This week, Lisbon City Council approved the renewal of the Bicycle Purchase Support Programwhich will now include the reimbursement for the purchase of child safety and transportation accessories, as well as repair services.
Launched in 2020 in the context of the pandemic to stimulate the purchase of bicycles for city use - with a total budget of three million euros (of which, by the end of the year, only a quarter had been spent), the program will continue to support conventional bikes, cargo bikes and electric bikes. The municipality provides funding:
- 50% of the value of conventional bicycles up to a limit of 100 euros;
- 50% of the value of electric bicycles up to a limit of 350 euros;
- 50% of the value of electric cargo bikes up to a limit of 500 euros;
- 75% of the value of the adapted bicycles up to a limit of 200 euros.
The extension of the Program to 2021 - considered in a private meeting of the City Council with the votes in favor of PS, PSD, CDS-PP and BE and the abstention of PCP - comes with some new features:
- non-profit institutions, parish councils and companies will be able to benefit from it. Until now it was only available to private residents, workers or students in the city of Lisbon;
- the adapted electric bicycles will now receive a refund of 75%, up to a maximum of 500 euros;
- cargo bikes will now have two types of reimbursement, because non-electric cargo bikes are now includedThis means 50% of the value of the equipment up to 300 euros in the case of cargo bikes without electric assistance; and 50% for cargo bikes with electric assistance, as was the case in 2020;
- support for the purchase of monthly passes for the GIRA shared bicycle networkThis is a pilot investment of 75,000 euros, corresponding to 5,000 passes;
- reimbursement for the purchase of child safety and transportation accessories, as well as repair services. More information soon.
More details about the municipality's Bicycle Purchase Support Program can be found here. The page has not yet been updated with the new details of the Program for 2021, nor with the procedures regarding the purchase of accessories or repairs.
The program will have an initial budget of 500,000 euros for "support for bicycle purchases made by the end of December 2020 and whose payments will be processed in 2021, both for the 2021 program and for the purchase of monthly passes from the Gira Network, without prejudice to subsequent reinforcements of this appropriation". By December 2, 2020, Lisbon City Council had received 3,652 applications, of which 3,304 were valid and paid by December 31, thus registering a support rate of 90% of the applications. Support was given to 2,157 conventional bicycles, 1,136 electric bicycles, one adapted electric bicycle and 11 electric cargo bicycles.
