LISBOA: safari urbano para consumo de turistas?

Quatro Eléctricos parados na Rua do Limoeiro, na tarde de 5ª feira dia 11 de Junho. A incompetência, a fealdade, o patético, e o difuncional transformados em atracção turística. Os turistas saiam dos electrticos para tirarem fotos, selfies até, junto da "cena do crime". Davam gargalhadas, entravam e saiam, divertidos com o espectaculo selvagem que Lisboa lhes oferece em cada esquina. É nisto que Lisboa se está a transformar. Uma figura patética, ridicula? Um mero safari urbano? A dignidade de Lisboa está a ser comercialziada, vendida por meia dúzia de tostões para simples entretenimento de um certo perfil de turistas. Lisboa turistificada à força?

JAN GEHL: «the public component of our lives is disappearing»

“In a Society becoming steadily more privatized with private homes, cars, computers, offices and shopping centers, the public component of our lives is disappearing. It is more and more important to make the cities inviting, so we can meet our fellow citizens face to face and experience directly through our senses. Public life in good quality public spaces is an important part of a democratic life and a full life.

“Only architecture that considers human scale and interaction is successful architecture.”
“First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.”
“The social changes of our era can help explain the dramatic increase in urban recreation – premium public spaces, with their diversity of functions, multitude of people, fine views and fresh air obviously have something to offer that is in great demand in society today.”

Jan Gehl

'Jan Gehl é um arquitecto e urbanista dinamarquês cuja carreira se tem focado em melhorar a qualidade da vida urbana reorientando o design da cidade em função do peão e do ciclista.

FOTO: Largo de Santa Cruz do Castelo, um dos muitos espaços públicos que continua refém de uma mobilidade urbana centrada no transporte particular - com óbvios prejuízos para a qualidade de vida de todos.

ZURIQUE: Tram operators can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt

Across Europe, Irking Drivers Is Urban Policy

Pedestrians and trams are given priority treatment in Zurich. Tram operators can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter. Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing. In recent years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises,” said Lee Schipper, a senior research engineer at Stanford University who specializes in sustainable transportation. “In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

To that end, the municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time. As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

While some American cities — notably San Francisco, which has “pedestrianized” parts of Market Street — have made similar efforts, they are still the exception in the United States, where it has been difficult to get people to imagine a life where cars are not entrenched, Dr. Schipper said.

Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act. Built for the most part before the advent of cars, their narrow roads are poor at handling heavy traffic. Public transportation is generally better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs over $8 a gallon, contributing to driving costs that are two to three times greater per mile than in the United States, Dr. Schipper said.

What is more, European Union countries probably cannot meet a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions unless they curb driving. The United States never ratified that pact.

Globally, emissions from transportation continue a relentless rise, with half of them coming from personal cars. Yet an important impulse behind Europe’s traffic reforms will be familiar to mayors in Los Angeles and Vienna alike: to make cities more inviting, with cleaner air and less traffic.

Michael Kodransky, global research manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in New York, which works with cities to reduce transport emissions, said that Europe was previously “on the same trajectory as the United States, with more people wanting to own more cars.” But in the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect.

After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it,” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work.

Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”

Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere. Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

European cities also realized they could not meet increasingly strict World Health Organization guidelines for fine-particulate air pollution if cars continued to reign. Many American cities are likewise in “nonattainment” of their Clean Air Act requirements, but that fact “is just accepted here,” said Mr. Kodransky of the New York-based transportation institute.

It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step. One novel strategy in Europe is intentionally making it harder and more costly to park. “Parking is everywhere in the United States, but it’s disappearing from the urban space in Europe,” said Mr. Kodransky, whose recent report “Europe’s Parking U-Turn” surveys the shift.

Sihl City, a new Zurich mall, is three times the size of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Mall but has only half the number of parking spaces, and as a result, 70 percent of visitors get there by public transport, Mr. Kodransky said.

In Copenhagen, Mr. Jensen, at the European Environment Agency, said that his office building had more than 150 spaces for bicycles and only one for a car, to accommodate a disabled person. While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new buildings to discourage car ownership, American codes conversely tend to stipulate a minimum number. New apartment complexes built along the light rail line in Denver devote their bottom eight floors to parking, making it “too easy” to get in the car rather than take advantage of rail transit, Mr. Kodransky said.

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has generated controversy in New York by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square, many European cities have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the closings would mean a drop in business, but that fear has proved unfounded, Mr. Fellmann said, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.

With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest, shortening the green-light periods and lengthening the red with the goal that pedestrians wait no more than 20 seconds to cross. “We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”

in THE NEW YORK TIMES 26 June 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/science/earth/27traffic.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=europe

FOTO: Eléctricos "presos" na Rua dos Fanqueiros devido ao excesso de estacionamento à superfície que ainda existe na Baixa, Lisboa. É todo um paradigma de mobilidade, de estilos d evida, que tem de ser profundamente altertado em Portugal.

