Avenida de Berna. CML rejects petition with 720 signatures and spends half a million to undo cycle path

After "erase" the bike path planned in the redevelopment of Largo de São SebastiãoThe Avenidas Novas Parish Council even managed to put pressure on the Lisbon City Council (CML) in favor of the removal of a significant part of the bicycle lane on Avenida de Bernawhich connects Praça de Espanha to Avenida da República. The change will be made in two phases, with the first phase starting this week (the second phase is scheduled for 2024). And it will costing at least half a million euros to the municipality and its citizens.

As reported in MayThe bike lane on the Avenue de Berne currently consists of two one-way lanes, one on each side of the avenue, will become a bi-directional lane. This lane will be implemented from Praça de Espanha, on the side of the Gulbenkian and the church, but it will not connect directly to Avenida da República; instead, cyclists will be taken to the shared lanes (30+ bikes) within the neighborhood. In the spaces where there will no longer be a cycle path, the car parking that existed before the 2021 intervention will be reinstated or, in some cases, pedestrian space will be increased.

In the first phase of the work, the new bike lane on Avenida de Berna will only be implemented in the Gulbenkian block, while a connection to the 30+ bike lanes on the parallel Avenida Elias Garcia will be prepared, starting at Largo Azeredo Perdigão. In this first phase, which began this Monday and is expected to last 45 days, the one-way cycle lanes on the remaining blocks of Avenida de Berna will be removed and around 70 parking spaces will be replaced. EMEL will be responsible for this first phase of the work, which is being carried out by Viamarca at a cost of 62 thousand euros. With this first phase, Universidade Nova's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH) will no longer have a cycle path outside one of its main poles.

A million euros to make and unmake

The second phase, which will also be an EMEL project, isn't due to be completed until 2024 - which means a year without a bike lane on the doorstep for FCSH students, teachers and staff. At the moment, there is only a descriptive document, a preliminary study and an estimate of the cost of the intervention: 450 thousand euros. In September, through a public tender, EMEL awarded the contract to the company Sacramento Campos drawing up the execution project, for around 50 thousand euros. If we do the math, this second phase will cost the municipality at least 500,000 euros. Adding the 62,000 euros cost of the first phase, we're talking about more than half a million euros. It is not known how much it cost to implement the cycle lane on the Avenue de Berne in 2021, but we could be talking about more than a million euros just to first make and unmake a cycle lane on the Avenue de Berne.

And why two phases? Under pressure from the parish council, Lisbon City Hall wants to return as many parking spaces as possible to Avenida de Berna as quickly as possible, without waiting for a more definitive and therefore time-consuming project.

Let's go back to the beginning of this story. In 2021, the Lisbon City Council, then chaired by Fernando Medina, announced and completed a bike lane on Avenida de Berna, removing the 100 or so existing surface parking spaces; in addition to the bike lane, a BUS corridor was also created on that axis, extending the corridor that came from Alcântara and which the municipality wanted to take to Areeiro. At the time, the The municipality justified the removal of the parking lot not in order to put in a bicycle lane, but as a way of ensuring a good speed for the buses.The installation of the bicycle lane was seen as a way of taking advantage of the void by eliminating parking.

According to data presented at the time by the municipality, Avenida de Berna had 101 parking spaces, of which only 60% were occupied at night - the most popular time for residents. In the same survey, CML found that, in the surrounding streets, 20% of the more than 1,000 existing spaces were free at night; and that, at night, the underground car parks in the area had an average occupancy of between 35 and 50%. This information may have given comfort to the decision to remove surface parking from Avenida de Berna; but, despite the reality of the situation, residents of Avenidas Novas protested against the bike lane.

Faced with this popular protest, the Avenidas Novas Parish Council, at the time led by an independent elected on the PS list, held a public session in 2021 which, however, had no effect in terms of canceling the contract: the BUS corridor and bike path were built and the 100 parking spaces were eliminated. Meanwhile, also that year, a petition "against the installation of the bicycle lane and the removal of parking on Avenida de Berna" was delivered and discussed in the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML). With only 271 signatures, the petition gave rise to a recommendation from the Assembly to the City Councilasking her to apply "mitigation measures" to improve coexistence with the bike lane, responding to the petitioners' concerns about the loss of parking, and to make known "previously" these measures to the municipal deputies and to the city.

