iRAP Methodology Fact Sheet #8

Smoothed Star Ratings

This factsheet is part of a series that describes the iRAP methodology. It provides an overview of the process
used to smooth Star Ratings.

Related documents
This factsheet should be read in conjunction with:
 Other factsheets in the iRAP Methodology Fact Sheet series.
 iRAP Road Attribute Risk Factor Fact Sheets.

 Road Safety Toolkit.

Why smoothing is necessary

A Star Rating Score (SRS) is calculated for each 100 metre segment of road for vehicles occupants, motorcyclists,
pedestrians and bicyclists. These scores are then allocated to Star Rating bands to determine the Star Rating for each
100 metre of road. However, for the purposes of producing a road map, 100 metres is too much detail. Hence, Star
Ratings are smoothed (or averaged) over longer lengths in order to produce more meaningful results. The effect of
smoothing is illustrated in the chart below, which shows unsmoothed Star Rating Scores (SRS) in grey and smoothed
SRS in white.
Star Rating Scores (grey) and smoothed SRS (white)
When using ViDA (http://vida.irap.org), people have the option of smoothing SRS in one of two ways:
1. By section.
2. By length.

Smoothing by section
In a standard dataset, each 100 metre section of road contains a field named “section”. This field describes a section
of a road that typically starts and ends at well-known locations and contains numerous consecutive 100 metre
segments. The section can be set by the relevant road agency or RAP partner as required with recommendations that
the section reflects homogeneous conditions along the length (e.g. traffic volume, speeds, carriageway type, land use,
road function). The advantage of user-defined road sections include alignment with road authority asset management
reference points and an improved ability to performance track and monitor before and after conditions of any
smoothed results. When the “section” smoothing type option is selected in ViDA, the smoothed SRS for each road
user type is calculated by averaging the 100 metre SRS within the section.

Smoothing by length
When the “Length” smoothing type of option is selected in ViDA, the smoothed SRS are calculated as follows:
1. Data is sorted based on:
 road name

 section

 carriageway label
 distance.
2. Adjacent 100 metre segments are ‘joined’ together to form “smoothed sections”.
3. A new “smoothed section” is formed whenever:
 road name changes
 section name changes

 carriageway label changes

 roadworks changes to or from ‘major’
 area type changes

 speed limit changes

 smoothed section length is greater than 3km in rural areas or 1km in urban area
 distance (or chainage) is more than 150m from the last data record (that is, where there is a gap in the
data)
 distance is less than the last distance.
4. A “smoothed section” is added to the previous one if:
 the length of the “smoothed section” is less than the area type smoothing length (1km or 3km)
 all other attributes are the same in each “smoothed section” (for example, same road name, section,
carriageway etc…).
5. The smoothed SRS is calculated by averaging 100 metre SRS within the “smoothed section”.

When smoothed Star Ratings are used

Smoothed Star Ratings are used:
  in Star Rating maps

 when presenting aggregated Star Rating results for a road network

 in longer term performance tracking.

6 September 2013, © International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) 2013.