Party suggests more secure bike parking in Lisbon and presents a proposal for the BiciPark network to cover 79% of the city.
Expand EMEL's current BiciPark network, from 238 to 1700 safe bicycle places, covering 79% of the cityis the main goal of a proposal that Livre decided to present in the last City Council meeting of the year. The party proposes to use all of the city's parking lots, as well as garages in municipal buildings, to expand this network, estimating it to cost around 500 thousand euros.
The BiciPark network was launched in 2021 by EMEL - a set of secure, covered underground parking lots. There are 13 BiciParks in the citytotaling 238 bicycle parking spaces, of which 24 for cargo bikes. The spatial distribution of the network is not equitable: there are two BiciParks in Telheiras, one in Lumiar, two in Alto dos Moinhos, one in Alvalade near the Roma-Areeiro railway station, one in the Rêgo neighborhood, two in Areeiro, one in Campo de Ourique, one in Amoreiras, one in Baixa near Largo do Caldas, and one in Graça. The use of BiciParks is free for those who don't have a car (pass or contract with EMEL), costing 7 euros a month for the others; access is made through the Navegante cardwhich must be activated with the BiciPark pass every 30 days in an EMEL park.
According to Livre, the current BiciParks network "is still very incipient"serving only 4.88% of the city area and 13.17% of the resident populationif we stipulate a maximum walking time of 5 minutes to reach each of the 13 parks. Extending the time frame of the analysis, we see that only 34.24% of the population is within 15 minutes walking distance of a BiciPark and that the area covered is 15.01%.
Livre considered two expansion scenarios for the network:
- one in which all EMEL parking lots, underground and surface, as well as privately-owned parking lots (Telepark, etc). This scenario would allow the BiciParks network to be expanded to 56,68% of the county area, putting more people closer to safe parking. The party estimates a cost of 269,500 euros for this expansion scenario. Considering only the parks managed by EMEL, the cost would be 181,500 euros;
- one in which they are considered also fully or partially municipal buildings with two or more stories below groundin which one or two car parking spaces could be converted to a BiciPark. This scenario would allow for a network reaching 79.25% of the city and would cost 506,000 euros.
The party says that, in the most optimistic scenario, the recommended expansion of the BiciParks network would allow the city of Lisbon to have almost 1700 secure places for bicycles, protected by video surveillance and with restricted access, and more than 100 places for cargo bikes. Livre's analysis is based on public data from the municipality's open platforms, as well as EMEL's own manual of closed parking lots, which estimates the cost of reconverting car parking spaces into BiciParks (Livre has updated these figures taking inflation into account).
During the presentation of the proposal at the town hall meeting, the Councilman Carlos Teixeira, replacing Rui Tavares, indicated that the 2.56 million euros that a new car parking silo in Campo de Ourique is expected to cost with 89 parking spaces (an investment of about 28.8 thousand euros per space) would allow to build 465 BiciParks with 7,900 spaces for bicyclesfor an investment of only 322.55 euros per place.
Livre maintains that secure parking is one of the most important factors influencing the adoption of cycling as a means of transportation, but that in Lisbon many buildings have no storage or garage space, and many dwellings have small areas or are on high floors without elevator access. "The expansion of the public network of covered and secure bicycle parking is key to encouraging the use of this mode of transportation for more sustainable commuting in the city, especially in the largest generating clusters and the densest residential areas."the proposal reads. "To be competitive and useful to those who choose to bicycle themselves, the walking access time to the bike rack/secure parking network must be less walking time from the place of departure or destination than the duration of the bicycle trip itself."
For the second expansion scenario, Free therefore proposes the creation of "a protocol between the Lisbon City Council and EMEL for the provision of non-residential spaces owned by the city or partially owned by the city, on ground, basement or second floors, directly accessible by bicycle from the public space". The party also wants the establishment of "protocols with public institutions or institutions open to the public, such as health units or universities, and other poles of attraction of people, commerce and services, public or private, to expand the BiciPark Network".
For Rui Tavares' party, it is still the dematerialization of the access to BiciParks with an app for cell phones is fundamental, and the integration of the existing bike racks in Entrecampos and on Rua Mouzinho da Silveira - currently abandoned - into the network. Livre also proposes that a survey be made of all places with permanent police presence, such as police stations, embassies and ministries, in order to create bicycle parking spaces on the public road (these spaces will be much sought after because of the constant presence of police officers; this is the case, for example, in the bicycle park located in front of the Russian embassy).
The Livre proposal will now have to be scheduled to be discussed and voted on by all Lisbon City Council members, which should happen early next year. For now, only the presentation of the idea has taken place.
It should be noted that EMEL has already planned the expansion of its BiciParks network, with the extension to private underground car parks, which should happen in the re-nogotiation of the concession contracts, which is imminent. On the other hand, in the scope of the European project VoxPop, the public mobility company also has an analysis of the pedestrian distance to each of its BiciParks and car parks, with a view to future expansion. In EMEL's Activity Plan and Budget for 2023-2026The BiciParks have a total of 765 thousand euros budgeted for the expansion of the network.