Across Europe, Irking Drivers Is Urban Policy

Across Europe, Irking Drivers Is Urban Policy

Pedestrians and trams are given priority treatment in Zurich. Tram operators can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter. Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing. In recent years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises,” said Lee Schipper, a senior research engineer at Stanford University who specializes in sustainable transportation. “In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”
To that end, the municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.
Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time. As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”
While some American cities — notably San Francisco, which has “pedestrianized” parts of Market Street — have made similar efforts, they are still the exception in the United States, where it has been difficult to get people to imagine a life where cars are not entrenched, Dr. Schipper said.
Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act. Built for the most part before the advent of cars, their narrow roads are poor at handling heavy traffic. Public transportation is generally better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs over $8 a gallon, contributing to driving costs that are two to three times greater per mile than in the United States, Dr. Schipper said.
What is more, European Union countries probably cannot meet a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions unless they curb driving. The United States never ratified that pact.
Globally, emissions from transportation continue a relentless rise, with half of them coming from personal cars. Yet an important impulse behind Europe’s traffic reforms will be familiar to mayors in Los Angeles and Vienna alike: to make cities more inviting, with cleaner air and less traffic.
Michael Kodransky, global research manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in New York, which works with cities to reduce transport emissions, said that Europe was previously “on the same trajectory as the United States, with more people wanting to own more cars.” But in the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect.
After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it,” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work.
Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”
Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere. Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.
European cities also realized they could not meet increasingly strict World Health Organization guidelines for fine-particulate air pollution if cars continued to reign. Many American cities are likewise in “nonattainment” of their Clean Air Act requirements, but that fact “is just accepted here,” said Mr. Kodransky of the New York-based transportation institute.
It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step. One novel strategy in Europe is intentionally making it harder and more costly to park. “Parking is everywhere in the United States, but it’s disappearing from the urban space in Europe,” said Mr. Kodransky, whose recent report “Europe’s Parking U-Turn” surveys the shift.
Sihl City, a new Zurich mall, is three times the size of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Mall but has only half the number of parking spaces, and as a result, 70 percent of visitors get there by public transport, Mr. Kodransky said.
In Copenhagen, Mr. Jensen, at the European Environment Agency, said that his office building had more than 150 spaces for bicycles and only one for a car, to accommodate a disabled person. While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new buildings to discourage car ownership, American codes conversely tend to stipulate a minimum number. New apartment complexes built along the light rail line in Denver devote their bottom eight floors to parking, making it “too easy” to get in the car rather than take advantage of rail transit, Mr. Kodransky said.
While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has generated controversy in New York by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square, many European cities have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the closings would mean a drop in business, but that fear has proved unfounded, Mr. Fellmann said, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.
With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest, shortening the green-light periods and lengthening the red with the goal that pedestrians wait no more than 20 seconds to cross.
“We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”
in THE NEW YORK TIMES 26 June 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/science/earth/27traffic.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=europe

FOTO: Eléctrico no centro de Munique

Bicicletada / Massa Crítica: LISBOA, 24 de Setembro de 2010

Massa Crítica. Uma Massa Crí­tica (MC) é um passeio no meio da cidade feito em modos de transporte suave. Realiza-se sempre na última Sexta-Feira de cada mês às 18h00. A MC é uma celebração da mobilidade suave que permite aos participantes circular com mais segurança e facilidade, marcando a sua presença no espaço público pelo número e densidade da concentração. Esta "segurança pela quantidade" torna-a uma excelente forma de iniciação à utilização de veículos suaves em espaço urbano.

Bicicletada/Massa Crítica: LISBOA, 24 de Setembro de 2010

Concentração às 18:00 e saída às 19:00, no Marquês Pombal, no início do Parque Eduardo VII

"Promover o uso dos transportes públicos"

In DN 13-8-2010

4 perguntas a... Pedro Gomes, investigador do Departamento do Ambiente da Faculdade deCiência e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Quais as zonas com mais altos níveis de poluição do ar?
A situação mais grave é na área de Lisboa, logo seguida do Porto, porque são as zonas mais populosas e que têm mais tráfego automóvel. Depois surgem Braga e Coimbra, mas nada que se compare com Lisboa e Porto.

