The tension between cyclists and non-cyclists has been growing in the city of Lisbon. The most visible investment in cycling infrastructure in the municipality, in many cases at the expense of space taken away from cars, has led to increasing protest in Facebook groups, which, in turn, seem to be multiplying. While the question remains as to whether the majority are those who make noise or those who remain silent, enjoying and taking advantage of the changes in the city, the contestation now seems to be migrating to the street.
João Sousa was walking next to the bike path on Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa, a new corridor that directly connects Alvalade to Parque das Nações, removing one lane from the six that the artery has in total, when he came across an unusual situation. A message of hate towards the current Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, was written on the concrete separator of the bike path, and some wooden boards with nails were left in the bike path area, allegedly intended to puncture the bicycles' tires, putting at risk the physical integrity of those who use this means of transportation.
Contacted by Lisboa Para Pessoas, João Sousa explains that "I was walking home from shopping and noticed the graffiti first, when I looked closer I noticed that the timbers were there, I took the pictures and put them on the wall between the sidewalk and the grass". "It seems unlikely to me that it fell from a vehicle, because not only did they appear to be rotting, which wouldn't make sense on a transport pallet, but it was also next to the graffiti."he says via chat. João reports having also seen, at another point of the bike path, some bags with excrement in the middle of the road, which "they were already half stepped on so it was not possible to take them off".
The construction of new bike lanes in Lisbon has been contested by some internet users, the most controversial being the one in Almirante Reis, which cut off an upstream traffic lane in the direction of that avenue. In this specific case, the concrete wall segregating traffic and the elimination of a traffic lane were questioned. The connection of Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa was foreseen in Lisbon's cycling plan unveiled in 2018 and also in the pop-up bike lanes plan announced in June last year; on that car-dominated artery, this remains the mode of transport with the most dedicated space.
This is far from being the first time that a bike path in Lisbon was invaded by nails. Last September, an identical situation happened on the Duque d'Ávila bicycle pathand it was reported, such as thisthrough social networks.
