In his first trip to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly to render accounts, Carlos Moedas highlighted the expansion of GIRA. The problem with the electricity supplier that was delaying the opening of stations should be resolved in the second week of January, said the Mayor.
O Executive remains committed to expanding GIRA networknot only with the more than 50 stations installed during the summer and still awaiting opening, but also with the "future expansion/reinforcement axes" of the public bike-sharing network.
The expansion of GIRA was one of the themes that Carlos Moedas highlighted in its first Written Information from the PresidentThis is a document presented quarterly at the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML) in which the Mayor and the Lisbon City Council (CML) report to the municipal deputies, who are responsible for scrutinizing the work of that municipal body. The first Written Information signed by Moedas and drafted with the services of the Chamber was presented and discussed this Tuesday, December 21, in ordinary session of the AML.
The report, which is for the period between September 1 and November 30, details that during those months, Lisbon City Council made the "monitoring the process of installing 80 new stations by EMEL", which include the 50 stations installed in the summer in various parts of the city and whose opening has been delayed, as well as the 30 that the company had previously installed in Olivais, Lumiar and Almirante Reis.. Of these 30, only twelve opened, in Olivais in Lumiar along Alameda das Linhas de Torres. In 2021, the four missing stations in Cidade Universitária and the three on the waterfront in Alcântara and Belém also opened - but these seven belonged to an older batch.
GIRA currently has a network of 102 active stations and around 930 bicycles. With the opening of the missing stations, GIRA will reach Benfica, São Domingos de Benfica, Carnide, Campo de Ourique, Campolide and the 24 de Julho/Avenida da Índia axis to Restelo, and will be reinforced in Carnide and Lumiar.
EMEL is tendering for the acquisition of 50 more stations in addition to those already on the ground. For this lot and for future lots, a "planning of future network expansion/reinforcement routes", according to the Written Information from the President. According to this document, the GIRA's expansion should go through the "Alcântara-Ajuda and Restelo-Belém axes, Marvila-ISEL, riverside axis, interfaces and intermunicipal relations with Loures, Odivelas, Oeiras and Amadora, as well as densification in the parishes of Benfica, Lumiar and Olivais". In other words, the intention to take GIRA beyond the city of Lisbon remains.
Electrical problem being resolved
Turning to the GIRA stations already installed but yet to be opened, the delay is due to a problem with the energy supplier that won EMEL's tender process. However, Carlos Moedas said at the ordinary session of the AML this Tuesday, in response to Liberal MP Rodrigo Mello Gonçalves, which "the information we have is that we already have a new supplier, who is making the connections and that by the second week of January [the stations] would be up and running". Contacted by Lisboa Para Pessoas, EMEL clarified that it provides for "a phased opening during the first half of 2022" of these 50 stations.
According to the company, there are currently "18 new stations in licensing and feasibility analysis phase" thinking about a "expansion to Olivais, Eixo Ribeirinho-Restelo, Eixo São Domingos Benfica-Benfica-Carnide and Baixa area". According to EMEL, the 50 new stations now in the public tender process - a process that is nearing completion - will serve "to densify the network in Olivais and elsewhere, as well as expand to Penha de França and other areas". "EMEL is also studying the purchase of more electric bicycles during 2022 to cope with this increase in the network."
In the same session, Moedas revealed that he has already had a "very important meeting" with Laura Caldeira, President of LNEC (National Laboratory of Civil Engineering), "where we ask you to make us a proposal so we can look at the safety of our cycle paths". It should be remembered that this had been a promise of the current Mayor: to review the existing and planned cycling network for the city of Lisbon, requesting a safety audit from LNEC, which, according to Moedas, is the only authority with the competence to do so. "I think this is important to say - and I'd like to say it to everyone, especially the citizens in the back [of the AML bench] - that I've always liked bicycles, I've always ridden a bicycle. Now, we want to have a cycling network that is safe for people and that we feel able to tell our children that they can cycle to school without fear", said the President of CML. "I'm hoping LNEC can help us with that."
At Written Information from the President presented at the AML, there are, however, some news about the future of the cycling network. Between September and November, the City Council analyzed EMEL's project for the near the cycling network in the Campo de Ourique neighborhoodas well as EMEL's project of a Cycle path on Calçada de Carriche. A "compilation of the discontinuities of the existing cycling network".
Updated at 16:45 on 22/12/2021 with statements from EMEL.
