SECTIONS of Ledra and Onasagorou Streets will reopen to full-time traffic on November 25 after hosting pedestrian shoppers for just over a decade. The decision to make the area a semi-pedestrian zone is part of a series of measures taken by the Nicosia municipality to revive the old city, despite calls from some shopkeepers to keep the area a fully pedestrianised zone.
Municipal officer Makis Nicolaides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the project was just one of many proposals made by French experts for the rejuvenation of the old city.
He said a number of recommendations had already been implemented, including improved parking facilities, electronic information boards and coloured signs on road surfaces directing vehicles to parking within the walls. Nicolaides acknowledged that extreme temperatures had disfigured the recently painted signs, but said other methods were already being considered to increase their visibility.
One of the measures suggested by the experts was to open traffic circulation from East to West of the old city, complementing the West-East one-way system currently in place.
The new passageway will start from Sophocleous Street on the side of Phaneronemi church, pass through Onasagorou, Lycourgou and Ledra Street, and come out at Alexander the Great Street. Bright yellow lines, steep ramps and 20 kilometre speed limit signs are already in place on the connecting path set to open to full-time traffic on November 25.
Nicolaides recognised that opening parts of the main commercial streets to traffic again would create problems for some, especially pedestrians but added that the link was a pilot scheme. “The first six months will be a testing period, and if it works, we will keep it running,” he said.
Ledra and its parallel Onasagorou Street were closed off to traffic about a decade ago. At present, cars and suppliers are only allowed access from 7-10am and 1-3pm.
But problems have begun even before the roads are reopened to traffic: as part of the preparations, ‘cats eyes’ were positioned in two lines down the connecting path. But after pedestrians tripped over the metal light reflectors, the municipality was forced to remove them all.
“Although, they have been employed in other European semi-pedestrian zones, people tend to walk more casually down Ledra, making them an easier target,” said Nicolaides.
One ice-cream parlour owner, Christos Pahitas, yesterday expressed his opposition to the moves. “Tourists get confused with the yellow lines and tend to follow them, thinking they represent the end of the road,” he said, adding “The worst thing is that the only tourist attraction being focused on anyway is that block over there,” he said, pointing to the Green Line sentry post at the end of Ledra Street.
Another shopkeeper, who did not wish to be named, said none of his clients or fellow shop owners wanted the road to be reopened to traffic, saying it would cause a mess.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
