ENVIRONMENT-PORTUGAL: Red Alert in Lisbon

By Mario de Queiroz Reprint | | Print |

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Nov 16 2004 (IPS) - According to official figures, 600,000 people live in the Portuguese capital. That is true, however, only at night and on the weekends. During the workday, the population actually increases threefold.

And most of the commuters who live in dormitory cities, which are home to around 1.5 million people, flood into Lisbon every day in their favourite means of transport: the car.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 cars enter or leave Lisbon every day, making Portugal one of the European Union (EU) countries that is most heavily dependent on petrol. Moreover, Portugal already exceeds its "quota" of greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5 percent.

The governments that have ruled Portugal over the past decade sounded the alarm and adopted drastic measures – which, however, have not been effective. In fact, many have been counterproductive.

One of the first measures, aimed at filling the state coffers, was adopted by the government of prime minister José Manuel Durao Barroso (2002-2004), who is now president designate of the European Commission (the EU executive organ).

It involved the installation of toll booths on the Cintura Regional Exterior de Lisboa (CREL), an outer ring freeway similar to those of Paris, Rome or Madrid, which are however used free of charge.

The result was dramatic. The CREL, built during the 1990s with the aim of easing traffic flows within the capital, is now one of the least used roads in Portugal. To avoid paying the toll, the huge flows of vehicles enter Lisbon directly by the traditional highways and secondary roads.

Other examples increase the need for environmental policies, such as the high price of "green" or lead-free petrol, on which a high tax is imposed.

Although campaigns are under way to promote the use of public transport, the mayors of the satellite cities have seen this policy as a unique opportunity to enrich their municipalities, setting parking metres around suburban train stations where commuters would normally leave their cars to catch a train into Lisbon.

As a result, the stations are empty, the trains are filled to only half their capacity, and long queues of cars clog all accesses to the Cintura Regional Interna de Lisboa (CRIL), the inner ring road just outside the city which holds the EU record in traffic jam speed: an average of 2.8 kilometres per hour during rush hour.

It takes just a small accident on the CRIL, the only route leading to the Portela do Sacavém airport, "for a passenger to miss his or her plane, which has happened several times," complained an employee at the Abreu travel agency.

But even those who are willing to pay for the car-park at one of the train stops will find it impossible to leave their car behind and take public transport to work, considering that the maximum time of stay is three hours.

"If I were to leave my car at the Sao Joao do Estoril station (26 kilometres from downtown Lisbon), I would need to return at least twice to insert new coins, which is why I pluck up my courage and take the car," Patricia Ferreira, who lives in Sao Joao do Estoril but works at a Lisbon publishing house, told IPS.

In order to reduce consumption of petrol, the national government and the city government of Lisbon have announced their intention to follow in the footsteps of London, where cars entering the city have had to pay a congestion charge of five pounds (9.10 U.S. dollars) since February 2003.

The example of the British capital is cited by the Portuguese government as a success story that has no precedent in any other large European city, since the access charge for a small area of just 21 square kilometres has cut traffic by 30 percent, with the resultant benefits of cleaner air.

But environmental activists and experts have been pointing out in statements to the local press that before introducing the new restrictive measure, London authorities paved the way carefully.

Indeed, before the new toll began to be charged in London, the number of buses was increased, public-transport-only lanes were built, numerous investments in video surveillance were made and parking space was limited.

Until public transport in Portugal is improved and a coherent price and rates policy is implemented, "nothing will work", Alberto Nobre, who regularly rides the train linking Lisbon with the town of Setúbal, located 45 kilometres south of the capital, told the state television newscast.

"A monthly pass for the Lisbon-Setúbal route costs 80 Euros (104 U.S. dollars)," Nobre explained. "I use the train, but my neighbour, who commutes every day with his wife and two children, spends around 320 Euros (416 U.S. dollars), so it is cheaper for him to take his Peugeot 104. With these rates, all the government is doing is promoting the use of the car."

Fernando Nunes da Silva, an engineer who specialises in urban transport, said the idea of copying the London scheme in Lisbon "is laughable", because he does not believe "that anyone would take seriously a proposal for which no previous studies have been conducted."

Nunes da Silva, who created a sliding rate scale for residents and visitors using services in the southern city of Evora which was highly successful in the 1990s, pointed out that his initiative "slowly died out until it finally disappeared" when the city government decided to start charging for parking on the outskirts of the city.

A project with a major environmental impact must not be seen by mayors merely as a great opportunity to rake in revenue, say analysts.

Sergio Manso Pinheiro, a transport technician and member of the general assembly of the Lisbon municipality, preferred not to enter the fray, limiting himself to quoting the European Commission White Book on transport policy.

The publication sounds the alarm about the traffic jams that consume 0.5 percent of EU GDP due to environmental and economic costs – a proportion that could rise to 1.0 percent by 2010.

In the EU and in the rest of the traffic-congested world, "within a few years, we will not be talking about whether or not to charge tolls, but we will simply have to ban cars from driving in the cities," said Manso Pinheiro.