The concrete separators along Richmond’s Salisbury Road will be removed after they attracted the ire of residents and raised safety concerns.

The change comes as Tasman District Council seeks to accommodate some of the feedback it has received on its contentious Streets for People cycleway projects.

Councillor Glen Daikee proposed to have the separators removed, describing situations where cyclists have collided with the separators and fallen into the carriageway.

“The reason we put these in, which I voted for, was to keep cyclists safe. We have inadvertently made it more dangerous,” he said. “We cannot leave them.”

The separators were installed to create a physical barrier between cyclists and motor traffic to increase the perceived safety of cycling to appeal to “interested but concerned cyclists”.

Some schools in the project area have suggested that more students are cycling to school since the cycleways were installed, with reports of their cycle racks being “full to overflowing”.

Feedback from council surveys also show that respondents feel that Salisbury Road is now safer than it was without the separated cycleways.

However, many respondents specifically voiced dislike of the separators, with some saying they were distracting and were obstructions on the road.

Drivers have repeatedly hit the concrete separators, with some crumbling or becoming detached from the road, creating obstacles for cyclists in the cycleway.

But councillor Mark Greening was concerned that removing the separators might be premature, though like most elected members, he didn’t vote against Daikee’s proposal.

“I’m a little bit more concerned about the safety of the cyclists than necessarily a car hitting these concrete things because they didn’t see them. I think the real problem is probably the visibility of them.”

Currently, the separators are pale grey with white ends with a red reflector on top.
Instead of removing the separators, Greening suggested painting them yellow or replacing them with yellow rubber separators like those currently installed on Salisbury Road outside of the schools.

The rubber separators currently on Salisbury Road will remain in place, as will the concrete separators along other roads across the district targeted by the Streets for People programme.

The other change coming to Salisbury Road will be the reinstallation of two car parks outside of the Florence Medical Centre.

Some Richmond residents have been vocal in their opposition to the removal of car parks for cycleways, but the Salisbury Road survey highlighted the medical centre as a specific area of concern.

The trial 30km/h speed limit on Hill Street, between William and Queen Street, will also come to an end with the 50km/h speed re-enacted.

The lower speed limit was not being complied with by most drivers – likely because of a lack of traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps, in the area.

Car parking along the affected section of Hill Street will remain with no separated cycleways slated to be installed, like on the rest of the road, as of yet.

The changes made will continue to be monitored and further changes may occur in the future pending further community feedback and usage data.

Tasman's Streets for People programme is 90 per cent funded by Waka Kotahi and prioritises trialling low-cost, adaptable infrastructure which can be easily and cheaply modified as needed.

The modifications agreed to by the council will be sought to be made before funding for the programme runs out on 30 June 2024.

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