During the discussion of the petition in the Municipal Assembly, the new President of the Avenidas Novas Junta, Daniel Gonçalves, elected by the New Timesdeclared himself to be "totally against the bike lane on the Avenue de Berne, (...) because it was badly done". For his part, the first petitioner, Paulo Jorge Pereira, asked for "a compromise solution", that is, "the full restoration of parking at least on the side where the Church of Our Lady of Fatima is, where most of the residential buildings are concentrated". For Paul, this could be done in two ways: either with "the deviation of at least one of the senses" from the cycle path, just after the Gulbenkian block, to the parallel Avenida Elias Garcia, via a shared lane; or with the "use of the bike lane on Avenida Duque d'Ávila, which can be used".

Cycle path does not comply with municipal regulations and will be redone in 2024

The intervention that EMEL is now carrying out is precisely the idea that Paulo advocated. Basically, a two-way corridor will be created pop-up between Praça de Espanha and the Gulbenkian block, with a connection via shared lanes (30+bike) to Avenida Elias Garcia, which is already a 30+bike corridor. Through this Elias Garcia, it will be possible to reach Avenida da República, through a route that is not very direct and is interrupted by several traffic lights.

In 2024, the cycle lane that will be built this year on the Avenue de Berne will be removed again to be replaced by a definitive version (the aforementioned second phase). According to the preliminary study of the definitive solution, the definitive cycle path will be implemented at the expense of reducing road space. The two car lanes on Avenida de Berna will be between 2.80 and 3 meters wide (they are currently 3 meters), and the BUS lane will be 3 meters wide (it is currently 3.30 meters).. In this way, it will be possible to have a 2.40 meter wide cycle path (and a safety distance of 0.50 to 0.90 meters from the carriageway) and keep the pedestrian lane about 2 meters wide.

This definitive version of the new bi-directional cycle path on Avenida de Berna - which is expected to cost 450,000 euros - will run alongside the 30+bike infrastructure in the surrounding area: the idea is to allow the connection between Praça de Espanha and Avenida da República through the interior of the neighborhood, either via 1) Marquês de Tomar and Barbosa du Bocage avenues, 2) Elias Garcia Avenue, or 3) Conde Valbom and Visconde de Valmor avenues. The preliminary study includes proposals for links between these shared roads and the new two-way road.

Although the project for this first phase has not been released, it is expected that the lane now being implemented in a small section will have the same characteristics as the definitive version. This means that both the definitive solution and the temporary cycle path that is now being made will not respect the city's public space regulations. The fact is that this regulation stipulates that an axis such as Avenida de Berna, which is a 2nd level axis, must have road lanes with a minimum width of 3 meters - not 2.80 meters like the preliminary bike lane project. In addition, the BUS lane must be between 3.25 and 3.50 meters wide - not 3 meters (in general, a bus is 2.50 meters wide, so it will be more constrained in terms of mobility in the new BUS lanes on Avenida de Berna).

With the new bike lane, buses will have to travel more tightly and perhaps even more slowlyThey will have to wait every time a car wants to park or leave the parking lot. They will also probably have to dodge all the delivery vans and other vehicles that today, despite not being allowed, make quick stops on the bike path to unload goods or drop off passengers, and which will perhaps do so on the BUS corridor, interrupting bus traffic.

But the Avenue of Bern will also be left without dedicated bicycle infrastructure, initially between Gulbenkian and Avenida da República and, in a second phase, between FCSH/ Church and the so-called Central Axis.. In these places, the car parking that existed in 2021 will be reinstated (and which, at night, was 60% empty, which suggests that it was parking used mainly by those who come from outside to work in that area and not by residents). The replacement of the spaces will not happen in all parts of the avenue where there will no longer be a cycle lane: in the Gulbenkian block, the side that will be left without a cycle lane will have a wider sidewalk, already in this first phase. The bus stop shelters in front of the FCSH will also be relocated to free up sidewalk space, resolving a long-standing bottleneck.

