692. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if consideration has been given to regulations, rules or other measures that would prevent cars parking in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic in order to improve road safety in particular for cyclists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12236/20]

The current recommendation on directional parking is set out in the Rules of the Road (page 134 of the 2018 edition) which directs drivers "where possible, [to] park in the direction of traffic flow."

The possibility of introducing legislation in order to allow local authorities make this practice compulsory has been raised with the Department in recent years. The matter was in fact considered in detail by the Road Safety Authority in the consultation process leading up to the mid-term evaluation of the Road Safety Strategy 2013-2020. This consultation concluded that there was no definitive evidence that enshrining such directional parking in law would save lives and there are no plans to amend the relevant legislation at present.