Carlos Moedas decided to withdraw the proposal on changes in the Almirante Reis cycle path at the chamber meeting this Wednesday, leaving only the proposal of the Left Bloc that provides for a citizen consultation. Speaking in a gesture of “humility”, Carlos Moedas said at the meeting that it is a “step aside to be able to move forward” on the issue that has generated so much tension in the municipality.

In a brief statement released in the meantime, Carlos Moedas says that “the issue is too relevant for partisan games.” “Mobility in the city cannot and should not be conditioned to a single bike lane. That’s what I assumed from the first hour. I still believe that the solution I have presented is the correct one, but in this case it is better that everyone steps aside to ensure a prudent and fundamental serenity in important discussions for the city”, says the mayor of Lisbon, guaranteeing that “It will continue working to rethink an intervention on Avenida Almirante Reis for everyone”.

“I am pleased that all the councilors have expressed their willingness to discuss together a long-term project for Almirante Reis, as I have always defended,” says Moedas.

With the opposition demanding since the end of March —when Moedas announced the solution that he wanted to temporarily implement in Almirante Reis— technical opinions and support for the executive’s decision, the public consultation solution for the intervention in one of the central axes of the city. it was proposed by Bloco de Esquerda, Livre and the independent councilor Paula Marques at the end of May.

Carlos Moedas will have chosen to withdraw the proposal to avoid “polarization” around the issue, proposing the deputy of the Left Bloc to hold a meeting with the executive to seek “consensus.”

PS accuses Moedas of “not wanting to govern, but to victimize” and of being “creator of artificial political facts”

In a Facebook post, the Socialist Party has already reacted to Carlos Moedas’ decision to withdraw the proposal, accusing the mayor of “victimizing” himself: “A day later it became clear that, even though he did not agree with the design, the PS abstained and that project could move forward, Coins goes backwards. We have a MLCP that does not want to govern but to victimize itself.”

The Socialists assure that the decision that Coins is now taking “is illuminating the purposes” of the mayor. “Saying that you do not want to polarize the debate at the moment when you know that you have a majority, after having spent weeks accusing the opposition of not letting you govern, is illuminating about your purposes”, shoots the PS.

“Lisbon needs a president who works for the city, not a manufacturer of artificial political facts that prevent the construction of housing solutions, urban hygiene, sustainability, the true challenges of the city”, criticize the socialists.

paula marquesindependent councilor elected by the Citizens of Lisbon, points out that Coins’ “turn face” reflects that “it is crucial and very important for the city to have a broad debate on these issues in particular in Almirante Reis and the interventions they are making”.

To the Observer, the alderman without responsibility also says that in the public consultation process that will take place, the question should also be asked about any change in Almirante Reis, considering that “in a very short time there will be intervention works of the absolutely essential plan for the drainage of the city.

“The withdrawal of the proposal shows that it is important to have a broad debate on this issue, especially now that the work on the PGDL is about to begin,” says the councilor in Lisbon, who calls for a “wide and fearless debate on the Almirante Reis cycle path.

Livre says it “deeply disagrees” with Coins proposal and “welcomes” withdrawal

Livre, which in April presented an alternative proposal to Almirante Reis, “welcomes with satisfaction” this Wednesday “the position of the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, to withdraw his proposal to immediately proceed with the works to alter the Almirante cycle path Kings”.

Livre presents an alternative proposal for the Almirante Reis cycle path

“Free totally disagrees with the proposed changes as we believe they will worsen traffic on the Avenue, harming ambulance traffic and endangering the safety of cyclists,” the party writes in a note sent to the media where it recalls that He presented a proposal “with a long-term focus and not just another temporary change.”

Public consultation vote not yet established

After Carlos Moedas’s proposal was withdrawn from the table, the BE’s proposal is maintained, which provides for public consultation, the vote on the proposal was postponed for a future meeting, with no set date yet.

INEM and Firefighters with reservations about the Coin plan for the Almirante Reis cycle path

The public consultation proposal aims to guarantee a minimum period of 45 days of public consultation, with the respective publication of “a report with the analysis of the contributions collected”; the publication for each modification of the “duly substantiated modification project” or the publication of “the technical data on which the proposal is based”.

In the environmental field, BE’s proposal wants to “quantify the impact of the project in terms of polluting emissions in order to respect the commitment of the ‘Mission 100 climate-neutral and intelligent cities in 2030’”.

Regarding the public consultation that Carlos Moedas says he has already carried out, after listening to the population in some meetings, the BE also wants to publish “a report with the minutes” as well as “the meetings with the associations, the active forces of the parish and civic movements.

But the requirements for citizen consultation and project to change the cycle path in Almirante Reis do not stop there. The proposal that will be debated at the beginning of the week intends that “the project to change the cycle path of Avenida Almirante Reis includes technical and safety opinions from the PSP, Municipal Police, Civil Protection and Fire Department of Lisbon, and how the solution proposed by President Carlos Moedas responds to the risks and reserves identified by the PSP in an identical solution, but in an ascending direction”.

And more: “That the Almirante Reis Avenue Cycleway Alteration Project includes INEM data on the circulation times of ambulances in emergency operation on the Almirante Reis-Rua da Palma axis between Alameda and Martim Moniz in both directions: before the implementation of the bike lane; In the first version of the bike lane; In the currently implemented version of the bike lane.

Another request that has been repeatedly made by the different forces in the council and in the Municipal Assembly is the publication of the LNEC study and the Bloco de Esquerda takes advantage of the window of opportunity to request it again: “That the CML present the LNEC study, that he mentioned several times in a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies that the current version of the cycle path was underway and as the ‘Novos Tempos’ coalition promised in the electoral campaign, and, necessarily, the study of the same entity on the solution now proposed with the comparison of the current solution and the solution now proposed between the councilors of the CML and the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon, also ensuring its dissemination on the website of the municipality”.