On October 19, at 6 p.m., a bicycle route with a demonstration content is planned along the Avenida Almirante Reis cycle path.
During his election campaign, Carlos Moedas made a point of repeating this: the Almirante Reis bicycle lane is about to end. Already in the program presented by the New Times for Arroios application, there is a proposal for a "major intervention in Avenida Almirante Reis that supports a well-planned and better executed bicycle path". One way or another, the pop-up solution installed on that avenue may be removed while the definitive redevelopment project is prepared, but the cyclists promise to fight on. Moedas also committed himself to a policy of continuity and dialog.
On October 19, at 6 p.m., a bike ride with a demonstration content is planned through the Almirante Reis Avenue bike path. The meeting point will be Praça do Martim Moniz, and the tour will involve walking up and down the avenue, ending at Praça do Município, in front of Lisbon City Hall, where Moedas will already have his office (the inauguration takes place the day before).
The demonstration is being called via social media and is organized by the movement Critical Mass Lisbon. You can find the event on Facebook here. "Come together for a healthier and fairer city for all"reads the invitation.
The Almirante Reis ride/demonstration is about this specific cycle path, but also about other cycle paths in the capital. The organization says that Lisbon's cycling network has taken "its time to be traced and consolidated" and that we can't watch "a sudden slowdown in what has been developed, because the urgency of climate change no longer allows it". "Basically, and in line with everything that has been done in major cities around the world and also contributing to the necessary response to the serious and urgent environmental problems plaguing the entire planet, it's time to act."
"Regardless of our overall assessment, positive or negative, of CML's work in recent years, we agree that conditions have been created so that more people can use bicycles to get around the city"This is a peaceful and positive demonstration. "Taking advantage of the recent election of a new city executive, we call for this set of measures to promote sustainable mobility not only to continue, but also to be intensified and improved in terms of implementation."
With regard to Almirante Reis, the event's organizers point out that due to its low gradient, Avenida Almirante Reis is the least steeply sloping link between the upper and lower parts of the city, two of whose main areas are the riverside and the central plateau. From 2019 to 2020 alone, there was a growth of 25% in the city as a whole and a increase of 140% with the construction of the cycle path pop-up at Almirante Reis in June 2020.
The organization also explains that the circulation of emergency vehicles has improved with the implementation of the bike lane, the reduction of the road profile has mitigated the chronic problem of abusive second-row parking, informal crossings have become safer for pedestrians and the safety of cyclists has undoubtedly increased. He also points out that the avenue used to be the most dangerous road for vulnerable users, with the highest number of pedestrians hit by cars in the country, according to data from the ACP Observatory.
"It's true that commuting time by car increased immediately after the bike lane was implemented, but it decreased after a few months" with the evaporation of traffic - several people will have found alternatives to Almirante Reis, reads the invitation. "There are alternatives to car traffic"But there are not many alternatives to other traffic (ambulances, buses, pedestrians, bicycles) and that, on the other hand, it is important to give visibility to the bicycle by not placing it in the way it is used. "at the back door, but on the main avenue".
