Road maintenance is the biggest bug bear for South Australian drivers according to new data from RAA’s Report a Road platform, which has revealed the most common concerns raised with RAA by motorists.
RAA’s Report a Road platform allows road users to nominate a road or infrastructure issue near them at any time and has received almost 600 submissions in the last two financial years.
In that time, the most common types of issues raised by drivers were:
- Road surface (41%) – e.g. cracks, potholes or sunken pit covers
- Intersection design or road layout (24%)
- Inadequate signage or line markings (8%)
- Driver behaviour (7%) – e.g. observed speeding, red-light running, illegal parking
- Pedestrian or cycling infrastructure (5%)
Road surface was an even bigger issue for regional drivers – 51% of regional nominations were road surface complaints, whereas 37% of submissions for metropolitan areas were about road condition.
On behalf of its 800,000 members, and in line with the Safe Systems approach to road safety – ‘safer roads, safer cars, safer speeds, safer drivers’ – RAA has been calling for a big increase in funding to tackle the state’s $2b road maintenance backlog.
RAA Senior Traffic Engineer Matt Vertudaches said road maintenance was a major issue for drivers and RAA would continue to advocate for greater investment in road maintenance funding.
“The condition of some of our roads is concerning – especially in our regional network – and this is reflected in the feedback we’re receiving from our members year round via Report a Road,” Mr Vertudaches said.
“We have a $2b road maintenance backlog in South Australia and the latest Auditor General’s report shows this equates to 20% of our 13,000km road network.
“That’s why we have been calling for $1b over four years to address this issue in our recent State Budget submissions.”
RAA’s team of traffic engineers reviews every Report a Road nomination from the community and regularly investigates sites in detail before recommending treatments or upgrades to road authorities.
In the past two financial years, 64 nominations have been successfully addressed – where RAA submitted a recommendation that was either implemented or added to a program of works.
Resolved issues included road resurfacing on Kensington Road (east of Hallett Road), sunken pit cover remediation on Anzac Highway and new line marking at the intersection of Greenhill Rd / Hutt Rd / George St.
“Our Report a Road platform is an important community service that we offer for all South Australians to register any issues with a road, intersection or related infrastructure – and we will follow up with the responsible authority,” Mr Vertudaches said.
“The areas with the most nominations were in metropolitan Adelaide, with issues in the southern suburbs raised in 22% of all submissions, followed by Northern Adelaide (18%), Western suburbs (16%) and the Eastern Adelaide including CBD (11%).
“In the last financial year, we have also seen a jump in nominations for improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure, as more of our members look to use active transport and then notice spots that are unsafe.”
All South Australians can view the online Report a Road map to see issues raised and the status of each investigation, or report a new issue.
Most common issues raised through RAA’s Report a Road platform:
- Road surface (41%) – e.g. cracks, potholes or sunken pit covers
- Intersection design or road layout (24%)
- Inadequate signage or line markings (8%)
- Driver behaviour (7%) – e.g. observed speeding, red-light running, illegal parking
- Pedestrian or cycling infrastructure (5%)
- Poor sight distance (4%)
- Speed limits (3%)
- Roadside hazards (3%)
