In the new Buses of Lisbon portal, you can find out all and more about Carris' current and former service.
The Project Buses from Lisbon jumped from social media to a website in its own headquarters. At the address autocarrosdelisboa.com it is now possible to find a Carris information portalThis is a voluntary website, created and maintained by volunteers, which is in its infancy. The aim is to aggregate useful information about Lisbon's buses (and also streetcars).
"There was a need to evolve in terms of content dissemination", explains Diogo Lourenço, 21, a marketing student and one of the volunteer forces behind the project. Buses from Lisbon (who we met in this report last week). The idea of creating a independent social media platform Facebook e Instagram, where the initiative has resided, was taken in 2021. "The portal aims (in the short term) to group the most relevant information and items about Lisbon buses in one space, allowing the user to view the content more easily, at any time, without being affected by the social media algorithm."
One of the main pillars of the portal Buses from Lisbon are the service changes. Whenever Carris changes a timetable, route or stop Diogo makes a point of communicating itby making a short article on the website which is then translated to social media. Each communication has a photo from the already vast archive of the Buses from Lisbon and is, whenever it makes sense, accompanied by maps or diagrams that Diogo draws himself - a practical example is the work done on a temporary career shift 731.
Other area Diogo intends to work on the new portal are the curiosities about former Carris routes, vehicles that are no longer in circulation and communication materials that the company used in the past. É "a space for enthusiasts"he explains.
"In the long term, I want the portal to have even more useful information. For example, it would be extremely useful to display, every day, the number of buses and routes available and suitable for passengers with reduced mobility."He explains that sometimes routes are advertised as being wheelchair-accessible, but not all the buses on those routes have ramps. Diogo does not yet know how he could provide this information, but has already created a page dedicated exclusively to the issue of accessibility, which lists all the Carris routes that are in theory prepared for reduced mobility..
The future of the portal Buses from Lisbon depends on the availability and energy of Diogo and other volunteers to feed it, as well as, of course, donations - for now, Diogo can receive them by PayPal. But the insertion of advertising is not ruled out. "All suggestions for improvement are always welcome. For this purpose, the email address autocarrosdelisboaadl@gmail.com.”
Regarding a possible extension of the scope of Autocarros de Lisboa to other operators, such as Carris Metropolitana, Diogo has no plans "for lack of means", and says he prefers "to have the project related to Carris in a robust way than to expand and decrease the quality". "Just like social media so far, the Lisbon Bus Project in general will remain as long as it is useful for the community", promises.