Que medidas se deve tomar para reduzir esses níveis?
Deve-se tomar todas as medidas para promover o uso do transporte colectivo em detrimento do individual. Por exemplo, nos principais acessos a Lisboa e Porto, uma das vias de rodagem deve ficar reservada para transportes colectivos, veículos eléctricos e viaturas com dois ou mais ocupantes, levando as pessoas a usar o transporte público ou a partilhar o carro próprio com outros. Desta forma, reduz-se o número de veículos em circulação. Também se deve criar mais faixas bus para dar prioridade aos transportes públicos e melhorar a sua atractividade.

E nas áreas mais sensíveis?
Nas zonas mais críticas, deve-se interditar o acesso a veículos que ultrapassem os limites de emissões poluentes, que normalmente são os mais antigos.

Que medidas de longo prazo?
É preciso aproximar as pessoas dos seus locais de trabalho e dar-lhes transportes públicos para não terem de usar o transporte individual. As novas urbanizações devem ser construídas perto de uma rede de transporte pesado, como o comboio.

Foto: eléctrico de nova geração no centro de Munique

Seminário Internacional "A CIDADE A PÉ"

A Câmara Municipal de Aveiro promove, no dia 18 de Março, o Seminário Internacional “A Cidade a Pé”, no Centro Cultural e de Congresso de Aveiro, entre as 9.00 e as 18.00.

O seminário surge no âmbito do Projecto Europeu de Mobilidade Active Access, integrado no programa Europeu Intelligent Energy Europe, do qual o Município de Aveiro é um dos 17 parceiros europeus que integram a rede de cidades promotoras de medidas de mobilidade.

Este evento pretende divulgar e discutir o objectivo principal do Projecto Europeu Active Access, que reside na promoção de políticas que aumentem a circulação ciclável e, sobretudo, pedonal nas pequenas deslocações dos cidadãos, ganhando consciência das hipóteses de compras, serviços e lazer na sua vizinhança. Estarão presentes representantes e especialistas dos diversos parceiros europeus.

O projecto europeu ambiciona conseguir uma redução do consumo de energia e emissões, bem como melhoria na saúde das populações, prosperidade do comércio tradicional e ainda o aumento do sentido de pertença a um lugar, reforçando os laços de vizinhança e implementando a urbanidade.

O projecto Active Access, tem como parceiros europeus, para além de Aveiro, uma rede constituída pela Universidade de Napier (líder do consórcio) e pelas cidades de Koprivnica na Croácia, L’Aquila em Italia, Szeged na Hungria, a Austrian Mobility Research, o município de Tartu na Estónia, a Agência de Energia de Harguita, o Club de Ciclistas da Hungria, o Centro Nacional de Saúde da Eslovénia, o Instituto Alemão de Assuntos Urbanos, a Agência de Energia Prioriterre de Annecy em França, a Agência de Energia de Ribera em Espanha, Cities 4 Mobility, Universidade de Chipre, Walk 21 e The Association for Urban Transition

A ficha de inscrição deverá ser enviada para: AA_walking@cm-aveiro.pt

Foto: o dia a dia dos peões na Travessa das Mónicas, no Bairro da Graça

ELÉCTRICO 28: «501 MUST-TAKE JOURNEYS»

O Eléctrico 28 foi seleccionado pela editora inglesa OCTOPUS como uma das 501 MUST-TAKE JOURNEYS do mundo. A crescente atenção dada aos eléctricos clássicos de Lisboa deve ser tomada muito a sério por todos nós. É urgente planear o regresso de algumas das linhas encerradas no passado de que é exemplo o Eléctrico 24 (Cais do Sodré / Campolide). Tanto a CARRIS como a CML e a ATL devem colaborar no sentido de aumentar a oferta de eléctrico clássico de modo a antecipar o aumento de turistas em Lisboa. Esta é uma questão estratégica tanto para o desenvolvimento da Mobilidade como do Turismo.

LISBON TRAM LINE 28
Lisbon’s Tram Line 28 takes you across four of the seven summits upon which Lisbon stands, in the course of a classic journey through some of the most interesting areas of this historic city. In 1873, a mass public transport company called Carris began operations, gradually introducing electric trams and new routes across the city. Although most lines today use modern, articulated vehicles, Line 28 uses remodeled vintage beauties, which are entered at the front and exited at the rear.

The trams depart every seven minutes or so from Largo Martim Moniz, making their way up the Mouraria hill to Largo da Graça, before trundling down through Alfama, the oldest, most beautiful and best known part of the city. The next port of call is Baixa, the lower city, which was rebuilt in French neo-classical style after the earthquake of 1755, by the Marquês de Pombal. Climbing uphill again, the trams pass through the old city centre, replete with theatres, and on through the traditional nightlife areas, the Bairro Alto and the Bica, haunt of writers and artists. Rattling and clanking their way up and down the hills, through narrow streets, the trams pass many important sites, including handsome churches, the Parliament building and the Cathedral, before finally reaching the Cemitério dos Prazeres - Cemetery of the Pleasures – where members of Lisbon’s noblest families are buried.

