Lisbon. Free transport for an achievement, but more is needed
Free public transport in Lisbon for those under 23 and over 65 years old was one of the banners of Carlos Moedas’ campaign and the measure of greater visibility that his executive took in the area of mobility. This is the opinion of Ângelo Pereira, the councilor who oversees this, but also of the opposition and, although theirs is accompanied by a “yes, but area”.
“This executive, in terms of the dimension and complexity of transport in Lisbon, led and took the debate on the reduction of public transport to a new level”, told DN the tutelage of Mobility Planning, such as EMEL and Carris and Transport Authority. “It’s a big inequality in size that doesn’t make it much easier to use public transport, consider it as an increase in the ease of public transport, consider it as an increase in carbon poverty”, adds Ângelo Pereira.
João Ferreira, councilor for the PCP, admits that this election “has a scope”, but argues that it was not “implemented in the best way” because “it should have been on a metropolitan scale and not just on the scale of the measured city of Lisbon”.
For Rosário Macário, professor at the Civil Engineering Department at Instituto Superior Técnico and a specialist in Transport and Urbanism, the free passes in Lisbon “in these age groups can be an incentive to use public transport, but we are not dealing with a modal transfer, as It would be an idea behind this promise, to reduce the use of individual transport and start to have a greater intensity of collective transport. This is an objective that has to cover the entire population.”
the extension of the measure to the entire population the extension of Quercus “We are the most important population, the management in terms of transport for the metropolitan area. DN Marta Leandro, vice president of the environmental association.
“No measures were implemented for public transport, which is essential for the promotion of mobility, which was purely and effectively for the promotion of mobility. Rails and simply not, It is not possible to deviate from the routine, nor from the increase of the week , neither increasing week, nor increasing week, nor increasing severity of week, nor increasing severity of week, nor increasing severity of week, nor increasing severity for the most important areas, nor increase in severity of the week, neither increase in severity for the most important areas, nor increase in severity for areas, nor increase in severity for areas, nor increase in frequency for areas, nor increase in frequency for the zones, nor an increase in the frequency of security zones”, says João Ferreira, in a way of evaluating the strategy of this municipal company.
Criticisms that are echoed in Marta Leandro. “The operation of Carris, which was never very efficient, has now broken down, with extraordinary delays and reaches four straight lines in the space of a few minutes, with buses running overcrowded and others empty”.
Traffic in Lisbon is another issue, always the municipality being implemented, in this last year or Semáforos SIM Lx-Gestão Inteligente Semáforos, a project to modernize the traffic lights “in the central axis of the city”. “A fundamental one, in order to minimize restrictions on circulation”, there is already “the ability to go through different forecasting scenarios of forecasting stages of creating congestion conveniences”.
In this area, and with the aim of removing cars from Lisbon, the construction of more car parks on the outskirts of the city is still being implemented. “It continues to have traffic problems that cause, in large part, a volume of traffic communication that goes into commuting every day. João Ferreira.
With no realization in sight, yet another one that was part of Carlos Moedas’ electoral program and which was announced in January by the vice-president of the municipality, Filipe Anacoreta Correia, at the presentation of the Budget for 2022: the offer of 50% discount on EMEL’s parking lot. to city residents. “There are no immediate priority costs. This measure is a use due to residents vis-à-vis residents resulting from the daily entry of all non-resident drivers, and not an incentive to drive”, explains the Mobility councilor.
Rosário Martinho considers this proposal “nice for the residents”, but leaves a warning. “This is very effective, so that the control behind this measure does not start to be used and implies that people who work in the municipality, eventually, can declare a professional residency.
Smooth mobility was another of Carlos Moedas’ flags. “In the latter, we launched the Shared Soft Mobility Regulation, we are preparing, in consultation with the competent technicians, the Municipal Road Safety Plan, we are analyzing the results of the public consultation on the Electric Mobility Regulation, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan is being prepared and is in preparation for the launch of an audit of the Cyclable Network”, lists councilor Ângelo Pereira.
With regard to this cycling network, one of Carlos Moedas’ promises was the “elimination of problematic bike lanes, such as the one on Almirante Reis”. But, in June, after several advances and setbacks, the mayor ended up withdrawing the proposal to change this bike path. “It is widely used and, therefore, should not be removed. It is necessary, however, to analyze the traffic flows – even because Almirante Reis is a very important exit from downtown – to make decisions. But there was clearly a With a game of political responsibilities, with an initiative movement that resulted in no one moving at this moment”, defends a mobility specialist.
Circular Metro Line: a defeat for Carlos Moedas
In his government program, Carlos Moedas committed himself to transforming a Circular Metro Line and the future Yellow Line into a single “loop” line (Odivelas, Campo Grande, Rato, Cais do Sodré, Alameda, Campo Grande, Telheiras) to maintain direct connections from Odivelas, north of Lisbon and Telheiras to the city centre. Then, its executive voted in favor of a PCP motion in which the government was asked to “re-evaluate” the project, which November Moedas classified as “an error”. Circular works are already underway, with its last entry into activity scheduled for the quarter of 2024.
Looking back, João Ferreira, councilor for the PCP in the municipality, admits that “the development of the Metro network is not a direct responsibility of the Chamber, but it will not have done everything necessary to defend the city’s interests with the government in this domain”. “It is true that first he is in opposition to this Circular Line, and this intention was already persuasive enough, the president is a Circular Line and is hindering the mobility manifested to the populations of several areas of the city, namely the entire northern area that leaves a direct connection by Metro to the central areas of the city, including the most populous parish”, the councilor, referring to Lumiar.
This loss of access to the center of Lisbon and its consequences in terms of the environment and mobility is a concern of Quercus, with its vice-president Marta Leandro also highlighting the political incapacity shown by the municipal executive to invert the line design. “For those who come from the axis of one of the entrances to Lisbon, the Odivelas-Loure axis, which are about 300 thousand people who use the current Yellow Line, the fact that they are forced to go further north reduces the attractiveness of the Metro solution In other words, we are not strategically thinking about the Metro as a way to reduce the use of private transport and be a way to contribute to the creation of the climate change solution”.
Throughout the week, the DN assesses the state of the city of Lisbon, one year after Carlos Moedas was elected to the Chamber’s leadership. Tomorrow, the theme is security in the capital.