Gonçalo's 10-year-old son was cycling alone to his English class along the Alameda dos Oceanos cycle path when a PSP officer stopped him - not even with his bike in his hand. Under the Highway Code, a person carrying a bicycle is...
A major event always has an impact on the city where it is held, requiring temporary traffic restrictions and changes in mobility habits. At the sixth edition of the Web Summit in Lisbon, residents and visitors to Parque das Nações already know more or less what to expect - with various restrictions in the Alameda dos Oceanos area, especially around FIL and the Altice Arena. Gonçalo Peres, who usually does his urban life by bicycle, also knew that Web Summit would affect the alameda bike laneThis is an important axis for you and for many people in Parque das Nações. However, he was this year surprised by bans that he describes as random and discriminatory.
Last Friday, November 4th, the last day of the Web Summit, it was approaching 5 pm when Gonçalo's son, 10 years old, was riding his bike alone to his English class. As usual, he was taking the Alameda dos Oceanos bike path, because the school is located on that road. But just outside the Rotunda dos Vice-Reis, he was intersected by a police officer, who told him that he couldn't and that he could take the parallel Avenida Dom João II. "He told the policeman that his mother won't let him go that way, only through Alameda dos Oceanos"said Gonçalo, explaining that Avenida Dom João II is an artery with a lot of traffic and dangerous, especially for 10-year-old children. Intimidated by the presence of the police officer and obeying his mother's instructions, the little boy opted to take the sidewalk - he can legally do so because he is still 10 years old.
Since the Web Summit landed in Lisbon in 2016, the bike path at Alameda dos Oceanos - an important axis in the parish of Parque das Nações and in the city's cycling network - was kept free for bicycle and scooter riders. This bike path has two sides, with each side running in one direction (one-way lane); during the Web Summit, one side is usually cut off and the other becomes two-way, i.e., it is transformed into a temporary two-way bike path. For several years, signs have even been placed indicating the temporary two-way cycle lane.
This was not the case this year. Still, according to Junta de Freguesia do Parque das Naçõesthe bike path was going to remain available on one side for those who needed to use it: "The bike path in the south northbound direction of Alameda dos Oceanos will be closed in the event area, and will now operate as a two-way on the west side"you can read on a page of the Junta dedicated to traffic restrictions because of the Web Summit. According to Gonçalo Peres, who passed by there several times during the event, "the rules were random"He says, accusing PSP agents of negatively discriminating against those who chose to travel by bicycle or scooter.
On the same day that the episode with his son occurred, Gonçalo also experienced difficulties with his bike mobility in the Alameda dos Oceanos area. After having gone to drop off books at his son's English school, he was prevented from moving forward on the bike path next to the Casino. "They just wouldn't let people on bicycles or scooters pass. And they wouldn't let them pass in any way, not even by taking them by the hand."says Gonçalo. The road next to the bike path was, however, clear and there were cars circulating. "If cars were getting through, why couldn't bikes?" This was the question he asked the police officer who blocked his passage. "He replied to me that people on foot don't walk on the road"in a reference to pedestrians using the bicycle lane and the resulting conflicts with bicycle and scooter users.
Gonçalo and another family with two children on bicycles, who in the meantime also had their passage blocked, were still talking to the PSP agents during "an hour to an hour and a half". When confronted with a "superior decision" and with an inflexibility, they asked to speak to a superior, who, according to Gonçalo, "showed up with a different attitude" - because he lived in Olivais and would have come to the event by scooter - and "a little confused by the fact that they don't let people walk by with their bicycle by hand". "The rules were not clear at all"Gonçalo laments. On other days, some PSP agents had let him ride with his bicycle by hand, others had told him that the ban was from 9 to 7 pm, and still others had said nothing. It is true that during the Web Summit there were several people riding their bicycles on the bicycle path at Alameda dos OceanosFor example, by catching a GIRA in the middle of the route where there would be no presence of police officers, or by unconsciously passing through areas out of the police's sight, as Lisboa Para Pessoas was able to prove.
"Cars have lots of alternatives unlike bicycles"says the urban cyclist, who says he will file a formal complaint about this situation. If there are several parallel arteries to which automobile traffic can be diverted, the Alameda dos Oceanos is unique from the point of view of cycling mobility - the only axis that crosses the Parque das Nações from one end to the other and has a segregated and safe cycling path.
For Gonçalo, it doesn't make sense to allow automobiles on the road but prevent bicycles from following, either on the road, or with the vehicle by hand. "There is no sense in this discrimination"He points out that the circulation of cars can also put pedestrians and other people at risk, and that there are ways to safeguard the safe coexistence of all. To address concerns of potential conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians, at a time of greater crowding, the bike lane could be better separated from the rest of the space with railings, inviting Web Summit attendees and other people passing by not to use the bike lane to walk and opt for the sidewalk (which is quite wide). Signs could also be placed to make bicycle and scooter users aware of the need to reduce speed and pay extra attention during the days of the event, when the presence of people on foot is naturally higher.
O Highway Code is very clear about this situation. If it is true that Article 4 indicates that if "must obey the lawful orders of the authorities competent to regulate and supervise traffic, or their agents" - which includes guidelines on temporary restrictions - it is also true that, in Article 104, "it is equated to pedestrian traffic (...) the condition by hand of two-wheeled bicycles without a trailer" - so someone who carries a bicycle by the hand is a pedestrian just like any other pedestrian and cannot be discriminated against - and that, in Article 78, bicycle paths may only be used by pedestrians "when there are no places specially designed for them" - This is not the case on Alameda dos Oceanos, where the walking area is several meters wide.
Web Summit is not a unique case when it comes to its impacts on the city. Just last summer, the Rock In Rio Lisboa festival closed the Bela Vista Park for several months, which left many users of bicycles as a means of transportation without a connection between Olivais and Areeiro (and vice versa). Faced with complaints and pressure from opposition parties, the Alderman of Mobility, Ângelo Pereira, ended up promising to resolve the situation in the festivals that would be held in that Park in the futureMEO Karolama, referring that Bela Vista would remain available for circulation on foot and by bicycle during assembly and disassembly, and that it would be closed only on festival days.
The impact of the Web Summit in Parque das Nações is not small. This major conference on technology and entrepreneurship required the removal of bicycle parking lots and hundreds of bollards that protected the bicycle path of Alameda dos Oceanos on the side where it was cut. These infrastructures will be, of course, answers, but their removal represents a significant waste, since, at least in the case of the bollards, they were cut and the replacement will have to be with new bollards.
