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Warwick Smith/Stuff
A trial was carried out to test the impact of reducing traffic lanes on Featherston St to create space for a cycle lane.
The lane layouts on Palmerston North’s Featherston St approaching the busy Rangitīkei St intersection have reverted to normal as city council staff analyse the results of a trial.
The trial compressed straight-ahead and left-turn traffic into a single lane to make space for a proposed cycle lane.
Council transport and development group manager Hamish Featonby said there had been no crashes or accidents reported during last week’s trial, but there had been plenty of feedback.
“Some concerns were raised about congestion, impatient drivers and erratic behaviour during the early days of the trial,” Featonby said.
But observations during the week were that driver behaviour improved, which was encouraging, he said.
Staff were continuing to monitor and record queueing at the intersection, to compare those results with what happened during the trial.
Featonby said the goal of the trial and planned changes was to ensure all road users stayed safe rather than to get as much traffic as possible through the intersection as efficiently as possible.
“Our goal is to strike a balance between efficient traffic movement and the safety of cyclists and pedestrians.”
The phasing of the lights would be an important tool to overcome the issue of straight-ahead traffic having to wait for left-turn vehicles in the lane ahead of them to get around the corner.
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