How long have we spent time for travel (car or transport)?
Returning from work, taking and bringing children from schools, services or shopping, traveling millions every day, across the country.
In order to have an idea, and on the last inquiry on the mobility of the Ine, which is focused on the mobility of only the two metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, on an average of 8.8 million travel is carried out every day.
Are there any worse areas throughout the country?
There have been so many travels in our lives for a long time. If we look at the country as a whole, we will talk about In 21 minutes, average for each trip.
This number will increase to those in your day through the Lisbon Metropolitan area. According to the census, it costs an average of 26 minutes.
Automobile is still preferred
And how do we move? Will the country still move on four wheels?
Yes and no. On the one hand, the last census shows calculationsIn that 16% personS can move mostly on foot and 17% oPAM for public transport (where buses, trains and boats are included).
However, the car remains a way of liking to the majority of – 66%.
In the last two decades we consider the evolution of this indicator, we realize the dependence of the car This has not just decreased, but since 2001 it has increased almost 20 percent points.
In contrast to what is happening in most European cities, the use of a car in two major metropolitan areas is on the rise. This phenomenon has been concerned since the beginning because it is impossible to meet climate goals.
Makes citizens to pick up the car as a car?
There are many reasons. Citizens are asking himself because they have chosen the car, and this question was asked in 2017, we conclude that there is a direct contact between car use and negative assessment on public transport supply.
As the ranking shows us, the important part of the car users refers to problems in the coverage of the public transport network and does not believe in its frequency frequency regeneration and reliability.
As we know we are freeway country. But how should we compare this with other European countries?
With regard to the self -established network, Portugal is the fourth country with the highest density, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary.
We are talking about 290 km of every million inhabitants, that is, more than double the average recorded at 28 in EU, which is 144 km for million inhabitants.
250 km of railroad
The exact opposite occurs with the railroad. Although the EU countries have more train density than self -established, this is not our case.
The EU28 has an average of 438 km of iron routes for each million inhabitants. In Portugal, however, we did not reach 250 km.
By building road consciousness around the motorway network, not only secondary networks, but also other transport systems – train, port and air.
We can then say that there is encouragement due to infrastructure, which leads to relying on the car and can have effects on the country.
The effect of choosing a car
First, and this effect comes to us very directly, making a car and managing public transport is more expensive for families. But there is another economic evolution, perhaps less clear.
Traffic jams in urban centers, and especially in metropolitan areas, are often a decrease in productivity levels.
Now, if you think about social impacts, those who are not accessible to the car will see their right to conditioned mobility. It is conditioning many other rights exercise.
Mobility limitations adversely affect access to basic services such as health and education, mainly affecting students, elderly and/or reduced mobility, poor people, etc.
Unknown consequences to the environment
Finally, the high dependence of the car has inevitable environmental effects. First of all, due to CO2 emissions, the car under the influence of greenhouse in various transport is the main emerging of this gas.
The high use of the car is the air quality and noise pollution, as well as road safety issues that are national curse.
We will talk about negative irregularities and effects, but we know that they do not feel the same in the country.
Is there a strong regional imbalance in relation to mobility?
The answer is yes. Highway is one of the main objectives of the development of the highway infrastructure, and especially the self -established network, to ensure greater balance in regional development. It is not verified.
However, there are improvements to show.
The Porto Metropolitan Region recorded the highest growth in road access between 1986 and 2019, followed by the Lisbon Metropolitan area.
At the level of train geographical access, two metropolitan areas have the best access rates in all areas.
In recent decades, many areas have lost train services, similar to Tress-Os-Montes and Alto Tamega. Many have recorded a decrease in train access, Vaisha-Day-LaFace, Alantejo, Dauro, Koimbra, Tamega and Sausa, Avero, Lazaria du Tagus and Beiras. The list is very extensive.
The road network and the closure of several railines, especially in the peripheral areas, strengthened the concentration of Lisbon and Porto’s metropolitan areas.
Is the state an adequate or best way to invest in transit systems? It seems that the issues mentioned so far are not indicated.
Transportation systems are intensive capital, that is, they require a significant investment to ensure the right response to their operation and demand increase.
Since 1978, public investment in transport infrastructure is an average of 1.2%of GDP. The highest value, 2.5%, reached in 2001 and the lowest value in 2018 is 0.3%. The average investment in the last decade is only 0.5%of GDP.
In the 1990s and 2000s, there was a high level of investment. Until then, Portugal had a very high infrastructure deficit, whose resolution was mainly due to access to European funds.
In the case of road infrastructure, from technical and economic perspective, the state has adopted a model of public-private partnerships that allow for leverage from the ability to develop roads.
This model is nowadays, translates to 1 billion euros road PPP in payment.
How is government investment distributed to various transport systems?
There is great imbalance in investment options.
In terms of total investments on the roads, 73%of the total investment, then rail infrastructure (20%), port (4%) and airport (3%).
If we are focused in recent years, we can see that this ratio has not changed significantly, and the procedure of the continuation and bet on the road system is obvious.
Possibility of port and air sectors
The future of both sectors is very relevant to the economy.
Most of the transport of goods in Portugal is made by roads. However, when it comes to exports, port transport is the UMES of the front.
In 2022, 18.5 million tonnes of goods passed through the national ports.
However, in contrast to what is happening to our Spanish neighbors, the port sector has lost competitiveness despite the centralization of the economy in Portugal. On the one hand, the lack of investment, but for the trade conflicts that historically affected the sector, as well as the bureaucracy of administrative processes, from the beginning, the performance of rituals.
After much discussing the future airport, what can we say about air transport?
As soon as the lack of investment is translated into a big trouble in airports. In recent years, Portugal has become very attractive internationally.
In 2020, more than 61 million passengers were compared to 20 million. In just 22 years, the number of passengers has increased three times and the increase is not here.
The ninth EU country with the highest passenger size for the Portugal million residents, and the four countries led by the ranking are the island countries: Iceland, Malta, Cyprus and Ireland.
Depending on the geographical location of Portugal, the UMES plays the role of determining air transport. Investment in airports is required to increase their processing efficiency in the abnormal growth of transported passenger size.
The special case of Lisbon is still very serious and requires the implementation of solutions to increase airport capacity.
In short, it takes more investment, but in what sectors and how we want to invest, so that the transport systems respond to the mobility needs of the people, promote the development of the economy and contribute to the climate goals that we are committed.
