Lisbon Latest City To Rein Back Car Use With 34 Miles Of Pop-Up Cycleways Installed By September

To Milan, London, Berlin, and Paris, Lisbon can now be added to the major European cities using the pandemic to reshape streets.

Portugal’s coastal capital city is to remove car parking spaces and replace them with alfresco cafes and restaurants; speed limits will be lowered to 18 miles per hour citywide and the city’s burgeoning bike path network will be expanded, including the provision of 16 miles of pop-up cycleways by July and another 18 miles before September.

The post-pandemic plans were unveiled by Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina on June 3.

In addition to plans for an extra 7,750 secure parking places for bicycles, the city has introduced a €3 million “mobility fund” to subsidize bicycle purchases. Citizens can apply now for €100 vouchers to buy standard bicycles, €350 for e-bikes, and up to €500 to help pay for cargo bikes.

Lisbon currently has a 65-mile cycleway network. This will be bolstered by pop-ups on major commuter routes, many of which will be made permanent next year.

One of the arterial road pop-ups will head towards the car-centric municipality of Oeiras, where the Portuguese HQs for Google, Oracle, and other multinational companies are based.

Medina, mayor since 2015, introduced a “Lisboa Ciclável” cycleways plan last year; the new program expands on this, with even more street space to be reallocated from motorists to cyclists and pedestrians.