The project to requalify the bike lane on Almirante Reis Avenue, in Lisbon, includes changes in the directions of traffic next to the Arroios market and the elimination of the ‘Bus’ corridor on Carlos Mardel Street, the City Council revealed this Saturday.
“Changes will be introduced in the direction of traffic in the area near the Arroios market. Rua Carlos Mardel will have the opposite direction, as well as Rua Rosa Damasceno, and the entire market roundabout”, indicated the Lisbon City Council, referring that the objective is to accommodate the circulation of the three bus routes from Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques.
In response to the Portuguese agency about the Almirante Reis cycle path requalification project, the executive headed by Carlos Moedas (PSD) said that there will be “a left turn on Av. Almirante Reis / Alameda Afonso Henriques”, to replace the existing left turn on Rua Eduardo Brazão, which will become unfeasible with the installation of the two-way bike lane down this avenue.
With the reversal of the direction of car traffic in the vicinity of the Arroios market, in which circulation in the roundabout will be in an anti-clockwise direction, the City Council’s project also intends that “the entire street has the same profile , more urban, closer to the profile of a 4th level residential street”, which implies the elimination of the ‘Bus’ corridor in Rua Carlos Mardel.
“It doesn’t make sense to have such a small ‘Bus’ corridor, meaningless from a functional point of view, in the middle of a residential neighborhood, giving the street an unbalanced character,” said the leadership of the PSD/CDS-PP, which rule without an absolute majority. .
As part of the dissemination of the Almirante Reis Avenue cycle lane requalification project, through the municipality’s website, the PS of the Lisbon Chamber criticized the elimination of a ‘Bus’ corridor in Rua Carlos Mardel, affirming that this change is “to guarantee 27 parking spaces”.
“It is useless to have free transportation, if the ability to be fast and efficient is destroyed later,” the socialists defended, in a publication on the social network Twitter.
According to the information available on the municipality’s website, the provisional solution of Avenida Almirante Reis, with a bidirectional bike lane, allows “replacing two circulation lanes towards the exit, Martim Moniz / Areeiro, promoting greater traffic flow and reduction of pollution levels”, as well as “guaranteeing the emergency channel, accessing the São José hospital, at the expense of the exceptional and complete use of the bicycle channel”.
“To the bottom and to the top right, the tracks will be all 30 zones [velocidade máxima de 30 quilómetros por hora]increasing safety and fluidity through a constant speed”, says the municipality, indicating that the intervention foresees the “gain of about 60 parking spaces” in the Arroios market area.
As for the work necessary to implement the temporary solution, the municipality indicates that it only consists of stripping and repainting, removing and placing beacons and changing the location of “islands” on curbs made recently, when the ‘pop-up’ was installed. ‘, for the location of the traffic lights, so “it will have reduced costs and obey criteria of rationality of public investment”.
At the end of March, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, said that the immediate solution for Avenida Almirante Reis is to “end half of the cycle path”, and pointed out that in the long term there must be a project to re-profile the artery .
Part of the Almirante Reis cycle path began to be removed this Wednesday, information that was used that same day by BE in the Lisbon Chamber, during the public meeting of the municipal executive, to ask President Carlos Moedas that the works “do not go ahead” . ” until the proposal to present a reasoned draft amendment is debated.
At issue is the proposal by BE, Livre and the independent councilor of Cidadãos por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), that “in the event of any change in the configuration of the avenue’s profile” a reasoned change project be presented to the Admiral Reis bike lane, opening “a period for collecting contributions of not less than 30 days”.
This proposal was scheduled to be considered next Monday in a private session of the chamber, Carlos Moedas having already announced that he will vote against it.
Source: Observadora
