Last month the mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, presented the downtown reduced emissions zone for the city, a plan which foresees that only residents, badge holders and authorised vehicles will be able to circulate in this zone between 6.30am and midnight, starting this summer.
While the plans have been broadly welcomed the FPCUB has stated that “projects to reduce circulation and car parking in the past have ended up with the council making commitments that resulted in mitigating the positive results”, citing the removal of one of the cycle paths planned for Avenida da República as an example of this.
“We call on the city council to remain faithful to the principles and objectives set out in the presentation of the ZER Baixa-Chiado”, said the federation while highlighting that allowing electric vehicles to circulate in this area is already a contradiction of the proposals.
“The enormous power of electric vehicles, even at low speeds, means that they can quickly approach people without the driver even noticing which can be an additional reason for accidents,” said the FPCUB.
According to the federation this should be an opportunity to “unite the riverside bike lanes to the west and east of Baixa, filling a gap that currently exists in the network of the capital city”, the federation added that further pedestrian areas would also be beneficial.
“The pedestrianisation of public space and the creation of leisure spaces increases the length of stay for visitors and residents and this helps to dynamise all the activities and establishments that are in the area, contradicting the idea that people only go somewhere if they can take their car”, argues FPCUB.
The ZER zone covers part of the parishes of Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia and Santo António, being bordered to the north by Calçada da Glória, Praça dos Restauradores and Praça do Martim Moniz, and to the south by the axis formed by Cais do Sodré, Rua Ribeira das Naus, Praça do Comércio and Rua da Alfândega.
This area of reduced emissions is bounded to the east by Rua do Arco do Marquês de Alegrete, Rua da Madalena and Campo das Cebolas, and to the west by Rua do Alecrim, Rua da Misericórdia, Rua Nova da Trindade and Rua de São Pedro de Alcântara.