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Photo credit: Mário Rui André |Lisbon for People
More and more people are cycling in Lisbon (http://ushift.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/utilizacao-da-bicicleta-cresceu-25-em-2020-e-ha-mais-mulheres-a-pedalar-em- Lisbon/). Known for its hills, they have been showing that there are concrete needs for a more cyclable city. Factors such as the increase in the length of cycle paths, the system of shared bicycles and the use of trams, or various initiatives proposing new practices and visions of the city have been pointed out for this, apparently, new reality. But did the bicycle start to build everyday scenes in Lisbon only from 2001 onwards, when bike lanes began to be built in the city?
In response, we proposed a scientific tour within the scope ofScience and Technology Week 2022 | Ciência Viva 2 that sought to contribute to the construction of a historical vision of the use of bicycles in Lisbon, in an active perspective, that is, inviting people to cycle with us and to be protagonists in the process of reflection on the urban space.
Banner credits: Ana Cabral Martins (CIUHCT)
In this sense, two types of itineraries were covered: a physical route, essentially on cycle paths, easy to pedal, between Campo Grande and Baixa;an imaginary itinerary, deepened in stops along the way, in places where, through visual resources, we made historical evocations comparing “the Lisbons” of the past and the present.
For those who could not participate, and for those who would like to remember the moments, we will leave below the imaginary itinerary, based on texts by Maria Luísa Sousa and with contributions by Patrícia Melo and Diego Cavalcanti.
First station (1/4): Campo Grande
Host: David Vale
Question: Could it be that the bicycle started to build everyday scenes in Lisbon only from the year 2001 onwards, when bike lanes began to be built in the city?
Topics: Statute, representations, uses and planning.
There are signs of the use of the bicycle since the beginning of the 20th century, namely, the reference to a party called “battle of flowers”, organized by the Sociedade Propaganda de Portugal in 1907 (AML), to a military “velocipedia” contest, in the year next, in 1908 (Matos); in 1924, the registration of a contract for a place called Champighon that was located in the Campo Grande garden for the activity of renting bicycles (AML), or bicycle races on the same date (ANTT).
The garden was remodeled in the 1940s, in an intervention by Francisco Keil do Amaral (and others), which would have favored the use of bicycles through the construction of spaces that provided for this purpose.
In the 1960s and 1970s, you can still find references to bicycle lanes in the Campo Grande garden and the activity of renting bicycles and motorbikes, precisely where we started this tour (Photos above). Therefore, the records that we found seem to be associated with a leisure side of the bicycle, although we do not know whether those who rented them only had this leisure use. In fact, the history of cycling in Portugal as we know it shows a lot of its sporting and leisure side and only recently has it begun to look for records of the bicycle as a means of transport. But how uses and their ends co-exist in the present and may have co-existed in the past. And there are records of the use of the bicycle as a means of transport in Lisbon, throughout the 20th century (eg professional groups, such as cyclist bulletiners).
If, at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1907, cycling could still be associated with the aristocracy and people who exercised liberal professions (FOTO) (such as the members of Sociedade Propaganda de Portugal, a kind of “Touring Club” of Portugal , created in 1906), in 1961 it could perhaps be more easily associated with the image of “horse of the poor” when used by people who worked in the construction of public works.
It is ironic that, as shown in the 1961 photograph, some of the people working on the second ring road in Campo Grande (PHOTO) went to work, helping to build a road from which bicycles would effectively be excluded. . Therefore, these photographs refer us to the status and representations surrounding cycling, but also to the way in which automobility (private car mobility) came to dominate the public space. And we're on our way to the next station!
Second station (2/4): Entrecampos
Presenter: Patricia Melo
Question: What changes do you notice when comparing two photographs from different moments of the Entrecampos viaduct?
Themes: alternative modes of mobility and planning.
At this second stop, we evoke the intersection of various modes of mobility that are represented in this railway viaduct in Entrecampos and in the stations and surrounding infrastructures. With the planning of the so-called “new avenues” at the end of the 20th century. XIX, this intersection appeared between the then Av. Ressano Garcia (currently Av. da República) and the inner belt railway line, resolved with level crossings, embankments and small tunnels. The first viaduct that we see (PHOTO) was inaugurated in 1950. It will be replaced by a new viaduct, designed by Eng. Edgar Cardoso in 1968 and opened in the early 1970s. The construction of this new viaduct is coeval with the construction of the Entrecampos road tunnel and responds to a common rationale: the increase in car traffic and the public space used for its operation.
