Planterbox pandemonium on Pioneer

Cycle lanes on Pioneer Highway are causing angst for drivers and business owners.

Shopkeepers at Palmerston North’s Pioneer Highway retail centre are fearing for their businesses and their customers’ safety resulting from a trial of ‘‘tactical urbanism’’.

The city council has installed a series of relocatable, coloured boxes along a length of Main St West and Pioneer Highway from Pitt St to Botanical Rd to create a protected cycle lane between the footpath and parked cars.

Outside the shops across West St from The Warehouse, the experiment comes at the cost of on-street car parks.

Pioneer Vautier Pharmacy manager Karlyn Smith said there were four crashes on Wednesday and one yesterday morning when motorists ran into the boxes.

‘‘I warned them (the council) there would be a major accident.

‘‘This is such a bad move, it’s really dangerous.

‘‘We’re going to have a fatality here.’’ Smith said taking away on-street parking affected customers who did not like using the private, off-street car park at the village because it got very busy, with people backing out on angles.

It was also unsuitable for larger vehicles such as trucks and vans with trailers.

Smith said the businesses were struggling already, and the council was putting up barriers for their customers.

Pioneer Home Cookery owner Rattanakmao said he feared for the future of his business and the eight to 10 staff he employed.

A lot of his business came from passing tradespeople who parked their long work vehicles on Pioneer Highway while they came in for something to eat. ‘‘I’ve lost all my morning trade, because they can’t park.

‘‘The council don’t understand at all. What were they thinking?’’

Cyclists, however, have welcomed the moves to make them safer, with some on the Manawatu¯ Forum for Better Biking pointing out that cyclists were customers too.

Another said drivers complaining about not feeling safe opening their doors into traffic were just getting a taste of what cyclists without protected lanes felt like all the time.

The council had since added a painted buffer between car parks and the main traffic lane.

Cyclist Robert McLachlan said paint on the road did not protect people on bikes.

He said many motorists would change to bikes if it was safer to do so, and the environment would benefit.

Council acting manager of strategy and planning David Murphy said council staff had visited businesses and delivered letters flagging the proposed changes, but the shopkeepers disputed that.

Murphy said the trial had been planned to be easy to put in, and easy to remove, which is why the sand-filled boxes were not securely attached to the road.

He said after complaints from the shops, the council had moved boxes, including one that had been clipped by a vehicle, and reinstated two parks between the shopping centre entrance and petrol station on Pioneer Highway, so only four parks were lost on that side of the street.

Murphy said the council had been delighted to see many cyclists using the lane. ‘‘We’ll continue to monitor feedback and cycling and motorist behaviour.’’