Blue light-emitting quantum wires are fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy of ZnCdSe/ZnSe on patterned GaAs substrates. In these structures, lateral carrier confinement is obtained by the anisotropic growth of ZnSe. Two luminescence bands are observed, due to emission from the ridge quantum wire and due to luminescence of the QW grown on the bottom of the grooves between the ridges. The exciton decay is studied by time-resolved photoluminescence experiments. At the emission band of the quantum wire, a local lifetime maximum is observed as well as a biexponential exciton decay. Both are attributed to a lifetime elongation caused by the lateral quantum confinement of the excitons within the ridge wires.