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Lisbon’s ‘One Less Car’ project

Posted: 3 September 2012 | Luís Miguel Vale do Couto, Marketing Director, CARRIS | No comments yet

The ‘One Less Car’ project was launched in 2009 by CARRIS – the main public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. This new project promotes the use of sustainable forms of urban mobility – mainly highlighting the benefits of using public transport on a regular basis.

Mobility is essential to economic and social development; it enables the public to move freely, gain access to trade, communicate and establish and maintain relationships. Yet the development of mobility also brings congestion, air pollution, traffic-related accidents and the environmental costs of transportation.

Current mobility trends are unsustainable which means that the growing worldwide demand for transportation cannot be met simply by expanding today’s means of transportation.

It is against this background that CARRIS began a sustainable mobility project in 2009 to address the complex challenges that this sector must address to do its part in helping the world achieve sustainable development.

The ‘One Less Car’ project was launched in 2009 by CARRIS – the main public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. This new project promotes the use of sustainable forms of urban mobility – mainly highlighting the benefits of using public transport on a regular basis. Mobility is essential to economic and social development; it enables the public to move freely, gain access to trade, communicate and establish and maintain relationships. Yet the development of mobility also brings congestion, air pollution, traffic-related accidents and the environmental costs of transportation. Current mobility trends are unsustainable which means that the growing worldwide demand for transportation cannot be met simply by expanding today’s means of transportation. It is against this background that CARRIS began a sustainable mobility project in 2009 to address the complex challenges that this sector must address to do its part in helping the world achieve sustainable development.

The ‘One Less Car’ project was launched in 2009 by CARRIS – the main public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. This new project promotes the use of sustainable forms of urban mobility – mainly highlighting the benefits of using public transport on a regular basis.

Mobility is essential to economic and social development; it enables the public to move freely, gain access to trade, communicate and establish and maintain relationships. Yet the development of mobility also brings congestion, air pollution, traffic-related accidents and the environmental costs of transportation.

Current mobility trends are unsustainable which means that the growing worldwide demand for transportation cannot be met simply by expanding today’s means of transportation.

It is against this background that CARRIS began a sustainable mobility project in 2009 to address the complex challenges that this sector must address to do its part in helping the world achieve sustainable development.

As Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon is home to 20% of the country’s population and almost onethird of economic activity. Almost 80% of the city’s workforce is employed in the services sector. Lisbon hosts most of Portugal’s public administration services, as well as its financial and legal activities, telecommunications and consulting services. Lisbon ranks 18th in the Siemens ‘European Green City Index’, with a score of 57 out of 100. Its geography, climate and economic activity do not sufficiently compensate for poor transport, air, water and land use and waste policies. Governance problems reduce the city’s capacity to implement its policies. Moreover, Lisbon does not score well when compared with other middle-income, hot-climate cities. However, Lisbon surpasses these cities in its efforts to improve.

Encouraging sustainable mobility

The ‘One Less Car’ project was designed to encourage sustainable mobility, by raising awareness about the benefits of using public over private transportation. This is an unprecedented movement in Portugal, bringing together an operator of public transport, national and international companies and a large group of civil society representatives.

‘One Less Car’ is indicative of the alternative transportation in the Lisbon region. As the phrase would indicate, the movement advocates the use of non-car (therefore less polluting) transportation such as bike, skate, blade, walk or bus, and discourages people from travelling by private car. The project doesn’t just concentrate on decreasing pollution; it also focuses on ways to promote safer and calmer streets, and about sensible and sustainable transportation.

In order to serve all mobility needs, and besides its regular transport service, CARRIS has other complementary services on offer such as Bike Bus, Mob Car-sharing and services for people with reduced mobility.

The ‘One Less Car’ project website (www.menosumcarro.pt) includes daily updated news stories, videos, and research on mobility. Its Facebook page includes an innovative application developed by the Catholic University of Lisbon, through which every fan of the movement may measure and share his or her Sustainable Mobility Index.

Mobility is an important part of daily life. We travel to get to work and school, to visit friends, to shop, and to have fun. The amount of time and distance travelled has significant implications for the environment, society, and the economy. Each travel option available to us has an associated environmental impact, and we can actively reduce these impacts through the everyday travel choices we make. Providing energy efficient alternatives and encouraging the use of diverse modes of transport makes it possible for individuals to reduce their impact, while better planning and community design can greatly reduce the need to travel for day-to-day activities. The transportation choices we make every day have profound effects on sustainability.

Sustainable development is usually underlined by three main dimensions: Environment, Society and Economy; which cannot be analysed independently. For each one of these dimensions some basic impacts can be identified and related to transports systems, such as:

  • In the environment context: the air, noise and water pollution and natural resources consumption
  • In the social context: health, equality and justness of opportunities
  • In the economic context: regional and urban economy, transports cost, competitiveness and subsidies.

Sustainable mobility is one of the components to achieve sustainable development of a city and can be achieved by measures that facilitate the population displacement in order to improve the quality of live and promoting efficient consumption of natural resources. In order to evaluate sustainable mobility, it is necessary to define an evaluation methodology based on transport systems and land use indicators aimed at sustainability urban development. Therefore, research activities were undertaken to identify some relevant indicators to use in the Sustainable Mobility Index. Then an index was defined using a Multi Criteria Analysis, and the importance of the different indicators was defined by a group of specialists in urban and transport planning.

Five themes were proposed for the Sustainable Mobility Index, which include:

Promotion of public transport

This theme promotes to seek land use planning and transport policies to encourage the use of public transport.

Promotion of non-motorised modes

This theme promotes to seek land use strategies to encourage walking and cycling, and hence, reduce the use of private cars on the road.

Environmental comfort and safety

This theme promotes to seek land use planning and transport policies to increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclists and to enhance environmental quality.

Joining transport systems and urban economy

This theme promotes the urban economy by adopting better transport policies.

Intensity of private vehicle use

This theme identifies the type and intensity of private vehicle use in the region.

During the last three years, several advertising campaigns to promote the project were rolled out across social networking sites plus advertisements in car parks and shopping malls, to name just a few.

Other public transportation operators from Lisbon also joined the movement including Lisbon Metro, the Mayor City Hall and Siemens.

‘One Less Car’ was a success from the start; it currently has more than 20 active partners and has attracted over 10,000 Facebook fans. With continuing commitment from all involved, Lisbon could become a beautiful and sustainable city – with less private cars travelling on the capital’s roads.

However, as previously mentioned, the issue is not just car ownership itself but how often and far residents travel, which can only be reduced through comprehensive planning, viable alternatives and policies that encourage the use of alternative modes of transport.

 

About the author

Luís Miguel Vale do Couto has a degree in Law from Coimbra University and had worked in different positions within CARRIS before taking his current post as Marketing Director.