Lisbon’s Streets and the People Trying to Change Them: Lisbon is one of Europe's most picturesque cities with a reputation for being a safe place to live, work and visit. That's true from one lens, but look deeper and you'll discover a city with one of the worst road safety records in Europe and recently rated one of the worst European cities for children’s urban mobility.

This time, Adam and Laura were in Lisbon, Adam’s new home, to look into some of the transport challenges ahead of the upcoming mayoral elections. 

Portugal has one of western Europe's worst road safety records and its roads are at least twice as lethal as Spain's. Portuguese cities disproportionately feature in fatal collisions (57%) compared to the European average (38%).

Ahead of Lisbon’s mayoral elections, there's a divide between the main candidates: the socialist party's (PS) Alexandra Leitão, who Streets Ahead interviewed, who rather ambitiously wants to eliminate all road traffic deaths in just five years, up against incumbent Carlos Moedas (PSD), on the right of centre. We also spoke to campaigners and those running for office, headlining road safety in their campaigns. 

Three quarters of Lisbon’s cycle network requires improvement, according to Portugal’s motoring association ACP: https://www.acp.pt/o-clube/revista-acp/noticias-do-clube/detalhe/mais-de-75-da-rede-ciclavel-de-lisboa-exige-melhorias 

Air pollution in Portugal has increased and the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the country failed to fulfil its obligations to tackle this https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:62022CJ0220.

Some comparisons between Portugal and the rest of Europe in road collision injuries and death https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/489f6875-12a4-421a-93fd-eb05acc2f589_en?filename=erso-country-overview-2023-portugal_0.pdf 

In this episode, we spoke to:

Alexandra Leitão, mayoral candidate https://viverlisboa2025.pt/ (Viver Coalition)

Francisco Costa and Pedro Franco (Livre Party, part of Viver Coalition); local campaigners who want less traffic and slower speeds to improve pollution and safety

And Mário Alves, Secretary General, International Federation of Pedestrians; a leading member of MUBi, the Portuguese association for urban mobility; and a transport and mobility specialist.

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