"The new Gonsiori Street grants all road users the opportunity to use the road, but its most innovative part is that the street has two bus lanes," Tallinn Mayor Taavi Aas (Centre) said in a press release on Thursday.

"The new Gonsiori Street means that public transport is the number one priority, and this will become faster," he explained. "At the same time, we are moving toward a city centre with less vehicular traffic."

The street's only remaining vehicular traffic lane will employ a tidal flow, or reversible, management system under which vehicles can travel from Lasnamäe to the city centre in the morning and from noon onward from the city centre toward Lasnamäe.

Aas acknowledged that no doubt drivers, bus-riders and cyclists alike would have liked significantly more room, but space was limited and choices had to be made. He noted that the street has maintained the opportunity for vehicular traffic, but the city did not want to widen the street at the expense of either the trees lining it, bus lanes or sidewalks.

Under the new system, bike lanes have been combined with pedestrian sidewalks, and a dedicated lane on either side of the street is open to public transport, taxi and electric vehicle traffic. A tidal flow, or reversible, lane in the middle will be open to inbound vehicular traffic from 6:00-12:00 EET and outbound traffic from 12:00-6:00.

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