This trip is great fun. The trams are often crowded – people sometimes even hitchhike by hanging onto the outside as it rattles along. It’s noisy with laughter, chitchat and occasional shouts of abuse at cars blocking the way. The bell rings to alert people and traffic to the tram’s presence, and there are frequent stops. Your best bet is to buy a pass allowing you multiple journeys, in order to jump on and off whenever you want.

in 501 MUST-TAKE JOURNEYS, Octopus, London 2009
http://www.octopusbooks.co.uk/
http://www.hachettelivre.co.uk/

Nota: Ainda de Portugal foram seleccionadas as seguintes viagens: Tua Railway, Vicentine Coast e Walking the Levada do Caldeirão in Madeira. Imagem do Eléctrico 24 na R. D. Pedro V em 1983.

Dutch pledge to scrap road taxes in favour of distance-based plan

By Michael Steen in Amsterdam and Robert Wright in London
Published: 14 November 2009

The Netherlands last night became the first sizeable economy to promise to scrap all road and vehicle taxes and replace them with charges based on the distance driven in a scheme that may become a model for other countries. Camiel Eurlings, the transport minister, predicted that the system, to be introduced by 2012, would cut the total kilometres driven in the country by 15 per cent and CO 2 emissions by 10 per cent. While cities such as London have introduced congestion charges and Germany and Austria operate road-pricing systems for heavy-goods vehicles, only the island state of Singapore has a blanket road-pricing scheme in place.

The UK committed itself in July 2004 to introducing a national road-user charging system but Lord Adonis, transport secretary, made clear this year that that idea had now been dropped. The Dutch say the system, rather than increasing the total tax take from drivers, will raise the same amount of revenue while shifting journeys to less congested routes and times, and public transport. "This is not a milking machine," Mr Eurlings said. "The state won't get rich from it." The government estimates that it will cost 59 per cent of drivers less to pay by the kilometre than they are currently charged in road and vehicle taxes.

Transport economists almost universally support some form of direct charging for road use because it can give price signals to motorists to avoid the most congested roads at the busiest times. The Dutch scheme could provide a model for the other developed countries struggling with the impact of increased fuel efficiency in motor vehicles on the fuel taxes that are currently the main means of charging for road use. Such falls have encouraged drivers in many countries to drive more, increasing congestion and damage to road surfaces.

The Dutch system will work by installing satellite-tracking devices in cars in order to measure the distances they drive and the time of day when roads are used, allowing for variable pricing at peak times in particularly congested areas. But getting the technology right could prove challenging. Germany's truck-charging scheme was delayed as the GPS system that it chose became confused by tall buildings.

Foto: Groningen, Holanda

«Trams are making a major comeback»

Trams are making a major comeback

Upstaged over many years by metros, buses and cars, trams are now making a major comeback. With its Citadis trams, Alstom is now the driving force behind this renewal of interest. Trams can greatly improve the quality of urban transport and often give a new lease of life to city centres. To date 1000 Citadis solutions have been commissioned from 24 cities around the world including Paris, Melbourne, Tunis, Algiers, Barcelona, Dublin, Madrid, Tenerife and Rotterdam. 30 other cities are also planning to introduce trams in the next three years.

Key facts about the Citadis:

-Powered by clean energy -Carries the same number of passengers as three busses or 150 cars
-Uses 4 times less energy than a bus and 10 time less than a car
-Provides passengers with a comfortable and pleasant ride
-Uses unique onboard monitoring and passenger information system called Agate e-Media
-Each client can customise the style of their trams to reflect a city or area to best effect

31 October 2008

in http://www.alstom.com/

Nota: Só esta empresa já forneceu mais de 1000 eléctricos para 24 cidades, principalmente na Europa, entre 1997 e 2007. Lisboa nunca mais investiu neste tipo de transporte público desde a inauguração do eléctrico de nova geração entre a Praça da Figueira e Algés em 1995. Está na altura de Lisboa voltar a ser uma cidade de eléctricos!

Foto: os novos eléctricos para DIJON e BREST

Trams are making a major comeback

Trams are making a major comeback

Upstaged over many years by metros, buses and cars, trams are now making a major comeback.
With its Citadis trams, Alstom is now the driving force behind this renewal of interest. Trams can greatly improve the quality of urban transport and often give a new lease of life to city centres. To date 1000 Citadis solutions have been commissioned from 24 cities around the world including Paris, Melbourne, Tunis, Algiers, Barcelona, Dublin, Madrid, Tenerife and Rotterdam. 30 other cities are also planning to introduce trams in the next three years.

