One woman, who lives near where the "sort-of" crossing is set up (including pathways on both sides leading on to the unmarked roadway) said it was the youngsters crossing to get to the schools that concerned her.
"It gives me the willies to see these kids playing Russian roulette crossing the road," she said.
Mr Nicholls said he had lived in the area for 25 years and many people had "for years" wanted to see a pedestrian crossing there.
About 18 months ago, a group of residents met and, as a result, approached the council.
"All we got back was a list of reasons why not."
Mr Nicholls, who like other elderly he knew has poor eyesight, had also tried through the Blind Foundation and Aged Concern, who were sympathetic but had been unable to advance the issue.
He had spoken to people from the neighbouring Real People@Mosaic centre who also wanted to see a marked crossing.
However, traffic engineer Henry Enslin said the area did not stack up as a candidate for a crossing.
Traffic signals were ruled out as the qualifying figure of roadway usage set by the New Zealand Transport Agency is double that of the stretch outside Atawhai.
Mr Enslin said zebra crossings without a central median were not considered safe and, while a median island would be an ideal way to reduce the crossing distance, it would not be viable because it would need to be 2m wide and the road was not wide enough for that.
Mr Nicholls said there was a 5m wide stretch of grass on the Atawhai side of Gloucester St that could be used to widen the road.
He was also dismissive of statistics that showed there had been no traffic incidents involving pedestrians on Gloucester St between Howard Rd and Hinton Rd since 2005.
"As it usually happens - they'll wait until something does happen and then do something about it."
Mr Enslin said international research had shown that where zebra crossings had been removed there had been a "dramatic" reduction in accidents.
