Access control to Belém Docks is not working for more than a year, denounce residents. Administration of the Port of Lisbon says to be attentive and promises to restore gates and requalify the surroundings of that recreational dock.
The riverside area of Belém is used by many people at the weekend to unwind from the hustle and bustle of the week. A family lunch, a stroll along the river, a visit to MAAT or another museum in the area... there are many reasons to go to Belém. Free parking on Saturdays and Sundays makes traveling by car more appealing - EMEL is replaced by a valet who is happy to find a space for each car and help with maneuvering, asking for a small coin at the end. And the cars often take up space that they shouldn't have.
At the weekend, it is therefore common to see the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, one of Lisbon's best-known monuments, surrounded by cars. The (flimsy) gates at the Doca de Belém - a space that, despite belonging to the city, is under the jurisdiction of the Lisbon Port Authority - are up, and many motorists are entering to park their vehicles there while they go out for lunch or stroll around the area. The cars legitimately enter the supposedly restricted area of the Doca de Belém and move carefully, dodging the many people walking (or cycling) there and the various potholes in the tarmac; they pass in front of an area where some restaurants with terraces are concentrated and park, if there is still space, in a dead-end area closer to the dock itself.
"Cars shouldn't drive through here" - you hear someone walking along the road venting in English to friends, while dodging a vehicle. But apart from this young lady, who didn't appear to be Portuguese, no one seems to care much about the current situation at Doca de Belém; and for the shopkeepers, this informally authorized parking will be seen as a way of guaranteeing customers, despite the proximity of legal car parking, as well as public transport (such as the Cascais line or streetcar 15).
Contacted by Lisboa Para Pessoas, the Port of Lisbon said it shared the same concerns "with the safety of those who circulate in this area" and that, "to ensure the safety of persons and installations"is precisely "a video surveillance and access control system is being installed in the port area, which is why the existing gates are not yet in operation"; the Port of Lisbon added that is "A process of rehabilitation of the entire area surrounding the Belém Docks and the Belém Nautical Pole is being studied, the main objective of which is to reduce and discipline the circulation of vehicles, making this area safer".
The problem we're raising here today is not new, and it's important to note that nothing at Belém Dock physically restricts private vehicles from accessing the space. The solution will have to come from the Port of Lisbon Administration and/or Lisbon City Council, which together will have to define what they want the Belém riverside area to be - a recurring concern of the association's nucleus Neighbors of Bethlehem. In response to questions posed by Lisboa Para Pessoas, Gonçalo Matos, coordinator of the Neighbors of Bethlehemstates that "poor access control, which hasn't worked for over a yearThis has led to cars occupying the entire area around Belém Dock, right up to the edge of the riverside embankment, as if it were a parking lot, making it impossible to walk along the river in one of the most popular places for tourists to visit us.".
Gonçalo regrets continuing "without any response or commitment from the Port of Lisbon Administration"Although the residents through the association have "initiated several contacts in order to solve the most serious problems in the short term - such as the immediate replacement of the access control system and the urgent repaving of the entire area surrounding Belém Dock". The person in charge of Neighbors of Bethlehem also regrets that the "areas surrounding the recreational docks" are by the Port of Lisbon Administration "abandoned" and that they are "citizens' contributions to improving the problems they encounter in the short term are often overlooked".