Key facts about the Citadis:

-Powered by clean energy
-Carries the same number of passengers as three busses or 150 cars
-Uses 4 times less energy than a bus and 10 time less than a car
-Provides passengers with a comfortable and pleasant ride
-Uses unique onboard monitoring and passenger information system called Agate e-Media
-Each client can customise the style of their trams to reflect a city or area to best effect

31 October 2008

in http://www.alstom.com/

Nota: Só esta empresa já forneceu mais de 1000 eléctricos para 24 cidades, principalmente na Europa, entre 1997 e 2007. Lisboa nunca mais investiu neste tipo de transporte público desde a inauguração do eléctrico de nova geração entre a Praça da Figueira e Algés em 1995. Está na altura de Lisboa voltar a investir nos eléctricos.

Foto: os novos eléctricos para DIJON e BREST

TRAMWAY REVIVAL in EUROPE

Accessibility and liveability are the key drivers in addressing sustainable mobility issues. The city environment and its infrastructure are threatened by aerial and water-based pollution caused by current transport modes. Furthermore, the erosion of access to public spaces, gentrification and loss of urban diversity challenge socio-cultural functions.

Private transport, i.e. the car, shows a growing incompatibility with accessibility and liveability. Low-emission vehicles will not deliver a sustainable solution.

Public transport systems have to embrance strategic and spatial functionality, and so address a wider range of sustainability issues, offering a de facto collective space to compensate for public space eroded by privatization and building for commercial gain. Transport systems have a long history of driving urban development.

Lately, many cities in Europe, recalling the efficiencies of nineteenth-century systems, have reintroduced trams. The modern tram is, however, a long way from its noisy, clattering ancestors. It must be different in order to lure modern commuters out of their cars.

in THE ECO-DESIGN HANDBOOK, Thames & Hudson, London, 2005

Semana Europeia da Mobilidade: LISBOA versus VIENA

«Vienna has passed Zurich to take the top spot as the world’s city with the best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2009 Quality of Living Survey. Geneva retains its position in third place, while Vancouver and Auckland are now joint fourth in the rankings. Overall, European cities continue to dominate the top locations in this year’s survey. In the UK, London ranks at 38, while Birmingham and Glasgow are jointly at 56. In the US, the highest ranking entry is Honolulu at position 29. Singapore (26) is the top-scoring Asian city followed by Tokyo at 35. Baghdad, ranking 215, remains at the bottom of the table.» http://www.mercer.com/

Lisboa aparece na lista das 50 cidades com melhor qualidade de vida na posição 44 (uma das piores na Europa). Mas a capital portuguesa não aparece na lista das 50 cidades com melhor infraestrutura. Porquê? Comparemos a situação dos Transportes Públicos de Lisboa e Viena.

Em Viena (1,6 milhões de habitantes) existem actualmente 30 carreiras de eléctricos no centro da cidade.

Em Lisboa (500 mil habitantes) o Estado nunca mais investiu neste tipo de transporte público desde a inauguração do eléctrico de nova geração entre a Praça da Figueira e Belém em 1995. Esta situação é inédita nas economias desenvolvidas.

Por todo o mundo se está a investir fortemente nos eléctricos. De Paris a Londres e Nova Iorque, várias autoridades metropolitanas estão a investir nos eléctricos porque está provado que é uma das maneiras mais eficazes e económicas de assegurar a mobilidade dos cidadãos e ao mesmo tempo reduzir o impacto negativo dos actuais hábitos insustentáveis de mobilidade centrados no automóvel particular. A instalação de uma nova linha de eléctrico é 10 vezes mais barata que uma linha subterrânea de metro. E enquanto uma carreira de autocarro pode transportar cerca de 8000 passageiros por hora, um eléctrico de nova geração pode transportar entre 30 000 e 40 000.

Considerados estes argumentos, porque razão Lisboa não recebe investimento em eléctricos há quase 15 anos? A apatia do Estado levou a que os veículos privados destronassem o transporte público a uma velocidade galopante. Segundo os dados do INE, a importância do transporte individual na região de Lisboa aumentou de 26% em 1991 para 45% em 2001. E em 10 anos a Transtejo / Soflusa perdeu 40% de passageiros.

Entretanto, o crescimento descontrolado do número de veículos de transporte individual e consequente congestionamento dos arruamentos da cidade (com trânsito e estacionamento), impede o cumprimento de horários. Resumindo, a falta de planeamento e de investimento do Estado Português levou à destruição de uma das maiores vantagens dos transportes públicos: a rapidez.

Apenas o Metropolitano de Lisboa, com cerca de 40 km de linhas, tem registado um desempenho positivo. No entanto a expansão da rede do Metro tem decorrido a passo de caracol e demasiadas vezes com derrapagens de custos. Em 2010 Lisboa terá uma rede de metro com pouco mais de 50km. Em comparação, Viena terá 800 km de linhas de metro em 2010. É por estatísticas como esta que Viena é uma das cidades da Europa com maior qualidade de vida.

