A record figure, which may even have been the highest ever.
The partial strike by the Lisbon Metro on Wednesday morning, May 4, will have led many people to opt for the bicycle. The three dozen counters scattered along the city's bike paths have registered 27,000 bicycle movements in one day - a record figure, which may even have been the highest ever.
Wednesday's strike was the 6th partial strike by the Lisbon Metro since the beginning of the year - the others took place on March 11th and 18th, and the April 14th, 22nd and 29th. The strike on the 14th was the longest, with the Metro only opening at 10.30am; on the other days, it opened at 9.30am.
Looking at the total meter data for the last two months (March, April and early May) - made openly available by EMEL -, we see that on three of the five days with the most bicycle traffic in Lisbon there was a partial Metro strike. The highest figure was recorded on May 4th (27.0 thousand circulations), followed by the day April 29th, a Friday on which 25.7 thousand circulations were recorded:
| May 4th (*partial strike) | 27 047 circulations |
| April 29th (*partial strike) | 25 712 circulations |
| May 3rd | 25 020 circulations |
| April 1st | 24 584 circulations |
| March 18th (*partial strike) | 24 213 circulations |
| May 4th | 27 047 circulations |
| April 29th | 25 712 circulations |
| March 18th | 24 213 circulations |
| April 14th | 21 008 circulations |
| March 11th | 17 388 circulations |
| April 22nd | 11 331 circulations |
However, on May 3 (a Monday) and April 1 (a Friday) there were 25,000 and 24,600 daily journeys, despite the fact that there was no strike by Metro workers. There was also a metro strike on March 18, with 24,200 journeys. On the other days of the strike - March 11, and April 14 and 22 - the figures are not encouraging (there was some precipitation on the 11th and 22ndThis may explain the lower values).
