But their call appears to have had little effect on the Dunedin City Council, which has made it clear it will not go back on its work to cut the four-lane road into two lanes for vehicles and two for cycling and pedestrians.
The reduction to two vehicle lanes earlier this year confused motorists, and there were reports of several near head-on collisions with cars in the wrong lane.
The work on Portobello Rd, between Andersons Bay Rd and Portsmouth Dr, has so far cost $290,000, including extra works, such as bollards, after complaints about safety. About $325,000 more is planned for landscaping the area to make it safer.
But CSL Containers office manager Karen Chapman said the changes were not enough.
Five businesses that use the road recently signed a petition recording their objection to the council's work.
In a letter to the council, also published in the Otago Daily Times letters to the editor column, Mrs Chapman said there had been ''a waste of money and destruction of an excellent dual carriage roadway, which is ideal for the local businesses and motorists in the area''.
She asked the council to ''consider cutting the city's losses, restore the road to its previous state, and designate one footpath for pedestrians, and one for cyclists''.
Painted markings on the road she thought were part of the planned modifications had turned up before the end of consultation. That meant the council had already decided what it would do.
Mrs Chapman was backed up this week by Portobello Rd business Storage King manager Don Baily, who said his concern was the road would stay as two lanes.
Drivers were not getting used to the new layout and still drove on the wrong side.
''There's been numerous near-misses,'' he said.
His business driveway was now more difficult to access.
Cooke Howlison managing director John Marsh said his company had a commercial workshop on the road and owned a property there.
''My main concern is it's an industrial area. There hasn't been enough consideration of businesses. Very few cyclists use it.''
Mr Marsh said he was involved in consultation with the council ''on my instigation'', and it had made concessions.
However, there was still a safety issue. Trucks had to swing out into oncoming traffic to make room to turn into the company's driveway.
CSL Containers director Philip Chapman said a cycleway could have been built with just a slightly wider footpath.
All businesses said they had been in consultation with the council, but felt it could have been better.
Asked about concerns trucks had to swing across the centre line to turn into driveways, council senior transportation planner Sarah Connolly said traffic engineers had looked at the issue.
''The view of those engineering professionals was that this happens in many, many locations around the city.''
Traffic volumes on the road were low and sight distance good, and engineers felt it was ''in acceptable levels''.
On traffic using the wrong side of the road, she said work already done and modifications planned would stop the road ''looking like a dual carriageway''.
''The advice from the engineers is that change means what you have left is obviously a two-lane road.''
On the road markings, Ms Connolly said the council had not decided what it would do before the end of consultation.
''I have no idea what those markings are, sorry.''
Ms Connolly said some minor changes were made to the plan following consultation.
The council was looking into doing the work as part of the second stage of the cycle network's construction, so it might not be done until February or later.
But the work would be done.
''It will go ahead. It will not be reinstated as it was. ''It is a critical part of the South Dunedin cycle network and provides a crucial link from the residential areas of South Dunedin to the Portsmouth Dr shared path and from there into the city.''
