Rowena Jackson Retirement Village resident Barb Walker, along with fellow tenants, and representatives from Donovan Primary School and Nichols Garden Centre, have put forward a submission to the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to investigate whether it would be feasible to install a pedestrian crossing at North Rd and SH6.
Mrs Walker said she decided to do something about it before it was too late.
"I cross over that road many, many times and I’ve had some near misses.
"I also just observed people trying to cross that road and some of the residents are elderly or children — they don’t realise the speed of the cars.
"I would just hate someone to be killed so I thought: ‘Why not be proactive and do something?’."
She approached other residents and they decided to launch a petition asking NZTA to implement a safer solution for the area.
"A lot of people have said they feel anxious when they need to cross the road or that they use their car or did not come to the cafe at all due to the lack of a crossing."
Invercargill resident Karl Herman, who works at Nichols Garden Centre, agreed and said Rowena Jackson was the only rest-home in the city that did not have a crossing beside it.
"It is a very busy and dangerous state highway with a number of elderly risking their lives by trying to cross at a slow pace on walkers, walking sticks ... hoping vehicles would slow down," Mr Hernan said.
"It’s become very dangerous, intimidating and scary for pedestrians to get from one side of the road to the other from between Waikiwi Pharmacy right down to the Waikiwi Tavern."
The petition, with about 70 signatures, was delivered last week to NZTA Southland highway maintenance contract manager Justin Reid.
During the meeting, he told the group the NZTA safety team had recently carried out an investigation of the issue.
A team spent half an hour in the morning and afternoon, around school times, observing the traffic and noticed only 17 people trying to cross the road, he said.
They also checked a traffic camera and got about 20 crossings during the day.
While he appreciated the issue, the numbers were not a lot when the safety team was doing the assessment as they needed to take into consideration the costs and benefits to have a signal there interrupting the traffic flow, he said.
"With those numbers, it’s unlikely that it would actually be high enough for anything to happen."
While he understood the complexity of the issue, Mr Reid thanked the group for its effort and promised he would forward the information gathered to the safety team in the hope it would help them achieve the group’s goal.
Mrs Walker said she hoped their work could make for a change.
"I appreciate Mr Reid’s time and explanations.
"We know it is a difficult situation, but hopefully something will come out from it," she said.
