The Dunedin City Council responded to concern raised by an Otago Daily Times reader, who said recreational walkers were forced to use the road side of the barriers, next to cars.
Council safety team leader Hjarne Poulsen said the work being carried out to install more than 1km of wire rope barrier by the Soldiers Monument would ''significantly improve'' safety.
But the narrowness of the road meant the council could not create a dedicated space for walkers.
There would be some room between the wire barrier and the painted edge line, a minimum of 600mm, but in most places 750mm.
''This can be used by walkers, but with great care, as is the case for pedestrians on any similar road without a formal footpath.''
It had not been possible to create more of a shoulder as that would have required significant earth and retaining works.
The work being carried out already included a series of retaining walls.
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There seems to be a problem at DCC with incredibly simplistic thinking when it comes to road safety.
Every time they try to fix one safety issue, they create another one and make some issues MORE dangerous. It happened time and time again with the South Dunedin cycle-way, and even now there are still intersections that are far more dangerous than they ever were to start with.
Meanwhile, there's been ANOTHER big crash this morning at the Allendale/ Forbury Rd intersection. At least that one is on the DCC agenda to be fixed. The sooner the better.
So a modification that eliminates room for pedestrians "would significantly improve safety."? Only in bureaucrat-land...