IrishCycle.com -- Contra-flow cycle track installed on Dublin street after 32 year wait

— Contra-flow cycle track for Nassau Street was planned in April 2010.
— Video and images in Tweets below.

A section of the contra-flow cycle track is now operational on Leinster Street leading up to Nassau Street, after what a TD said today was a 32 year wait.

The lack of two-way cycling on many streets in Irish cities has been identified as a major barrier to cycling. In cycling-friendly cities internationally, contra-flow provision is provided by way of segregated cycle tracks on wider streets and also contra-flow without cycle lanes on minor single-lane streets.

It’s a decade to the month when city councillors at the time pushed back against a Dublin City Council plan for contra-flow, which was dropped due to lack of support. Then 1/2 decade ago, a councillor-backed push for contra-flow failed by one vote.

Green Party TD, Ossian Smyth, said “A new cycle lane on Nassau Street has appeared overnight… When I mentioned it to Eamon Ryan, he said he first asked for this 32 years ago.”

Deputy Smyth’s photos show that so-far the contra-flow cycle track runs the length of Leinster Street (commonly seen as part of Nassau Street), from Clare Street to Kildare Street. Work is expected to continue onto Nassau Street.

Soon, there should be no more long diversion around Trinity College when cycling from East to West in the city centre… pic.twitter.com/FO9zjfHgZk

— Ossian Smyth TD (@smytho) April 28, 2020