Picture a busy street with 10,000 vehicles travelling en route to the city each day, and often, too fast. At the same time local residents are trying to navigate the streets, crossing the road where they can to access local shops, schools and their workplace.
If you can relate to this scenario you’ll understand why Napier City Council (NCC) needed a fast and flexible solution to slow down traffic on Carlyle Street and make it safer to cross the road.
The council addressed the serious challenge of speeding vehicles by installing two modular rubber raised pedestrian crossings to reduce risks for people crossing the road.
We’ll look at how this innovative trial approach got the community on board with the safety project and resulted in a fit-for-purpose solution that managed speed and helped people feel safer in their neighbourhood.
Project objectives
Before deciding how to address speed and safety on Carlyle Street council defined three very clear objectives after extensive community consultation, published in their benchmark consultation report:
- Reduce motor vehicle speeds and volumes
- Increase positive feelings of safety for all users, including active modes
- Increase positive perceptions of the urban environment.
The benchmark survey mapped out average speeds, sentiment and modes of travel to provide data-driven evidence for future monitoring.
How community support enabled a trial
From the many surveys and workshops the council held, they discovered that the community had an appetite for trialling different types of infrastructure to see what would work on Carlyle Street. Through this process people were educated on how temporary crossings were designed to manage vehicle speed and how they would provide a dedicated point to safely cross the road.
The idea that temporary infrastructure could be moved or adapted if it wasn’t working was very popular and supported by the majority.
Why NCC chose temporary raised crossings
In the past NCC had always resorted to building permanent raised crossings from asphalt. While admittedly cheaper and just as effective from a safety design perspective, there was one huge difference:
You could not point to an asphalt raised platform and say, that’s a trial, that’s temporary.
This big challenge for council was that they needed a system that they could trial and get the community on board. In their search for alternatives, they got in touch with Vanguard to discuss potential solutions.
Solving problems: How Vanguard and NCC chose modular rubber pedestrian crossings
The timing turned out to be quite fortunate. When NCC approached Vanguard, for advice on temporary solutions to address their speed management and community safety issues, the modular rubber raised zebra crossings were the best option.
These crossings were developed after three years of innovative design and consultation among Vanguard, several councils, and industry leaders. Many other councils had also recognised the need for a temporary solution to address safety problems on their road network.
The temporary solution not only addressed the safety risk, it also provided the flexibility to move, adapt and seek feedback on its location and function to make sure it met the project objectives.
With strong community support and Vanguard’s expert advice, NCC decided to install two raised modular zebra crossings as part of their project on Carlyle Street. This is when progress began to accelerate.
Fast installation means less disruption
A major advantage of using modular rubber platforms is that they are extremely fast and easy to install. After only six hours the platforms were installed on the ground and the road was open to traffic, minimising temporary traffic management and traffic disruption.
This also meant that the feedback loop and monitoring could begin immediately. From the outset, business owners were happy, pedestrians were happy, and traffic kept moving.
Image: Workers installing a raised crossing on Carlyle Street.
How community feedback impacted the design
With the project moving at a great pace and community feedback mechanisms in place from day 1, NCC was able to respond straight away to community feedback on the design of the raised platforms. Two significant issues were raised:
- The location of one crossing was too far away from the roundabout
- The crossing junction with the footpath on the other platform was not easily accessible for wheelchairs and other mobility scooters.
Because the modular crossings can be moved (like council said they could) they were able to lift and shift the crossing closer to the roundabout where people said they wanted it. They were also able to improve accessibility by improving the footpath connection.
Imagine if this was a permanent structure made of asphalt. It would be extremely costly and time-consuming to rip up the asphalt and rebuild it (if that was even an option), not to mention a waste of rate payers’ money.
The benefits of a trial approach: Insights from Napier
The primary advantage for Napier City Council for this and potential future projects is the adaptability and semi-permanent nature of the modular platform.
Some of the benefits the trial approach achieved include:
- It allowed genuine consultation – council could do what they said they would do.
- The community believed that it was temporary
- The modular crossings could be moved and design adapted.
- Encouraged a try-before-you-buy mindset from people using the space.
- The community was motivated to give feedback on their experience and ideas.
- Helped build confidence with elected members (who of course, hold the purse strings).
- It achieved the project objectives to reduce speed and improve safety.
How cost-effective was the trial?
The installed cost of the rubber raised platforms was higher ($45,000 each) than what it would cost to build an asphalt raised crossing (around $10-15,000). So if you’re looking for the cheapest option, then a trial might not be the right option for you.
But, if like Napier City Council, you want community buy-in, a fast installation, and achieving the best fit-for-purpose safety solution then the additional cost of using trial infrastructure will represent good value for money.
For more details on how the project achieved what it set out to do, in terms of reduced speed and perceptions of safety, check out the Monitoring and Evaluation Reports.
Starting a trial in your community
This case study has demonstrated how effective a trial is for managing speed on a busy street and getting the community on board.
If you need speed calming measures on your road network and think a community-centred trial might work then get in touch with our team today. We can help you get your project started and work with you to make your neighbourhoods safer for more people.
Check out the solution in action below, 1 year on from the installation…
