UPDATE: The cycle lane on Limerick’s O’Connell Street has been reopened.
Limerick City and County Council, after this article was published, tweeted this morning: “Thank you for this message Dave. That lane is open now. It was closed off at time of your picture so that the final preparation works could be completed.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/irishcycle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot_20231117-092204.png?resize=640%2C358&quality=80&ssl=1)
As events unfolded quickly, the headline and opening of this article were edited, the original article is below:
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Cycle lane cancelled for Christmas tree: Limerick council forces cyclists into incoming traffic
— Campaigners are calling on the council to urgently address the danger.
Barriers and a yet-to-be-unfolded Christmas tree were yesterday placed in a contra-flow cycle lane on O’Connell Street in Limerick — forcing people cycling out into oncoming traffic.
Contra-flow cycle lanes are lanes which go in the opposite direction than the general flow of traffic and there is a low wall to the left edge of the cycle lane.
Dave Tobin, the vice-chair of the national cycling campaign group Cyclist.ie and a member of the Limerick Cycling Campaign, said: “This is really outrageous and needs to be rectified ASAP.”
Tobin said: “It’s placing inbound cycle traffic onto the motor lane against oncoming traffic. It doesn’t meet any safety standards and leaves Limerick City and County Council open to significant liability if/when an accident occurs as a result.”
Images of the barriers in the cycle lane were posted yesterday on Twitter by David Tidswell.
He said: “It says a lot about our city that the only way to put up a Christmas tree is to completely block a cycle lane – after a 2 million year redesign of O’Connell Street. Not enough public realm space in our city?”
In reply, Cllr Elisa O’Donovan (SocDems) said: “This is quite unbelievable Dave! Thank you for pointing this out. Absolutely not acceptable to be blocking the cycle lane like this.”
Without knowing the location exactly it looks like a lot of room taken for the tree I also would never have guessed it was a cycle lane as no markings at all . How much of the footpath has also been removed to the left. But overall looks badly designed and thought out