Photo Credit: Diário de Lisboa

Following the challenge launched by ECF member MUBi to encourage  Lisbon's city government to apply for the Velo City 2017 conference, the municipal mobility department (DMMT) has invited Timothy Papandreou to host a presentation and discussion session on how San Franciso is tripling its bicycle mode-share in 6 years. Mr. Papandreou is a deputy director of the San Francisco Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and a keynote speaker at this year's Velo-city venue to be held in Adelaide, Australia! 

Similarities between the two cities go far beyond the suspension bridges, trams and city neighborhoods on steep hills, since both have large metropolitan areas that pose complex mobility problems, and both cities are trying to increase bicycle use to solve congestion problems posed by the automobile. Nonetheless while bicycle mode share in San Francisco aims at achieving 10% by 2018, in Lisbon bicycle mode share it is currently estimated at around 1%, despite strong exponential growth in the last years it is still well below the European average, or ECF's goal of 15% for 2020. 

Lisbon's new director of mobility, Tiago Farias took office barely two weeks ago and has revealed great enthusiasm for sustainable mobility, with the Portuguese capital being a participant in the EU Cycle Cities project since last year, jointly with the cities of Gdansk (Poland), Genoa (Italy), Leipzig (Germany), Merton borough in London (UK), and Piraeus (Greece) and public institutions in Germany, Greece, and Slovenia.

The session will take place this Friday, March 28th at 5:30 p.m. in the Urban Information Centre's auditorium (CIUL, R. Viriato, 13, Picoas Plaza, Lisbon). Participation by all is welcome and free of charge, registrations should be made at: dmmt@cm-lisboa.pt

To learn more about how Timothy Papandreou fell in love with cycling visit our ECF Velo-city speaker series!