Yarrow Street Intersection Speed Bump Is Out

The speed bump proposed for the Yarrow Street intersection will no longer be installed after a majority of councillors from the Infrastructure Committee voted against it.

Last month the committee agreed to push on with the important safety upgrade of the intersection, installing traffic lights to improve visibility.

The Invercargill City Council identified the intersection was high risk, with 18 crashes recorded in the past five years.

But businesses on the corner had been concerned about losing their customer parking and there had also been issues around the cycle lanes.

Manager of strategic asset planning Doug Rodgers told the committee on Tuesday that further consultation had since resulted in an extra parking option along Lindisfarne Street.

Cr Allan Arnold, who voted against the initial proposal, voiced his disapproval again – “if you can redesign this then why can’t you redesign the whole thing instead of losing all of the parking…”

He pointed out that most intersections around the city didn’t have cycle lanes and he saw few people along Yarrow and Lindisfarne streets actually biking.

“I think this is a poor example of what can be done at an intersection,” he said.

The addition of a raised platform to help reduce speed had divided the committee with only four councillors in favour and seven opposed.

Cr Grant Dermody said he had huge concerns for motorists and in particular trucks that were at risk of getting out of control when they hit it – even at 50km/hr.

“It seems to me that we are trialling something that we shouldn’t.”

The idea of the 75mm raised platform was to reduce speed down to 30 km/hr, with recent traffic movements showing 6000 vehicles using the intersection over a 24-hour period.

The safety improvements are partially funded through Waka Kotahi’s Road to Zero initiative and will be completed by July.