“These two auctions that will now be held foresee a maximum number of vehicles of 900, but 40% – and this is a paradigm shift – at least, will have to be electric shared bicycles, which, in a certain sense, will reduce the number of scooters and increase the number of bicycles”, said Pedro Baganha at the chamber meeting.

The councillor responsible for Urban Planning and Public Space and Housing was responding to a CDU recommendation for “better use and greater monitoring of the use of scooters in Porto”.

“We are launching a public auction to choose two new operators, but these are not new vehicles; they are replacing contracts that will come to an end in May,” explained the councillor.

At issue is the bidding process, on Friday, for two licenses for soft mobility operators, for a total of 700 vehicles, with the possibility of expanding to up to 900.

The vice-president of the Porto City Council, Filipe Araújo, opened the door to the “possibility of, if this contingent of bicycles appears, being able to use the Porto card, to also equip the citizens of Porto themselves to use these means”, which have “higher costs” and are “used by people who go to the city and do not have means of transport”.

This is a path towards “introducing bicycles as shared means of transport in the city that many cities use without having ‘docking stations’ [parking stations] for the different bicycles, because the occupation of public space is completely different”.

As for the installation of these parking stations, “in the city of Porto, there is not enough public space for this to be done”, Filipe Araújo considered.

CDU councillor Joana Rodrigues warned that “there have been more accidents, greater carelessness in abandoning scooters”, reminding that, “on the part of operators, there must be greater care in complying with the rules that exist”.