After the pandemic, some things won't be the same and Rua dos Bacalhoeiros is one of them. The section that was painted blue about a year ago will soon be given a more definitive makeover. The street will continue to be pedestrianized and will allow restaurants to set up terraces.
2020 was a year in which several cities rethought public space and its domination by cars, and projects were launched pop-up the widening of sidewalks, the rapid implementation of cycle paths or the temporary closure (or not) of streets to traffic, among others. The general aim was to give people more space to walk, hang out and socialize, to promote the bicycle as an alternative form of transport and to help restaurants recover economically by allowing traders to install or extend terraces.
In Lisbon, a bicycle path plan pop-upwhich foresaw 76 new cycling kilometers by mid-March 2021, and a initiative entitled The Street Is Yours with more than a hundred interventions around the city to increase pedestrian space. However, the initial ambitions quickly waned: many of the bike lanes announced ended up not being implemented; and most of the interventions The Street Is Yours was not carried out either, and those that were ended up being very catering-oriented. Lisbon wasn't alone in this decline, it happened in other cities too; even so, there were positive changes that were left behind and projects that, even if they weren't initially encouraged, got off the ground.
Rua dos Bacalhoeiros was the first of the arteries to be treated as part of the The Street Is Yours. But as soon as the blue paint began to be applied to the sidewalk, controversy arose: while some criticized the color chosen, others pointed the finger at the paint itself, saying that the chemicals would run down the gutters and pollute the river. Rua dos Bacalhoeiros was followed by Rua Nova de Trindade, also painted blue, and also in the same parish - Santa Maria Maior. Its president, Miguel Coelho, responded to the criticism from the public and social networks, saying that these were experiments pop-up and that, if successful, the paint would be replaced with paving. Well, that's what's going to happen, at least in Rua dos Bacalhoeiros.
A good part of Rua dos Bacalhoeiros has already been pedestrianized since the 2017 intervention in Campo das Cebolas, with a small section up to Rua da Madalena left out. In 2020, this section was reduced with the closure to traffic and the painting in blue of the part up to Rua da Padaria, a small alleyway that descends from the Sé area - Rua dos Bacalhoeiros was only made passable for the final stretch, between Rua da Padaria and Rua da Madalena.
The intervention now planned maintains the current road configuration of Rua dos Bacalhoeiros - except that the existing blue will change to a dark granite sidewalk (Gabro de Odivelas). O public tender with a base value of 200,000 euros was launched at the end of June to find a contractor who could carry out the work within 120 days. The process will still take time, but it is possible that the work will end up being carried out in the low season, when there is less demand for outdoor spaces, so as to have less impact on local restaurants. You can see the project below:
Initiatives pop-up such as the one in Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, allow ideas to be tested before eventually becoming final, allowing for readjustments. A Almirante Reis Avenue bike path is being changed to a configuration that should be better than the previous one, which had been put in quickly and cheaply as part of the bike lane program pop-up. On Avenida Madame Curie, next to the IPO, the widening of the pedestrian area at the intersection with Rua Professor Lima Bastos has now been made official, after an intervention The Street Is Yours in 2020. These are just two examples, but it is quite possible that, in the future, the new urban art canvases around the Arroios Market be transformed into "real sidewalks", with trees and benches.