Realiza-se, de 16 a 22 de Setembro, a Semana Europeia da Mobilidade, tempo para debater a necessidade da mudança de comportamentos, em particular no que toca à utilização do automóvel particular.

Foto de Pedro Flora

NOVA IORQUE: "Broadway is NO way"

It's curtains for cars on Broadway.

Starting Sunday, vehicles will be barred from the legendary roadway in Times Square and Herald Square as it is transformed into a pedestrian-only area with a food festival, an outdoor yoga studio and a kickball arena, officials said yesterday.

All traffic will be diverted from Broadway between 47th and 42nd streets and between 35th and 33rd streets, said Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Drivers will have to move to Seventh or Ninth avenues to get downtown.

It's all part of a $1.5 million plan to turn sections of Broadway into massive pedestrian plazas, a plan that Mayor Bloomberg said will ease the grueling traffic bottlenecks that happen near major intersections.

Officials aren't wasting any time turning the Great White Way into the Great Walkway.

On June 7, the city will broadcast the Tony Awards to a live audience sitting on what used to be Broadway's traffic lanes.

Top-notch restaurants will also be out for a Taste of Times Square event on June 8.

Other events, like kickball, capture the flag, and yoga at sunrise, will come later in June.

Construction on the Times Square plazas will be done by Aug. 16, and Herald Square will be finished Aug. 23, officials said.

Sadik-Khan said the closures will "take some getting used to," for drivers, but she doesn't expect any traffic nightmares.

"We actually think traffic is going to improve coming down Seventh Avenue when we're knitting it together," she said.

"I think it'll still take a period of adjustment, though," she acknowledged. Officials begged motorists not to get caught up in any early confusion. "Give it time to see how it works," said Times Square alliance chief Tim Tompkins.
DOT crews will be out monitoring traffic, Sadik-Khan said. The plan is causing a divide among business owners.

A manager at Grand Slam, a trinkets store on Broadway, said he thinks the increased foot traffic will bring him more customers.

"It helps me," said John Palha, who has managed the store for 11 years. "When there's less cars on the street, people can get here. They can walk right over and come in."

But store owners on the Seventh Avenue side said the increased car traffic and sinking economy might tank their business.

"It could very possibly put me under," said a businessman who runs a camera and computer store. "It's not good for me. It's much more attractive for the other side."

in NEW YORK POST, 20 de Maio de 2009

CITY ON AN UP 'CYCLE': 143% JUMP IN PEDALERS

The spokes are really flying around the Big Apple. Scores of new bike lanes and a sour economy have led to a surge in people pedaling to work, data released yesterday show.

The number of bicycle commuters surged by 18,000 from 2007 to 2008, according to numbers from the city and advocacy groups. An estimated 185,000 people pedaled to the office in 2008, compared to 76,000 in 2000 -- a 143 percent increase, according to the figures provided by Transportation Alternatives. The reason, officials and cyclists say, is the hundreds of miles of new bike lanes and the recently tanking financial picture.

"I save at least $60 a month on subway fares, $100 on parking and $100 on gas," said West Village resident Michael Pavlakos. "My bike costs me $50 a year in repairs. So I ride it even more because of the economy."

Over the past three years, the city Department of Transportation laid down about 620 miles of lanes, some separated from busy roads with paint and pylons.

Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said it's those lanes -- not the streets -- that will handle the 1 million more people projected to move into the city in the near future. "We can't compensate for more people by double-decking the road network," she told The Post. "We're looking to create a [bike-lane grid] for cyclists to go from Point A to Point B without getting off."

She also praised proposed legislation in the City Council that would make more building owners accept riders storing bikes in their offices. "That would ensure the bike is going to be there when they need it," Sadik-Khan said, noting that riders are worried about bike theft.

Recently, the MTA approved 10 percent fare hikes and the state Legislature agreed to increase the price of driver's-license renewals and car registrations. "People are bring priced out of driving and priced out of transit," said Wiley Norvell, spokesman for Transportation Alternatives. "Any time that happens, you usually see a boost in people biking to work every day."

But bike theft is still a problem, cyclists said, and some want more bike racks around the city. "The city still has a lot to do with parking," said East Village resident Paul Heck, who bikes to work every day. Sadik-Khan said there are more than 6,000 racks in the city now, with more on the way.

TA's biking numbers, which go back to 1980, are based on DOT counts of cyclists who ride into Midtown and lower Manhattan every day and are projected for the entire city.

in New York Post, 15 Maio 2009

Fotos: Nova Iorque ja tem mais de 1000 km de bike-lanes, implementadas nas faixas de rodagem e nunca em passeios. Nota: os sublinhados sao nossos.

