Bicycles go through the Lisbon City Council public meeting... and there is good and bad news

The Lisbon City Council approved this Friday, in a public meeting (the first of this mandate) the funds for the continuation of the municipal Bicycle Trains programThis money, which Medina had not released in time, was waiting for a town hall meeting to be handed over to the Bicicultura cooperative, with whom the municipality has a contract to carry out this initiative. The The municipality's Bicycle Purchase Support Program (PAAB) will also continuebut only until the end of November.

For its part, the The Cicloda association will continue to lack the money to make the Selim and to take the cycle workshops to schools - The proposal to authorize these funds was not voted on at this meeting because it is still with the services, Moedas clarified to a question about whether it was a political choice. A Almirante Reis bicycle path was also a topic at this public meeting, with Moedas repeating what has already been said, that an alternative is being studied, but making it clear that the cycle path will be removed as soon as there is an alternative.

Let's go in parts, then.

What happened to the trains?

The Bicycle Trains are a program launched by the Lisbon City Council in the 2019/20 school year, which offers children from various schools in the city the bicycle as an alternative way of getting around safely. At the end of the last school year, there were 11 trains in 11 different schools, and after the summer there was interest from parents in organizing and launching new trains, for example at the German School in Telheiras.

However, Fernando Medina's executive did not release the funds earmarked for the program in time for the start of the new school year and the Bicycle Trains were suspended. At stake was the money earmarked for Bicycling, a cooperative focused on promoting soft mobility and which provides the Lisbon City Council with training support for the realization of this initiative. In practice, Bicicultura offers training to fathers and mothers who want to organize the Trains at their children's schools, accompanying them as monitors (each train has one monitor for each child).

A town hall meeting was needed to release the funds, but the electoral calendar interrupted these meetings. The Bicycle Trains were therefore suspended but not canceled, as the process was postponed until the current term. Bicicultura could have continued to promote the Bicycle Trains program under the promise that payments would be settled after the elections, but the change in the executive cast (natural) doubt on whether the executive's will was to maintain the initiative.

The Bicycle Trains are groups of children who cycle to school together - the trains have several stops and the children join in along the way. In each school, the trains take place at least once a week and the children are always accompanied by Bicicultura monitors or parents who have received appropriate training from Bicicultura, under the contract between the municipality and this cooperative. Each school can have its own train, depending on the wishes of the parents, who get together to organize it and then sign up to the Lisbon City Council programme. Despite the suspension, during this school year fathers and mothers have promoted trains informally and on their own responsibility.

The Bicycle Trains are the result of an initiative called "CicloExpresso", which was born in 2015 within the activist community for the use of bicycles as a means of transportation. João Bernardino, one of the founders of Bicicultura, was the "father of the CicloExpresso", having started accompanying a small group of children to the EB in Parque das Nações with other parents. Over time, new CicloExpressos have sprung up, much due to word-of-mouth and the sharing of experiences between mothers and fathers - this is still how new Bicycle Trains emerge. Outside Lisbon, the CicloExpressos still have that name, namely in Aveiro and Alfragide.

The controversy surrounding the suspension

On Friday, the city council unanimously approved the financial and non-financial support for bicycle farming for the implementation of the municipal Bicycle Trains program in the current 2021/22 school year - through a proposal presented by the new councillor for mobility, Ângelo Pereira. The total amount approved is €55,550.14. The proposal was approved favorably by all the parties represented in the House, showing a consensus on the continuation of this program.

The suspension of the Bicycle Trains program had been communicated via WhatsApp groups where mothers and fathers organized the routes and also on the municipality's website. Rumors about whether the suspension had been requested by Carlos Moedas' executive were immediately raised on social media. Of the political parties, Bloco and Livre pressured the government to resolve the suspension.

On November 18, the Left Bloc had, through a request in the ChamberMoedas was asked about the suspension of various initiatives to promote cycling in the city, including the Bicycle Trains, but also PAAB, Selim and the program Lisbon Without Wheels. For Beatriz Gomes Dias, a Bloc councillor, "it is unacceptable that these initiatives to promote the use of bicycles have been suspended"asking the executive for answers on the reinstatement of the programs and their funding. "Lisbon's Municipal Bicycle Train Program has been suspended, according to the city council's official website, preventing hundreds of students from 11 schools in the city of Lisbon from cycling to school using this program.“

On the same day, Free presented the following to the Municipal Assembly a recommendation for the City Council to resume the Bicycle Trains program. "With the suspension of the Municipal Program, the City Council no longer provides important support for these initiatives that are clearly beneficial to Lisbon and its inhabitantsThis is putting the brakes on some very important work done over the last two years, jeopardizing what should be a work of continuity and expanding the number of bicycle trains."wrote Rui Tavares' party. "It is urgent to resume this program and ensure that the City Council once again provides support for these very positive initiatives"and also that if "study potential improvements to be made to the program, in particular the signposting of existing routes in the public space and the greater involvement of schools in these initiatives".

