Lisbon City Hall approves proposals from PCP and Livre to "encourage the use of bicycles in the city

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Proposals, which received the favorable votes of Carlos Moedas' councilmen, include the return of City Hall support for bicycle repairs and accessories (such as child locks and child seats), put pressure on EMEL regarding GIRA, and make Lisbon consider a bid for Bloomberg's 10 million for cycling infrastructure.

A proposal presented by the PCP councilmen in Juneon the occasion of the World Bicycle Day, in order to "encourage the use of bicycles in the city of Lisbon"was this week discussed and voted in a meeting of the Lisbon City Council executive. O Free joined an amendment proposalgiving the original communist text a new relevance. The two documents merged into one (some Livre amendments were incorporated into the PCP text) and the final text was unanimously approved.

So, what's new in these proposals? Let's go in parts.

PAAB resumes... partially

On the PCP side, it was proposed to resume part of the former Bicycle Acquisition Support ProgramThis program, which was in force between 2020 and 2021 and through which the municipality of Lisbon co-financed the purchase of electric bicycles by individuals and collective entities. This program, better known by the acronym PAAB, also included an amount for the purchase of accessories such as child locks and child seats, and a portion for vehicle repairs. Now, they are these two components of the old PAAB - accessories and repair - that the communists proposed to take over.

O Free also suggested the resumption of the PAAB in its entirety, something that the current Councilman of Mobility was willing to study. Ângelo Pereira even put forward, in the meeting, an amendment proposal of his authorship so that a "evaluation" of the previous BAP, but it was withdrawn during the discussion and never voted on. The social-democratic councilman understood that, although the PAAB had been "considered a success", "has not yet been the object of a complete and rigorous evaluation that focuses, among other things, on the effective use of the vehicles acquired with recourse to this support in the city of Lisbon, as an effective alternative to the use of automobile transport, as opposed to merely leisure purposes". For Ângelo Pereira, "the Lisbon City Hall should not renew the referred Program without this study being carried out"..

On the specific point of the PAAB, the proposal of the Livre amendment was rejected by a majority, with the votes against of the councilmen of the coalition of Carlos Moedas and the councilmen of the PCP. The result: the PCP's proposal to reactivate the PAAB for bicycle accessories and repair was unanimously approved.

Reinforcing GIRA

Another change that Livre brought to the original PCP proposal was related to GIRA. Rui Tavares' party proposed that it be recommended to EMEL "the inclusion, already for the 2023 budget, of a significant reinforcement" of the funds intended for Lisbon's public shared bicycle network, specifically for the purchase of new vehicles and components for the bicycles in the current fleet.

Free justifies this need with the "international best practices of shared bicycle systems"where "the recommended ratio between the number of stations and the number of available bicycles is 10:1, that is, 10 bicycles for each station in operation". Currently, the GIRA system has 138 active stations for a total of approximately 1600 theoretical bicycles; but the number of available vehicles has been much lower in recent days - there will be just over 850 bicycles in circulation.

EMEL's Director of Mobility Systems Management, Bruno Maia, responsible for GIRA's field operation, said in a recent report which there are about 700 bicycles in the workshop for maintenance. "We have been going through a serious crisis that started with the supply of components and raw materials that affects all industries and also our bicycle industry, and lastly we are having a labor crisis. There are too few bicycles for the high number of trips we are having."said the person in charge to SIC Notícias, on October 8.

The Free amendment point was approved by a majority, with only the two communist councilmen abstainingand was therefore incorporated into the final text of the deliberation.

What about other measures?

The PCP proposal for "encourage the use of bicycles in the city of Lisbon" and the Livre's amendments contained more measures besides the two already mentioned, mainly related to GIRA. The PCP proposal was approved unanimously, and so were the amendments suggested by Livre other than the two mentioned above. So, in practical terms, the final text of the approved proposal resolves as follows:

  • that is Resumption of the support program for the reimbursement by the Lisbon Municipality of bicycle accessories, such as locks and baby seats, as well as bicycle repair shops. This support will be 50% of the value of the purchase or repair, up to a maximum of €80. In other words, if a person buys a lock that costs €20, he can receive €10 from the municipality. Note: the PCP's proposal had originally been presented in June, so the communists suggested that this support program should be valid until the end of this year, and it is not known now whether the measure can be launched thinking about next year, 2023, and the respective Municipal Budget, which should be presented soon;
  • that EMEL is making five thousand free GIRA passes available so that new people can test the bike-sharing system before eventually taking out an annual subscription. This idea had already been approved in a City Council meeting in July 2020, still in Medina's mandate, as a result of a PCP proposal. The communists suggested it at the time, the availability of free GIRA passes, with a certain plafond of hoursso that Lisbon residents could try out the service. It wouldn't be an integration of GIRA into the pass (as was recently approved for Lisbon residents) but offering a free trial period to residents;
  • that if recommend to EMEL the execution "as a matter of urgency the entire amount earmarked in its 2022 Budget for the GIRA systemby launching procedures for the purchase of bicycles, their components and hiring labor to speed up and respond to the urgent repairs that the fleet needs".. This point was unanimously approved from the Free's amendment proposal and incorporated into the final proposal. Meanwhile, and according to the Base portal, a EMEL has recently concluded four public tenders for the "supply, in a phased manner, of parts/components for the bicycles" GIRA, with a total value of 334 thousand euros;
  • that a presentation be made by EMEL to the Lisbon City Council about the "current status of investments and operation of the GIRA network, the execution rate of the amount provided for in the 2022 Budget, the GIRA network Expansion Plans for the coming years, and an analysis of the problems reported by users, as well as the respective proposals for action to solve them". This point was made by Free;
  • that is Lisbon's presentation of a candidacy to the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI)a Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative that wants to distribute 10 million euros to 10 cities around the world to help them create safe, interconnected cycling infrastructure and provide new mobility options for their residents. This point was presented by Livre and received, like the previous ones, unanimity.

The document finalized and consensualized between the two parties and all Lisbon City Council members will now be published in the Municipal Bulletin and its application by Ângelo Pereira's council, who is responsible for Mobility, and by the municipal services, remains to be seen. You can see below the PCP's proposal and Livre's amendment proposal:

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