Cada vez mais o "cidadão-carro" é que decide a cidade

Um sinal de estacionamento proibido, no lixo. De facto, em Lisboa, o lugar certo para os sinais de proibição de estacionamento parece ser o lixo. Basta ser peão, e passear por qualquer freguesia da cidade, para o constatar diariamente. Talvez nenhuma outra sinalética na cidade seja mais desrespeitada do que esta. Sem um investimento nos transportes públicos, à escala metropolitana e em sintonia com o planeamento urbano, veremos melhores dias na nossa capital. A ficar para trás de ano para ano, de nada valem os mega projectos típicos de uma cidade com complexo de inferioridade. Não será uma torre do Arquitecto Foster, ou uma ostensiva terceira travessia do Tejo que vai por Lisboa a par das capitais desenvolvidas.

Voltando à escala da rua, não serão os pilaretes, nem muito menos a proliferação de sinalização vertical a proibir o estacionamento, que poderão alterar os comportamentos insustentávies cada vez mais enraízados na sociedade portuguesa. As questões estruturais da mobilidade urbana sustentável continuam por implementar. A crónica falta de visão apartidária do planeamento urbano estão a comprometer o futuro de Lisboa. Assim, e até que Município e Estado acordem e actuem, assistiremos ao agravar dos problemas da mobilidade. No vazio criado, vai crescendo a importância do transporte individual - porque os cidadãos não podem esperar 48 minutos por um autocarro.

Cada vez mais o "cidadão-carro" é que decide a cidade. É ele que decide que ali se constroi um parque estacionamento em vez de um jardim. É ele que decide que aquele arruamento vai ter o dobro das faixas de rodagem em vez de árvores de alinhamento. E é ele que agora quer decidir se pode ou não atravessar a Baixa, em prejuízo dos outros, do património, nas próximas décadas. Basta deste cidadão principal de Lisboa.

Foto: Terreiro do Trigo, Freguesia de São Miguel.

«Fuga ao trânsito na Baixa encheu metropolitano»

O corte de trânsito no Terreiro do Paço e na Avenida Ribeira das Naus, em Lisboa, não mergulhou a cidade no caos, como esperavam os pessimistas. O trânsito fluiu, mas também houve mais pessoas a recorrer ao metro.

Devido às obras de consolidação do Torreão Poente e de saneamento no Terreiro do Paço, a primeira manhã sem carros na Avenida Ribeira das Naus gerou estrangulamentos em pontos "já esperados" na Baixa, como a Rua do Arsenal, mas "foi uma situação de grande normalidade em toda a cidade", assumiu o presidente da Câmara, António Costa, ao princípio da noite de ontem.

Apenas nos próximos dias será possível aferir se as alternativas criadas são suficientes para escoar os largos milhares de automóveis que atravessam a cidade, até meados de Junho. Mas Costa deixou o alerta: "a minha esperança é que as pessoas não se entusiasmem com as notícias e queiram fazer aquilo que não puderam fazer hoje [ontem]".

Segundo dados do município, a Avenida de Ceuta registou um aumento de 10% no volume de tráfego, distribuindo-o para o Eixo Norte-Sul. As avenidas da República, de Berna e Almirante Gago Coutinho foram outras das artérias a receber mais trânsito.

A fuga ao primeiro dia das alterações no trânsito traduziu-se num aumento de utilizadores do metro. Só as estações de Sete Rios e da Praça de Espanha tiveram mais 10% de passageiros. Quanto à Carris - que prometeu um balanço para amanhã - verificou um aumento de velocidade nos corredores BUS. "É fundamental manter a mesma atitude de procurar caminhos alternativos e usar os transportes públicos. Não pensem que afinal dá para passar", alertou António Costa.

In JN, 17 de Fevereiro de 2009

Foto: Vista aérea da Praça do Comércio na década de 40 do séc. XX.

BAIXA: novo conceito de mobilidade e acessibilidade vai a discussão pública

Na reunião de Câmara de 7 de Janeiro:

A submissão a discussão pública do novo conceito de mobilidade e acessibilidade para a frente Tejo entre Santa Apolónia e o Cais do Sodré constituiu umas das deliberações da sessão de Câmara do dia 7 de Janeiro de 2009.

