Lisbon, July 25, 2025 (Lusa) - Environmental association Zero welcomed on Friday the positive targets of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan to curb car use, while noting that the inclusion of the road component in the Third Crossing of the Tagus offers an alternative approach.
In a statement released today, Zero said that the Lisbon Metropolitan Area Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMMUS-AML) should accelerate the shift toward sustainable transportation modes “with firmer targets”.
The public consultation on the PMMUS-AML, which aims to organise mobility and transport strategies for the region in the coming years, ended on Thursday, with Zero welcoming the “express intention to promote sustainable alternatives and offer citizens high-quality collective, active and shared mobility”.
However, Zero highlights “the inconsistency of ongoing projects” such as the Third Crossing of the Tagus with a road component, stressing that this “contradicts the spirit and objectives of the plan and compromises decades of progress towards sustainable metropolitan mobility”.
The plan includes strengthening the targets currently set for 2035 in the Lisbon metropolitan area, but requires further ambition. In the case of the share of individual modes of transport, currently at 56%, the plan provides for a reduction to 40% by this date.
However, Zero believes that it should aim for “35%, in line with the best figures from other European capitals”.
According to the environmental association, a reduction in private car use “will ensure the flow of public transport, increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians, improve air quality and reduce noise levels”.
“These targets are technically feasible and politically necessary to reduce emissions, free up public space and make the system more accessible to all. Achieving these targets requires clear prioritisation of collective modes of transport, rational management of urban space and the integration of fares already underway through the Passe Navegante”, the note reads.
Zero also considers it a priority to create, on a metropolitan scale, a continuous network of Public Transport Corridors (TCSP) on exclusive and segregated inter-municipal roads, “which will reduce travel times and ensure direct connections to urban centres, railway interfaces and areas of strong attraction”.
"People will prefer private cars as long as public transport journeys take noticeably longer than car journeys," Zero points out, stressing as equally important the "implementation of bus lanes segregated from other traffic along bus and tram routes, as this is a way of ensuring that they are not held up in traffic and run on time.”
The planned corridors should be “closely linked to the rail and metro network”. They should run through the city centre, passing through Campo Grande, Marquês de Pombal, Amoreiras, Rotunda do Relógio, Areeiro, Rossio, Praça da Figueira, Cais do Sodré and Santa Apolónia.
In addition, Zero believes that the operator should create or reinforce six first-level railway-metro interfaces - Oriente, Chelas, Campolide, Alcântara-Terra, Pragal and Lavradio - and reinforce the suburban railway network with new lines - Torres Vedras-Loures-Chelas, Alverca-MARL-Loures -, reactivations (Montijo branch line) and crucial connections to the Third Railway Crossing (Coina-Paio Pires-Lavradio).
“The expansion of the Lisbon Metro to densely populated suburbs that currently lack rail alternatives (Miraflores, Famões) must coordinate with exclusive road corridors for public transport and service and employment hubs (hospitals, universities and commercial and service centres),” it added.
According to the environmental association, “the government and municipalities must reserve future investments in housing and public services for areas served by rail and corridors dedicated to public transport, countering trends of peripheral expansion in areas that currently lack adequate transport infrastructure.”
For this to happen, Zero warns that it is also essential that Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) sees its powers strengthened, in terms of tariffs and contracts and also in the operational management of the different actors in the metropolitan transport system, in defining investment priorities and in coordination between the urban planning and mobility departments of local authorities.
The association reiterates that the PMMUS-AML is “an essential tool for a fairer, healthier and more resilient future”, and to turn the plan into action, participants must “reinforce the targets, ensure consistency between investments, and provide the metropolitan region with means of governance that are up to the challenges”, recalling that mobility “is a collective right, requiring collective planning”..
RCP/ADB // ADB.
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