The Dunedin City Council has installed new signs urging people to behave themselves at the Thomas Burns St pedestrian crossing just over the tracks from the Dunedin Railway Station.
The move came after the council spent about $10,000 installing pedestrian-detecting radar units at the crossing earlier this year.
The radar units - the first of their kind in the city - were designed to detect the departure of pedestrians who pressed the crossing button to activate a red light, to stop traffic, only to dash across the road early.
The radar would cancel the crossing signal if it detected someone crossing the road after pressing the button but before the crossing signal activated, council senior traffic engineer Ron Minnema said.
The aim was to avoid unnecessary disruption for motorists, but the change had created a new and unexpected complication, he said.
''Not everyone is standing on the spot where the radar is pointing at, you see,'' he said.
That meant pedestrians were left bashing the button without a response, because the radar units were failing to detect their presence, assuming they had departed early, and cancelling the crossing signal, he said.
For that reason, the council had added new signs directing pedestrians to stand in the tiled areas at the edges of the crossing, and Mr Minnema urged pedestrians to use them.
