The associations warn that the streets are "polluted
and noisy" because of cars, which has made the city
"inhospitable", and they want to give the roads in the neighbourhoods
back to residents.
“Let's walk without fear, play in the street, talk, listen
to music or simply silence, cycle, enjoy the terraces and breathe well”,
proposes Lisboa Possível, in the information released about the project.
The concept of “super neighbourhoods” is inspired by the
vision of Ton Salvadó, former director of urban planning for the municipality
of Barcelona (Spain), where this idea was implemented from 2016 in several
blocks.
“Pedestrians priority”
The Catalan municipality describes on its website a future
with “a network of squares and green centres where pedestrians have priority”,
with traffic diverted to roads outside the neighborhood and in which only
vehicles of residents and traders enter and leave.
The representative of Lisboa Possível, Ksenia Ashrafullina,
explained to Lusa that there are currently talks with two parishes in Lisbon to
implement the proposal, after they tried to implement a “super-neighbourhood”
in Misericórdia.
The proposal was, in collaboration with this Parish Council,
to close traffic on the streets around Praça das Flores for a day, in order to
show the concept, while various environmental and cultural activities took
place.
At the event, residents and shopkeepers spoke at Praça das
Flores about the neighbourhood's problems, as well as potential solutions, with
requests emerging such as larger sidewalks, places to stop scooters and
bicycles, more buses, parking spaces for residents and traffic restrictions.