You can read the previous study here:

Petition with 720 signatures calling for an "intervention with people in mind"

According to the "written information" that Carlos Moedas submits to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly every quarter, a change to the Avenida de Berna cycle path has been in the works since practically the beginning of the new municipal mandate. And the pressure from the Avenidas Novas Parish Council, supported by a petition with 271 signatures, was decisive for the outcome now known; the House's proposal for an amendment is, above all, a compromise proposal which maintains the cycle path on a section of the avenue and returns 70 of the 101 parking spaces that existed before 2021.

But that commitment will not have convinced hundreds of people who, in May, as soon as the planned changes have been more widely publicized in the media, decided to mobilize around a new petitionand calling for a more public and less office-centered discussion, and an "intervention with people in mind". In one month, the following were collected online and on paper around 720 signaturesThis allowed the petition to be submitted to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML) at the beginning of June.

The petition still has to make its way through the Municipal Assembly. The various parties involved, including the first petitioner, Carlos Sacramento, have already been heard by the AML's 8th Standing Committee, which deals with the issue of mobility and transport, and the document will now have to be discussed in a plenary session, with the approval, as usual, of a set of recommendations to the City Council. However, the fact that the work has gone ahead without the petition's journey through the AML having been completed suggests that the city council is not very concerned about the citizens' arguments.

In the text of the petition, which is still available onlineand which has had another 250 signatures since June, it is said that "withdrawing the cycle path, without technical justification such as that arising from the result of the ongoing audit of the cycling network in the city of Lisbon and public participation, is a mistake". Furthermore, the petitioners:

• asked for an avenue "more friendly, that allows for better coexistence and that does not promote the distancing of people (...) due to the disproportionate space given over to cars"and to be promoted "a broad public consultation process" that would allow "really improve the Avenue de Berne" to "all its users";
• appealed to "respect for institutions"This is due in particular to the recommendations that came out of the petition previously discussed in the AML, which, among other things, recommended that the City Council improve the cycle path without reversing it;
• affirmed a "restoring the truth"explaining that "parking was eliminated so that the entry and exit of vehicles would not disturb the circulation of buses on the new BUS corridor, in an attempt to improve its efficiency, and not because of the introduction of the bicycle lane". They said "on Avenida de Berna, at night, residents usually occupied 60 of the 101 spaces available";
• argued that the use of the bicycle lane on the Avenue de Berne has been increasing "although there are still obstacles along the route such as abusive car parking and areas shared with pedestrians which, while breaking the linear layout that would be desirable in this infrastructure, foster unnecessary and unacceptable conflicts between pedestrians and people on bicycles that discourage even more intensive use".

Cycle path must be improved

For Carlos Sacramento, the first petitioner, the one-way cycle paths implemented in 2021 are not perfect and should be improved. "As a user, I recognize that this is for me one of the worst or the worst cycle paths in the city, with sidewalks going up and down, several areas of conflict with pedestrians, etc. It's not really a good cycle path and I agree with its improvement"says in a conversation with LPP. But improving is not removing, not least because the infrastructure already serves people who want to cycle in relative safety. Carlos, who works at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH), says that he has seen new people from the faculty using the bike lane.

"A segregated bike lane is a way of promoting bicycle mobility. Not everyone feels safe on shared alternatives"mentions."But this petition isn't about the bike lane, we want to improve the quality of life for all users of the avenue, whether they're residents, people who pass through, or people who work here."Carlos explains that this avenue can't just be designed for residents. "The idea is to promote a broad discussion about this, and a discussion that isn't just focused on parking, but that listens to people like me, who don't live here but work here and who are also impacted by the changes."

Carlos told LPP that he regrets the lack of transparency and information on the part of Lisbon City Council on this issue. He's not the only one, Beatriz did the same. A student at FCSH, she decided to go to a decentralized public meeting of the Lisbon City Council in May to ask about the changes that were planned. She knew little about them - apart from what had appeared in the media - and wanted to, for that reason too, "to express my personal displeasure and that of several colleagues" because, as students at that college, they weren't taken into account.

