100 days in Lisbon by bicycle

This is a story about an idealist 

 

 Paulo Guerra do Santos, born 1973 decided to use his bicycle.

Nothing spectacular so far?

Of course, if we would talk about Munich, Amsterdam or Berlin.

But we talk about Lisbon. Portugal.

A city and a country still made for car drivers. The natural enemy of a cyclist. And city planners. The fulfilling helpers of these car drivers. Where are these bicycle lanes, that we are used to from other countries? Where is this legislation, that gives us - at least - theoretical protection?

No my friends, nothing so far in Portugal. We have to step back in time to the early 80ies, where everything started to become a peaceful revolution in traffic spaces. OK, Portugal in the early 80ies still had to suffer from another peaceful revolution, that lead the country from dark and decent dictatorship to a democratic and progress orientated place in Europe.

But meanwhile we changed the century. Bicycles and their daily use could be the solution for collapsing cities. And therefore it is an anachronism, that we are talking about something special, when someone uses his bicycle in a European city. This should be natural nowadays. But it isn´t. Take a look of what happened to Paulo. I will visit him in Lisbon and talk about his story and his experience. Maybe we can find some points together, where we can work on a CHANGE!

BTW: he overtook the 100 days. We are counting day Nr. 225.. ;-)

What hell of an idealist!