaurdon's thoughts on the matter.
At the other end of the spectrum is Roadcraft Driving Services' Paul Dawson who can see the value in the rating of road conditions depending on how it is done.
"Any information you can get or anything that can improve roads and safety features is a good thing," Mr Dawson said.
"If it increases your safety and provides you with more knowledge then it's got to be a bonus."
That being said Mr Dawson said we're still going to have to drive on every road regardless of what it's rated.
"We can't just go: 'aw, I will avoid all of the three-star rated ones I'll only go on the 5 star rated ones," he said.
"But, It would certainly help if conditions deteriorated due to weather or something like that then you might go: 'ok, well, the five star one is better to go on.
"It depends on what components they will have to rate them."
In response to the report and the recommendation Transport for NSW deputy secretary safety, environment and regulation Tara McCarthy said customer safety is paramount at Transport for NSW and they are continuously looking at new ways to improve road safety across their network.
"Between 2013 and 2018, we conducted a risk assessment of all the state highways, which is about 20,000 kilometres of road, using the internationally adopted International Risk Assessment Program (iRAP) methodology used by the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP)," she said.
"This analysis helped Transport plan and develop road safety improvement programs such as the Safer Roads Program, which delivers life-saving road safety treatments such as safety barriers and wide centre lines."
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