Creating Better Incentives for the Use of Public Transportation and Soft Transportation Options to Reduce Municipal Traffic Congestion in Lisbon
Semester
Final Report
The Mayor’s Office of Mobility in Lisbon, Portugal estimates that nearly 30 percent of the municipal traffic congestion is caused by automobile traffic that occurs during school drop-off and pick-up hours.
To address this issue, the city is seeking to develop policies that incentivize parents to use alternative and sustainable forms of transportation to school, while expanding and ameliorating existing programs.
The findings from the field indicate that the nature of school transportation in Lisbon varies significantly by school. This means that the problem of school-related traffic congestion is localized and heavily influenced by factors such as neighborhood type, local topography, and social demographics. Based on an extensive literature review and comprehensive field research in Lisbon, the team proposed the development of a municipal-wide School Travel Plan Initiative to be undertaken by the Mayor’s Office of Mobility and that would involve each district to define the localized travel patterns within their school communities and recommended solutions.