Vila Real introduces electric bicycle network to reduce car circulation

As of today, Vila Real has 50 shared electric bicycles as part of a pilot project that aims to reduce car use and help overcome steep unevenness in the city, it was announced today.

After the electric scooters, Vila Real City Council and the company Bolt announced the implementation of a network of bicycles that will be anchored in 12 sharing points and have a range of 60 kilometers.

“We are committed to this new way of traveling. For a small experiment, we are going to put 50 electric bicycles into circulation”, said the councilor for Urbanism, Adriano Sousa, at a press conference today.

Due to the city’s terrain, which is “somewhat rugged” and “somewhat inadvisable for new mobility models”, the person responsible highlighted that the project has all the conditions to succeed” as it is “an electric propulsion vehicle” and “much more comfortable in use”.

In the city of Trás-os-Montes, it is the youngest people who have adopted the use of scooters, which is why, according to Rodrigo Veloso, from Bolt, with the bicycles the aim is to cover “more age groups, particularly an older group”.

Today’s press conference also included an overview of the electric scooter pilot project, launched a year ago.

With around 200 scooters spread across the city, 6,719 users were registered and, as a whole, they made around 80,000 trips and covered around 126,000 kilometers.

Adriano Sousa classified this pilot project as “a success”, highlighting the way in which people embraced this new travel model.

“And we are talking about much less car travel. Our objective is not to eliminate the automobile, it is not to ostracize the automobile, it is to try to make the distribution of the different modes of transport more equal”, stated Adriano Sousa, who added that, in the city of Trás-os-Montes, the use of automobiles still predominates and for a single use.

Rodrigo Veloso, from Bolt, said that around 70% of users are students, between 18 and 25 years old, particularly at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD).

“There is no rate of vandalism in the city, which is something very positive for our operations. In some cities we noticed some vandalism that ends up damaging our vehicles or leaving vehicles in unwanted places, which does not happen in Vila Real”, highlighted the person in charge.

The councilor acknowledged that, at the beginning of the scooter project, he was “somewhat worried because he saw many users using the sidewalks”, which is prohibited by law.

“But the good news is that there is a migration of these users to the road platform. It’s not complete yet, there are still people who continue to walk on the sidewalks, but we can already see a lot of people walking on the road,” he highlighted.

PSP Commissioner Saraiva Conceição said that, despite not having concrete numbers, accidents or infractions involving scooters have been “very residual”.

The administrative offenses applied are associated with the improper use of devices while driving an electric scooter, such as a cell phone.

Regarding the use of bicycles, the commissioner recalled that it must be done on the road, with the exception of children up to 10 years old, as it is prohibited to transport these vehicles under the influence of alcohol or using devices that may cause inattention, such as the cell phone or headphones.

Although it is not mandatory, Saraiva Conceição advised the use of a helmet, also warned about adapting the speed to the conditions at the time and called for avoiding abandonment.

Rodrigo Veloso mentioned that the cost of use is the same for both scooters and bicycles, that is, 19 cents per minute and, for those who subscribe to the passes, the value is 2.99 per 30 minutes (10 cents per minute ).