PAAB continues... but only until the 30th

The bicycle purchase support program launched in 2020 with an initial budget of three million euros and renewed for this year 2021 will not continue beyond this November. Carlos Moedas didn't want to commit to this initiative until the municipal budget for next year had been defined. "Next year we have to have money, we have to have the budget for it"said the Mayor in response to the socialist councillor Miguel Gaspar, who held the mobility portfolio in the previous executive.

The Lisbon City Council therefore approved a budget increase for this program - the Bicycle Purchase Support Program (PAAB) - with 141,000 euros, for bicycle purchases and repairs made at participating stores until November 30, the date on which PAAB was scheduled to end. The proposal presented by the new councillor for mobility, Ângelo Pereira, was approved by a majority, with the two PCP councillors - João Ferreira and Ana Jara - abstaining and the remaining 15 councillors voting in favor.

"This proposal before the House essentially settles the balances of the program but maintains the end of the program in four days"criticized Miguel Gaspar. "I had spoken at a previous meeting about the possibility of the City Council considering extending the program until the end of the year"The socialist councillor added that the program would continue until the end of 2020, taking advantage of Christmas and boosting the economy, assuring Moedas that the PS would vote in favor of this continuity. Also in 2020, PAAB had ended on November 30 of that year, but the municipality gave the guarantee that the program would continue at least until the end of that year, supporting the December applications with funds from the municipal budget for 2021.

"I understand, but I'm not in a position in budgetary terms to really make that decision. We have to look at the budget and we have to make choices. Obviously this program is very important for the city, it's been a program with a huge following, as you know, but we have our budgetary limitations"Carlos Moedas replied to Miguel Gaspar's appeal. The Mayor also guaranteed that "there is an obvious intention to continue" with programs that have to do with people being able to use bicycles more, but that the budget for 2022 must first be made.

The PAAB was suspended because the funds initially allocated to the initiative had run out. The 141,000 euros are intended for applications that had already been submitted and not validated due to lack of funds, as well as for new applications that can be submitted until November 30 and that relate to purchases made during this period. Since the relaunch of the PAAB on April 7, 5332 applications have been submitted and "to date, 3669 applications have been supported, corresponding to an amount of €597,668.08" e "there are 1187 validated applications submitted by November 18th".

"It is estimated that the total of the applications already submitted, but not yet valid, corresponds to support worth €163,685.39, considering the average amounts reimbursed per type of support. The sum of the amount already supported and the estimated amount of support is €761,353, which represents 114% of the amount budgeted for the program."says the proposal drafted by councillor Ângelo Pereira. Of the 141,000 euros in budget reinforcements, almost 120 will be for the purchase of bicycles by individuals (families), around 5,600 for purchases by legal entities (companies) and 16,000 for repairs and accessories.

The PAAB in 2021 was only relaunched in April, but the municipality accepted applications for purchases made after January 1, 2021. According to the Chamber's website, "the deadline for submitting applications is November 30, 2021 or when the budget allocation is reached" of 340 thousand euros. In other words, if Ângelo Pereira hadn't advanced with the PAAB budget reinforcement, the program would have remained suspended.

Ana Jara, a PCP councillor, explained her party's vote against, saying that the PAAB "it's not a strategy we support". "In July 2020, we presented a unanimously approved proposal that was an alternative to this strategy and that involved promoting the use of bicycles through the GIRA network, a public bicycle access network, which we felt was important to expand"said the communist councillor, adding that this expansion "lacked execution" since there are many docks still to be opened. Jara also said he didn't understand why, as part of the same proposal, the provision of free GIRA passes on a trial basis has not yet been put into practice, to "make this network more comprehensive, democratic, open to all people who want to cycle in Lisbon".

The communists criticize PAAB not only because they believe in promoting the use of bicycles through GIRA and not through the reimbursement of private bicycles, but also because the program has had no impact on local commerce, since "65% of all bicycle purchases were in a department store" - referring to Decathlon. "All the ideas that this could have an impact on local businesses in the city have fallen flat. So this is an operation in which the council finances the purchase of bicycles in a department store, with no impact on the local economy in the city." In response, Miguel Gaspar assured that "not a single euro was taken out to make Gira's expansion happen"explaining that PAAB and the GIRA network "they didn't compete for resources"; he also clarified that the money earmarked for free passes had been allocated to EMEL for the implementation of this proposal.

