On Stryiska Street in Lviv, a contractor for an advertising company unilaterally moved a large billboard directly onto the cycle lane. After the city raised the issue, the company acknowledged its mistake and promised that from Monday it would dismantle the structure at its own expense and restore the damaged section of cycling infrastructure.
As Lviv’s chief architect Anton Kolomyeitsev explained, the billboard had been temporarily removed because of repair works on Stryiska. However, instead of fully dismantling it, the contractor simply shifted the structure a few metres, installing it in the middle of the cycle path and thereby breaching traffic safety requirements.
«Putting this scrap metal here is an unauthorised action. It is sheer arbitrariness that creates an extremely dangerous situation for residents. There is heavy cycle traffic here, and parents with prams are also using this cycle lane to get round the construction site. This simply should never have happened» — Anton Kolomyeitsev
According to him, the advertising company agreed that it had acted wrongly and, from the start of the week, is to dismantle the billboard and restore the cycle lane to a proper condition. Kolomyeitsev also stressed that, in his view, large-format advertising hoardings should not be here at all, as Lviv is consistently reducing the number and size of outdoor advertising.
The chief architect recalled that the repair of Stryiska Street involves a comprehensive reorganisation of traffic. Bus lanes have already been installed on the main road, and the project provides for additional lanes for left and right turns to the shopping centre, as well as the further development of cycling infrastructure.
The repair of the section of Stryiska from Naukova Street / St John Paul II Avenue to the Lviv city boundary is being carried out in stages. First, the even-numbered side in the direction of leaving the city (Frankivskyi district) was upgraded, and since 10 June works have been under way on the opposite side, towards the entrance to Lviv (Sykhivskyi district). At present, in each direction there are three lanes for general traffic and a separate dedicated lane for buses and trolleybuses.