The NZ Transport Agency has seized on this week's snowy and icy weather to try out a new system of warning travellers about road conditions.
The NZTA published a road condition forecast on its Facebook page and Twitter this week with red, orange, yellow, and green ratings for ''threat level'' of snow and ice on the roads.
It commissioned the ''severe weather threat matrix'' from MetService, which has been organising a similar road forecast for Rimutaka Hill Rd, Takaka and the Kawatiri area for several years.
MetService business development manager Peter Fisher said forecasters had to ''move quickly'' on putting the trial in place, because they had little to no advance notice.
''[NZTA journey manager Graeme Hall] called me up on Monday afternoon when he heard there was this cold weather coming up, and said, `Hey, is there any way we could, as a trial, kick this off?'.''
The first road condition forecast was sent out that night, he said.
Mr Hall wanted to do a trial of the weather threat matrix because there had been ''problems'' with people finding out about the conditions of the roads during the past three snowstorms.
''People knew there was some bad weather, but they were trying to find out what was happening with the road at the last minute.''
He hoped the road forecast would help travellers prepare better.
The weather threat matrix developed for Dunedin was slightly different from those MetService put out for Rimutaka, Takaka and Kawatiri, notably because Mr Hall had asked for it to be issued for six-hour blocks, and to include only snow and ice conditions.
Those parameters could change if the forecast became a permanent fixture, Mr Fisher said.
It could also include a disclaimer indicating that while the forecasts were often ''pretty well spot on'', they were not set in stone.
''Just to ensure that everyone's clear about the message that's being given,'' he said. Mr Hall said the NZTA had received only minimal feedback on the road condition forecast thus far, but it had all been positive.
Neither NZTA nor MetService would say how much the road forecasting service cost ''This service is a trial that we're providing to Dunedin,'' Mr Fisher said. ''If they like [it], they may decide to keep it going, which would be wonderful.''