Nos termos da proposta apresentada pelo presidente da CML, António Costa, e pelo vereador do Urbanismo, Manuel Salgado, trata-se de um conceito definido a partir de diversos estudos realizados - “Estudo de Acessibilidade e Transportes da Baixa Pombalina”, que é parte integrante do Relatório Baixa-Chiado - Proposta de Revitalização, de Setembro de 2006, desenvolvido pelo Comissariado para a Baixa-Chiado; relatório complementar “Caracterização da qualidade do ar na área da Baixa Chiado”, de Agosto de 2006, elaborado pela equipa DCEA-FCT/UNL; estudos realizados no âmbito da revisão do Plano Director Municipal de Lisboa (estudo sectorial de Mobilidades e Transportes) e do Plano de Mobilidade de Lisboa - que tem como objectivos estratégicos a requalificação e revalorização dos diferentes tipos de espaços públicos que integram a área de intervenção, a valorização da qualidade ambiental da cidade e a melhoria da acessibilidade/mobilidade na área central.

Na mesma sessão, foi também aprovada uma proposta, subscrita pela vereadora Helena Roseta e pelo vereador Manuel Salgado que, considerando a necessidade de definição de uma estratégia integrada no processo de revitalização da Baixa-Chiado, prevê a elaboração de um estudo económico-financeiro, técnico e jurídico para a área da Baixa sobre medidas de financiamento e fiscais que incentivem a reabilitação para habitação em regime de custos controlados para venda e arrendamento.

Segundo a vereadora Helena Roseta, trata-se de um estudo “muito importante”, que poderá funcionar como “uma base muito sólida para envolver e negociar com os promotores e todos os parceiros públicos interessados em participar na reabilitação da Baixa e fazer cumprir o Plano de Pormenor”.

Maioria PS quer cortar acesso pela Baixa a automóveis particulares

A maioria socialista na Câmara de Lisboa apresentou hoje um novo plano de mobilidade para a Baixa que prevê que nenhum automóvel particular vindo da Avenida da Liberdade possa atravessar a Baixa para ir para nascente ou para poente.

O "conceito" apresentado pelo presidente da Câmara, António Costa, supõe "um corte na ligação da Baixa à frente ribeirinha" para tráfego automóvel, à excepção dos transportes públicos, mas foi posto em causa pela oposição e a sua discussão adiada para a próxima reunião de Câmara.

De acordo com a ideia da maioria, os automóveis particulares só poderão ir na direcção Santa Apolónia-Cais do Sodré/Alcântara e vice-versa pela Ribeira das Naus e o estacionamento na zona ficará exclusivamente reservado a moradores e comerciantes, devendo ser construídos novos parques subterrâneos no Campo das Cebolas e junto ao edifício das agências internacionais, ao Cais do Sodré.

Todo o trânsito particular que chegue à Baixa proveniente de Norte, do Rossio ou do Marquês de Pombal, terá que voltar para trás quando chegar ao último quarteirão da Rua do Ouro, prevê o novo "conceito".

A ideia, defendeu António Costa, é "alargar o espaço para peões e bicicletas" na zona ribeirinha e no Terreiro do Paço, que passa a ficar com duas vias que ladeiam a praça (a nascente e poente) completamente livres de trânsito.

O autarca afirmou que os percursos de eléctrico mantêm-se tal como estão, considerando que a solução hoje apresentada é a melhor para evitar o tráfego de atravessamento dos quarteirões da Baixa.

"Ainda não há uma decisão final nem sequer houve debate mas pretendemos que logo que esteja concluído, seja logo aplicado, uma vez que não exige obra física, só mudança de sinalização", disse.
Este novo "conceito" substituiu outra ideia de reordenamento do tráfego na Baixa que até agora a Câmara defendia. (...)

rtp.pt

STREETCAR DESIRE...

In Los Angeles, where the car is king, an unlikely mode of public transport is making a comeback: the tram. Following the model set by cities such as Portland (pictured) and Seattle, which have reintroduced trams in recent years to great success, LA is planning to build a 5Km system as part of an overall revitalization of the city’s Broadway commercial corridor. Ironically, before highways crisscrossed southern California, LA had one of the largest tram systems in the world, with 20 lines, nearly 970km of track, and more than 1,200 trams. The system reached its peak in the 1930’s and then faced a losing battle with the car, finally disappearing in 1963.

The big question now is whether Angelenos will want to ditch their cars in favour of something greener.

DING DING – US tram projects:

CINCINNATI: 10-12km loop

COLUMBUS: 4.5km system

ATLANTA: two lines and 16km of track

MIAMI: 16km system that’s part of a 2 billion euro redevelopment project

AUSTIN: 24km linking airport and city

In MONOCLE, Novembro 2008, pág. 38

(esta história parece muito familiar... e também podemos fazer a mesma pergunta que aparece no final do artigo: «Será que os lisboetas irão descartar os seus carros em favor de algo mais verde?» Depois de tantas décadas de investimento na mobilidade centrada nas viaturas de transporte individual...)