The projects, along with changes favouring pedestrian use of Union St East in Dunedin’s tertiary precinct, will take place with $373,500 the Dunedin City Council received from Waka Kotahi/NZ Transport Agency from its $14 million innovation fund.
Councils around the country have received funding for trial projects to give streets more safe space for people, something the agency calls a "tactical urbanism" approach.
The trial projects will test layouts, materials and designs to inform permanent upgrades.
Councils will only have to pay 10% of the cost of these trials.
Dunedin City Council group manager transport Jeanine Benson said the tertiary precinct trials aimed to improve the safety and accessibility for bus users, people in cars and on bicycles in the campus area of Dunedin.
The super bus stop in Albany St near the Clubs and Societies building would have a higher level of service than others, where several bus routes met, allowing for transfers.
Putting the bus stop in place might involve relocation of bus stops, rearranging of space and, depending on space requirements, rearrangements of parking, Ms Benson said.
A new crossing was also proposed at that spot.
The other proposed trial, in Union St East, would reprioritise how that street was used so there was more space for the large numbers of pedestrians who used it daily to move between lectures and meetings.
"This is likely to involve rearrangements for car parking, traffic calming, intersection improvements crossing improvements and amenity/streetscape improvements."
The trial was planned together with the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic and now funding was granted, council staff would talk to student representatives and other affected people about how it would be done.
The Mosgiel-Taieri Safer School Streets project would be similar to the system put in place around Dunedin’s central city schools and George St Normal School.
It followed concerns from members of the Mosgiel and Outram communities that speeds and lack of safe crossing points made it unsafe for children to walk, scoot or bike to and from schools in the area, Ms Benson said.
It would include new crossing points, upgrading existing crossings and intersection improvements.
The trials were likely early next year and people could have their say as feedback would feed into designing permanent changes.
The tertiary trial will cost $300,000, the city council’s share being $30,000, and the Mosgiel-Taieri trial $115,000, the council’s 10% share being 11,500.
Testing meant the council could evaluate whether safety had improved before committing to major investment. If there were issues, the temporary infrastructure could easily be changed, she said.
