Selected traffic signs and road markings in west Belfast have been installed in both English and Irish under a Department for Infrastructure pilot. The work covers parts of the Falls Road and the Springfield-Whiterock corridor within the city's Gaeltacht Quarter.
The signs include information for bus lanes, parking controls and other traffic instructions. Road markings have also been included where the layout permits. The legal instruction and symbol remain the operative traffic control, with the second language presented within the same signed arrangement.
The pilot will allow officials to examine legibility, sign size, consistency and maintenance in a live road environment. Those practical questions matter because traffic information must be understood quickly by drivers, cyclists and pedestrians while also complying with the relevant design regulations.
Bilingual street-name plates already appear in parts of Belfast through a separate council process. Traffic signs are the responsibility of the roads authority, so this programme has a different legal and operational basis from the naming signs mounted on buildings or at street corners.
The department says the installation reflects the linguistic character of the Gaeltacht Quarter and will inform future policy. Any wider roll-out would require assessment of the pilot, resources and the standards to be applied consistently across different sign types and road conditions.