Many in the Caversham community are delighted the Dunedin City Council has begun looking for ways to fix a "dangerous" intersection.
Caversham Community Group member Peter Borland said the intersection at South Rd and Playfair St was perilous for pedestrians, because the streets were so wide and traffic could travel around the corners at higher than normal speeds.
"Crossing Playfair St is very dangerous. There’s a school down the road and it’s a very busy intersection."
He said members of the group had witnessed many near-misses with pedestrians.
The latest was just two weeks ago.
"It’s a notorious intersection. Cars whip around the corner so quickly."
He said the issue was raised with the Dunedin City Council several years ago.
Yesterday, the DCC placed road cones at the intersection, so it resembled what Playfair St would look like with a pedestrianised traffic island in the middle.
DCC senior transportation engineer Lisa Clifford said the pedestrian safety issue was brought to the council by the community, and the DCC was now in a position to investigate the problem.
Several buses were driven through the intersection with the cones in place, to see if they could do so easily.
"What it is, is pedestrian safety improvements. We’ve done a concept and we’ve done some consulting, but we wanted to test if a bus could pass through without any problems.
"That’s what the mock-up [road cones] was for today."
She said there was no timeline for the traffic island installation.
"It’s still in the early stages, the conceptual stages."
Mr Borland said the Caversham Community Group was pleased the council was looking at the safety of the intersection.
"It’s great to see this happening.
"I have a dog and we often go across that intersection. It’s one [an intersection] that you do need to take a lot of care going across."