Beatriz studies at FCSH and, like her classmates, uses the Avenida de Berna cycle path not only to get to that campus, but also to move between the two (FCSH is currently divided between Avenida de Berna and the Campolide campus, since NOVA SBE moved to Carcavelos)."And what happens is that many students, myself included, make the daily journey from home to here, along the Avenida de Berna, and then I make this journey from one pole to the other"he explains to LPP, pointing out that, for example, "The political science, international relations and sociology courses are at the other pole. However, many of the resources we need are here, including the Students' Association and a few others. The library is also different. The one here is more complete". And the bicycle makes perfect sense for getting from one place to another - even if there isn't a GIRA station outside the Bern center. "Even though I can take a bus that connects the two poles, the truth is that it makes all the difference to have this cycle path that allows us to get around quickly."

"I went to the meeting because there was a feeling of indignation on the part of the students. Even though I'm not part of the student association, the truth is that, speaking to my colleagues on a daily basis, we are outraged by this solution that the council considers to be a compromise between the parish council, the residents and the shopkeepers."he told LPP. "However, there is no commitment to the students. So it's not a commitment to everyone who uses this avenue, because this avenue should serve all the people who use it." Beatriz ended up helping Carlos to publicize the petition within the FCSH, where they collected some of the signatures that had been delivered to the AML.

"The future lies in improving what has been done, not going backwards," says MUBi

According to official EMEL meter dataThe use of the Avenida de Berne cycle path has grown in the last year, from less than 300 daily bicycle passages per direction in 2022. to nearly 400 daily tickets per direction by 2023. Some of them will be students. Others will be people looking for a flat, fast connection between Praça de Espanha and Avenida da República. MUBi, an association that advocates urban mobility by bicycle, believes that the cycle lanes on Avenida de Berna need to be improved, but says that eliminating a considerable part of the infrastructure that exists today is walking"going against what needs to be done for the quality of life of Lisboetas and all those who enter the city on a daily basis".

"Against the European agreements it has signed and everyone's health, the Executive continues to favor measures that increase pollution, make the city more unsafe and harm everyone without exception. It's no coincidence that fossil fuel consumption is at an all-time high and traffic in Lisbon at the beginning of September was almost 50% higher than in the same period in 2019."MUBi wrote in a statement sent to newsrooms on Sunday, and also published online. "There were promises to listen to the people of Lisbon and to make participatory decisions. However, measures continue to be taken without listening to anyone and announced just a few days before, with projects that no one knows about and vague promises that no one knows when they will be fulfilled."

For MUBi, "Avenida de Berna, as it stands, urgently needs to be rethought - it's an open-air traffic sewer next to residential areas and extremely important educational and cultural facilities for the city. It lacks trees, the sidewalks aren't worthy of an avenue with these functions and the current cycle path clearly needs to be improved - it's not acceptable that its design leads it to constantly encroach on sidewalks and it's potentially dangerous at intersections". But "all this justifies the redevelopment of Avenida de Berna, not the elimination of a section of cycle path that connects an important University to the City's cycle path network, creating a break in the network in one of the few areas of Lisbon where it is already continuous".

"The elimination of the bicycle lane does not improve conditions for pedestrians or public transport, but only serves to increase the number of car parking spaces in an area that already has ample supply"continue. "In short, it breaks with the city's Main Hierarchy Cycle Network, in an area with a huge appetite for cycling, full of hospitals, universities, libraries, museums and transport interchanges, and where the GIRA bicycle system is well established." "The future lies in improving what has been done, not going backwards"concludes the association.

MUBi, together with other associations and movements such as FPCUB - Federação Portuguesa de Cicloturismo de Utilizações da Bicicleta, Cicloficina dos Anjos, Kidical Mass Portugal and Climáximo, is organizing a demonstration this Tuesday evening on the Avenue de Berne. The meeting point is set for 18:00 in Campo Pequeno (in the square), with departure scheduled for 18:30. "Bring posters with your messages. There will be a strong sound system on wheels, but you can also bring your music! Bring the whole gang to this meeting, come celebrate the bicycle and defend the city for all people!", can be read in the invitation shared on social media.

Meanwhile, In the early hours of Monday morning, a group of activists appears to have painted slogans in protest at the work that began this week on Avenida de Berna. Messages such as "the bike lane stays" and "don't erase the future" were painted on the asphalt, and the word "closure" was erased from the construction signs, which previously read "bike lane closure".