This station also evoked issues related to urban planning and mobility: the so-called De Groër plan, from 1948, already provided for the construction of radial and circular routes to Lisbon, giving an important role to what was imagined to be car circulation . If, in part, the argument was to avoid crossing traffic, these radials, on the contrary, brought car traffic directly to the city centre. The plan approved at the end of the 1960s for Lisbon accentuated this issue, with several studies following up on it, which foresaw an increase in circulation and the creation of infrastructure (such as road tunnels in the historic center) to accommodate it (which is a irresolvable paradox, as we know). Some of these proposals were not followed up.
Third station (3/4): Alameda, Av. Almirante Reis
Presenter: M. Luísa Sousa
Question: What is an avenue?
Temas: social movements and traffic concepts.
The first two infopedia definitions (Porto Editora) are: “1. road wider than a street and whose carriageway generally has several lanes for car traffic; 2. wide street, generally lined with trees; Avenue". We noticed how even dictionaries crystallize definitions that deserve some reflection.
Trying to understand how the uses and representations of public space (eg an avenue) are negotiated and are historical processes can help us in this reflection.
The first two images are 1) of the so-called Av. dos Anjos and adjacent streets; 2) the Desterro area and the avenue blocked by pre-existing structures.
Av. Almirante Reis, name adopted with the establishment of the Republic (1910; as well as Av. da República), was initially projected from R. da Palma to Praça do Chile and designated by Av. dos Anjos (at its inauguration, in 1903, it would still be called Av. D. Amélia). Conceived at the end of the 1870s to solve circulation problems, it took several years to materialize. What we see in the photograph are annexes of the Desterro hospital that took a while to be expropriated and that blocked the opening of the avenue, with the existing tram lines making a detour to Largo do Intendente (PHOTO). Who was the Avenue for?
This avenue continued to be reinvented throughout the 20th century, namely with its extension from Praça do Chile to Areeiro, with the opening of adjacent streets and regularization of existing streets and also with changes to its transversal profiles, which materialized the way in which the public space was distributed.
Traffic engineering concepts were sometimes applied [also due to the influence of the Autonomous Board of Roads and its road engineers, as seen in the preparatory works between 1954 and 1959 for a new urbanization plan for Lisbon (AML)], which emphasized the ranking of the fastest modes of mobility to the detriment of other modes of mobility (even due to the criteria and planning tools they used). However, as we see in these 1960 photographs, modes of mobility that were often made invisible by these “expertises”, such as pedestrian and cycling mobility, persisted.
This discourse of a certain type of “expertise” in favor of hierarchizing faster mobilities continues to be mobilized in some of the arguments presented today about the division of public space. There are several actors in these negotiations. We know that social movements played an important role in some European cities in proposing alternatives to this hierarchy of mobilities. We also observe similar movements happening in Lisbon.
Fourth station (4/4): Baixa, R. Crucifixo, 112
Presenter: Diego Cavalcanti
Question: Is the bicycle a machine for dreaming?
Themes: Representations, historical concepts, essentialization x historicization.
This was the last station on the tour, where we asked if the bicycle is a dream machine.
We bring this photograph of a Mocidade Portuguesa parade (photo prior to 1947) to help us reflect on the normativity that we attribute to the bicycle. Mocidade Portuguesa was created in 1936 by the dictatorship of the Portuguese Estado Novo, intending to socialize young people (and also young women, in Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina, created shortly afterwards) in the values of the regime (initially inspired by the Hitler Youth and Italian Fascist). In this photograph, they parade with bicycles. What do the bicycles represent? How not to essentialize them?
This reflection serves to think about how the bicycle is also one of the movers that compete for urban space and also has its exclusions. As the historian of technology Melvin Kranzberg would say: “technology is not good, it is not bad and it is not neutral”, that is, it depends on how it is used and the context of that use.
Returning to our question, if the bicycle is a machine for dreaming, and paying attention to the risks of normativity (and essentialization), we can say that the bicycle has already allowed dreaming, it has already been the object of desire (as a consumer good and not just ).
Make think about the class contexts and the construction of the statute on the bicycle, from the 19th century as something aristocratic, throughout the 20th century as an object of work and also of sport, until the present day.
In the second photograph in the album above, we see a bicycle sales house, the Victoria house, owned by Armando Crespo and C.ª, which operated on this street we are on (R. do Crucifixo) from the end of the 1930s until, at least, to the 1960s (check AML – order placed).
The study of bicycle shops, rental shops and workshops since the beginning of the 20th century is one more indication of the use of bicycles in everyday life in Lisbon (as we see in this map prepared by our colleague João Machado)._cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_The investigation is open, as well as the answer on how knowledge of the past can provide tools for thinking about the present and the future.
In the photograph, the bicycles that were offered by this store for the “Contest of Dreams” were on display.
And finally, we leave the question does the bike still make you dream today?