The Prime Minister defended this Friday that cities have to get used to living without a car in a short space of time, arguing that it is not enough to intervene in interurban connections, we must look at urban and peri-urban systems.
Cities took 50 years after the war to adapt to accommodate the foreign body that was the automobile. Now we have much less time to get used to living without that foreign body that was the car”, said António Costa, who was speaking in Coimbra, at the delivery ceremony for the construction of the Hospital Line of the Mondego Mobility System (SMM), which It took place in the City Hall building.
To ensure the survival of humanity, “The best thing is to park the car,” he stressed, defending that the country should focus on “finding a new mobility system.”
During his speech, the President of the Government stressed that today’s departure represents one of “the last stops” so that the SMM, a long project with several setbacks that will connect Serpins (Lousã) with Coimbra, can be “completely finished and underway ”. “fully operational” in 2024.
There is still much to do, but we are not there yet. And it is very important that we get there. It’s not just long distance calls that need to be resolved. Ferrovia2020 is not just what you have to do. It is also necessary that peri-urban systems, within cities, solve the problem of mobility”, underlined António Costa.
During his speech, the prime minister also drew attention to another fundamental variable in the fight against climate change: energy.
In his speech, he reiterated the need for Portugal to go beyond the objectives established in the Paris Agreement and the ambition to reach 2025 with the country producing 80% of its electricity from renewable energies.
With the focus on energy from renewable gases, such as green hydrogen, António Costa reaffirmed the “realistic expectation” that the country will become an exporter of energy.
Also present at the ceremony, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, addressing the SMM, considered that today is a “historic day, in a process that took decades.”
It is doing justice to a promise that had not yet been fulfilled,” he said.
The SMM “consists of the implementation of a ‘metrobus’, with electric vehicles powered by batteries, which will operate on the old Lousã railway branch and in the urban area of Coimbra”, connecting this city with Serpins, in the municipality of Lousã, passing through Miranda do Corvo, in an extension of 42 kilometers.
Source: Observadora
