Of the five GIRA stations installed in Belem at the beginning of the year, one has already been relocated and three others will be as well. Only one will remain where it is.
One of the five GIRA stations that EMEL installed in parking spaces in the parish of Belém at the beginning of the year, has already been relocated to a sidewalk areanext to the Governor's Hotel. The station in question had been placed in front of Café Império, taking up four parking spacesHowever, as parking is oblique in this area - and the GIRA docks take up less space than four vehicles parked in this way - in practice, the station had only removed two spaces, as many people began to parallel park next to the GIRA infrastructure.
In March of this year, Lisboa Para Pessoas reported on the Belém parish council's desire to wanting to move the five GIRA stations that had been placed on its territory, because they took up parking spaces. At the time, all five stations were already wired and could be made available to the population at any time. This relocation will delay this opening.
The Belém council had written on Facebook in March that it did not intend to create a "war" between motorists and cyclists, and only asked for "balance and common sense" in the location of the stations. The five GIRA points placed in the parish were:
- a station at the top of Avenida da Torre de Belém with 19 docksoccupying two and three longitudinal seats parking;
- another station also with 19 docks at the bottom of the same avenue, next to the Café Império, occupying four oblique places;
- a station in a parking lot in Algés, exchanging six seats car parking for 37 docks for bicycles;
- another with 11 docks in Largo Luís Alves Miguel next to the cycle path on Rua Fernão Mendes Pinto, occupying a place parking next to a crosswalk;
- and a farm next to Cordoaria, in a parking lot, replacing six seats for cars by 30 docks for bicycles.
Now, the municipality of Belen promises that of the five, another three stations will also be relocated - the second on Avenida da Torre de Belém and the two in parking lots. Only the Largo Luís Alves Miguel station will remain where it is. The costs of relocating the stations are not known. But, according to the specifications of the most recent public tender for the purchase of GIRA stations, a installation of a station with 20 docks has a maximum unit cost of 35 thousand euros.
With the change of location, the station, which had already been moved, now has only 11 docks, when it originally had 19. It is now located on the promenade in front of the Hotel do Governador.
Through FacebookIn response to some comments, the Belém parish council states that "there could be GIRA stations and parking spaces" and says he even agrees with more docks in Belém - "that the network spreads up the middle of the parish to Caselas! And from this axis to the sides!". But he believes that the location of this equipment cannot be decided "on the backs of local authorities and the population".
The Belém parish council was not the only one to oppose the location of certain GIRA stations during the last five years of operation and expansion of Lisbon's public bike-sharing network. Other parishes have also pushed for the relocation of stations, such as Alvalade or São Domingos de Benfica. Although there are several stations located on the sidewalk, Lisboa Para Pessoas knows that there has been an effort to place the stations at road level whenever possible, to avoid the use of bicycles in pedestrian areas.
