Planter box barrier crashes: ‘Someone is going to get killed’
A line of plastic containers on a highway, designed to protect cyclists, is continuing to befuddle motorists and raise worry that someone will be left seriously injured.
A car was left stranded with a temporary bollard wedged under its bumper yesterday morning, the latest casualty of a cycle-safety trial on Pioneer Highway in Palmerston North.
The city council installed a series of coloured boxes between Pitt St and Botanical Rd in April, to act as temporary bollards and create a protected cycle lane.
Some of the boxes, which blocked parking spaces or were being clipped by cars, have had their placement adjusted, but the layout is continuing to pose problems for traffic.
Vautier Pharmacy Pioneer manager Karlyn Smith, who works near the trial site, said motorists were still regularly hitting the bollards, and the collision that immobilised a blue Mazda yesterday morning was at least the fifth crash for the week.
She said crashes were so common the council needed to seriously reconsider the barrier boxes.
‘‘Someone is going to get killed ... [or] seriously hurt . . . and I’m fuming. I believe safety for cyclists is important, but this set-up isn’t safe for them either.’’
She said a cyclist went over her handlebars after she hit one of the boxes by the BP station at the corner of Botanical Rd onmonday.
This was confirmed by the service station manager Jacq Rose. He said staff helped the cyclist get home after St John Ambulance treated her.
The sun was low and in the cyclist’s eyes.
‘‘Someone had beaned into one of the boxes the night before, so it was skew-whiff and poking into the cycle lane, and she couldn’t see it.’’
Cyclista cafe´ owner Steve Stannard, who has represented Australia in road cycling, pedals along Pioneer Highway twice a day.
He said he had felt safer since the planter box trial started.
They were worth it, even if the boxes were causing an increase in minor crashes.
‘‘The thing is, hitting those boxes won’t kill a motorist, but a car will kill a cyclist.’’
He said it was always a little nerve-racking riding into the sun in the evening or morning, knowing a driver might not see you due to sunstrike.
‘‘With the boxes there, you can be confident that a car’s not going to run you down from behind.’’
Stannard said he noticed a few of the boxes were being knocked into the cycle lane. It was a new hazard for cyclists, but a fairly minor and avoidable one.
Council acting manager of strategy and planning David Murphy said all safety concerns were given top priority, since making Pioneer Highway safer was the whole reason for the cycleway trial.
Whenever concerns were raised, or crashes reported, council staff would adjust the layout of the boxes as needed.
The council was looking into the circumstances of yesterday morning’s collision, and was talking to the cyclist from the Monday crash to see what could be learned.
Murphy said the success of the trial would be assessed after it ends in July.
Council staff counted cycling traffic levels before the trial began, and there were sensors recording the same data during the trial period.
‘‘We are also doing on-site surveys and considering public feedback, which has been both positive and negative.’’