In message , at
00:31:40 on Sat, 11 Sep 2004, Colin McKenzie
remarked:
The thing there isn't room for is the island between the traffic lane
and the cycle lane on which to put a traffic sign. But yes, some of
these contraflow lanes are in quite narrow streets where the slightest
obstruction causes cars to encroach on the lane. But as the lesser of
two evils (the greater being no lane, but cyclists using the road
contraflow anyway) perhaps it's safer.

Wherever a road is too narrow for vehicles to pass easily in opposite
directions, they slow down, one finds a wider place, and they get past
each other. This works fine with contraflow cycling too, as long as
drivers know the cyclist is there legally. The contraflow lane is
frankly a red herring.

But there's the additional problem that if you are the car, and you meet
an obstruction, you need to enter the mandatory contraflow lane in order
to get past. That's illegal (or, no-one has ever quoted a rule that
makes it legal, as far as I know).
--
Roland Perry