Dublin City Councils South East Area committee was misleadingly told yesterday that councillors were led to believe that Capel St and Parliament St were to be pedestrian streets, implying cycling on them, but this flies in the face of documentation and other evidence, which made it clear that the streets were to be made car-free, with cycling allowed. Cllr Mannix Flynn (independent), who made the bizarre claim, has repeatedly criticised the projects to make the streets car-free, and, over a number of years, has repeatedly complained about people cycling and most traffic schemes which have impacts on motorists.The Dublin City Centre Transport Plan is just one of many documents which show that cycling was to be allowed on both streets. It said: Following the successful transformation of Capel Street into a traffic-free environment, it is the intention to replicate this scheme on Parliament Street, introducing a car-free corridor for pedestrians and cyclists on the western edge of the city centre retail core.While the media and other councillors repeatedly referred to the street changes as pedestrianisation, Dublin City Council officials used the phrase traffic-free while also regularly mentioning, verbally and in documents provided to councillors, that cycling would be allowed. Cllr Flynn has also attended a number of meetings where the two streets have been discussed, including the fact that cycling would be allowed or was allowed on the streets. At the meeting yesterday, Cllr Flynn said that he does not know what the design manual outlines about markings on streets, but assumes because of what he calls the health and safety issues that there would be some measures or markings to tell cyclists where to go on the streets.He claims that if people cycling are coming from Parliament Street and Capel Street, they are going fast because it is a straight run. But as reported previously, on many side visits over different months and times of day, IrishCycle.com mainly observed what bicycle-shaped-objects devices that look like bicycles but are legally classed as illegal mopeds going notably fast.As reported separately, Garda have also targeted illegal scooters and moped/motorcycle use on Capel Street.Cllr Flynn continued: Now, we were led to believe by the council and by active travel that these were pedestrianised spaces. And by and large, you know most pedestrians are beginning to realise that you dont walk on that carriage[way]. Now, are we decommissioning it as a carriage[way] and saying its no longer a motorway or what are we doing?A motorway is a road exclusively for the use of motorists. Capel Street and Parliament Street were never motorways.Or are we going to make it safe for pedestrians to actually. youve got a space where you can sit down, but people also want to walk, so youre safe enough when you sit down. But when you get up to walk, or when theres children playing, which there was recently on Capel Street, and the child is still very badly injured by a bike, he claimed.Cllr Flynn said: Now I would imagine that if the cyclist knew there was a way to be cycling that was marked out, there wouldnt be an issue there, and also the idea of actually to slow it down, theres no need to go fast on your electric bike.In another part of the local area meeting yesterday, he asked: When are you going to put the markings on the road here, which is basically Parliament Street? Its meant to be a pedestrian street primarily, but theres no markings on the pedestrian section. So, when youre walking down there, the cyclists are just coming around that corner full speed, and its very confusing.The same down in Capel Street, please. If youre going to actually, you know, put cyclists in pedestrian areas, please put markings down warning people that cyclists are there because you have no way of knowing, Cllr Flynn added.IMAGE: Except bicycles signs and bicycle traffic lights on Capel Street, although there are mostly no markings on the street or in the shared former carrageway which is also used for deliveries in the mornings. A Dublin City Council official, an engineer with the Traffic Advisory Group (TAG), which looks after traffic change requests such as line markings, said: I spoke to the active travel unit within the traffic department, who are responsible for the initial initiative there. And they did make some changes to [the street], but theyre monitoring it all the time, and theyll take on board what you said, particularly because somebody was injured there.He added: Ill bring that back to them as well at this time and see if theres some additional changes that can be made just to improve safety.Cllr Flynn said: In the first instance, pretend that its a pedestrian space, people go down there and walk with their kids. They let the kids go, they are grand and then all of a sudden theres an accident. I actually find that appallingly bad practise. I mean, I really do. Its akin to reckless driving that they would put pedestrians in a position like that.He said he wanted marking immediately put down on the streets in the interest of the public. Capel Street has been car-free since May 2022 two months short of four years.You know, I mean, its just not on How long is it there? Two, or three years? And theres nothing more accidents down there, Cllr Flynn claimed with no supporting evidence. The TAG engineer said: In fairness. I think it is described as a car-free zone rather than a pedestrian zone.Cllr Flynn said: Theres an issue around that also because they never clarified. Cllr Dermot Lacey, chair of the committee, suggested that Cllr Flynn refer the issue to the councils Mobility and Public Relime Committee, which Cllr Flynn sits on.