Meanwhile, Beatriz Gomes Dias welcomed the increase in PAAB funding: "We are very pleased to see that the executive has followed our concern and is presenting this budget reinforcement here. It is extremely important to support programs that help children to ride bicycles, to gain more confidence and to be safer and more comfortable when using a bicycle"he said. "On the one hand, we are acting in the present to respond to climate emergencies, but we are also building the future because these children who are using bicycles safely today will internalize this possibility in their locomotion and will surely use them in the future, and that is very important."

Saddle and cycle shop on hold

In one of his speeches, Miguel Gaspar also questioned Carlos Moedas about the absence of two other proposals related to cycling, which, despite not being on the agenda for this meeting, "were for scheduling". One of the proposals was to reinforce the SaddleThis is a program promoted by the Cicloda association with the support of the City Council, which collects used bicycles, repairs them and makes them available for loan at a very affordable price. "It's a social project in which locals donate bicycles and they are then recovered to be given to those who need them." said Miguel Gaspar. The other proposal also involved the Cicloda association, but its project of the cycloficinesThe aim is to develop repair workshops in schools to give children the skills to maintain their bikes.

"As these proposals [the Trains and the PAAB] have been scheduled and the others have not, I just wanted to ask if it's just a matter of scheduling or if there's a political choice not to bring them in"asked the Socialist councillor, to which Moedas replied that the two proposals concerned "are in the services" and they haven't reached him yet, "but there's no political agenda behind it". On November 18, Councillor Beatriz Gomes Dias also denounced the issue of Selim, stating that the Cicloda "has been using its own funds for months to sustain the program, including rents and salaries"A situation that Lisboa Para Pessoas was able to verify.

Almirante Reis cycle path on hold

The subject of the Almirante Reis cycle path also came up at the town hall's public meeting in the wake of the Luís Castro, representative of the association Neighbors of Arroiossaid one of the speakers at the session. Moedas didn't answer anything new - he said what he's said in interviews on the subject, that the situation of the cycle path is being studied with opinions being gathered so that an alternative can be studied. However, Ângelo Pereira agreed to a meeting with Luís Castro to discuss the ideas of the Neighbors on the bike path.

Luís Newton, president of the PSD bench in the Municipal Assembly and President of the Estrela Parish Council, had, on Sunday, November 21, given an interview with Diário de Notícias advancing that "a number of opinions are being collected from relevant entities in the field of mobility". Newton said "PSD doesn't do things the other way around. There is planning, involvement of the city itself"Despite the fact that the party, through the Novos Tempos coalition, promised in the election campaign that the Almirante Reis cycle path would be removed, it did so without dialog and without seeking the opinions it now claims to be gathering. "Alternatives are being analyzed that could possibly pass through other areas that don't have such an impact. This is what will be presented soon, with a solution." "It's not just the Almirante Reis cycle path, there are a number of cycle paths in the city that have followed this pop-up logic, which really just shows a lack of planning, and which have to be reversed"he said, noting that "the aim is not to reverse the path of decarbonization or the transition to soft mobility mechanisms".

Carlos Moedas spoke to Rádio Observador last week, where he said and reaffirmed that "the situation of the Almirante Reis cycle path is bad for the city" because "that bike path wasn't well thought out" - "it was a pop-up, an idea that came up during the pandemic" and that "it creates a huge problem for ambulances going to the Hospital de São João" (this statement is false, as the cycle lane facilitates the movement of emergency vehicles when the avenue is congested). "What I'm going to do and what I'm studying is to create an alternative and as soon as we have the alternative we'll obviously take the bike lane off Almirante Reis. We're studying with engineers from various parties"he detailed. "I hope it's as soon as possible but I'm not going to give a date or a day because I'd rather do it right than promise." Moedas, in the same interview, referred to the demonstration on October 19 that brought together around a thousand people in favor of the Almirante Reis bike path as a partisan action - "those who are going to demonstrate partisanly in favor of bike lanes". "I walk up Almirante Reis, talk to people and people wonder when I'm going to keep my promise. Promises are made to be kept."

What is certain is that the work to adapt the previous configuration of the cycle path has been at a standstill for several weeks. The bike lane is passable, but in the Alameda area the traffic lights for the connection to the bike lane on Avenida Guerra Junqueiro have yet to be installed. At the public town hall meeting, Rui Tavares, the Livre councillor, said that it was "neighbor of the Neighbors of Arroios" and asked that the discussion about the bike lane involve all the councillors and all the people: "I hope so, that we can discuss alternatives, and it's good that we can present alternatives and alternatives to alternatives, eventually, but for that we have to listen to the citizens. Among the applicants who were not accepted for this meeting were people who were in favor of keeping the bike path. We have to listen to those who are against it and those who are in favor of it, so that we can then decide after the debate."