UPPER Lisbon’s back to school initiative

Mexe-te Pela Tua Cidade or Move For Your City, is the Lisbon motto to promote sustainable active mobility and change commuting habits between home and school.

The initiative promoted by the Camara Municipal de Lisboa is part of the city's commitment to Upper, more precisely is the core of measure LIS_01, Restrict car access in the city 

 

 

We all know that School-aged students’ mobility is one of the biggest triggers to car use. Parents prefer to use private cars while taking kids to school and fail to understand that it contributes to congestion, poor safety, poor air quality, and public space chaos around the schools. Consequently, children recognize no other forms of mobility since they are continuously carried around by car.

This measure proposes traffic restrictions around schools and other facilities to promote safer and more active modes of transportation. Blocking the school perimeter for non-resident cars creates a safe environment for students, frees sidewalks from illegal parking, and encourages biking or public transportation as the main transport option. This involves implementing restrictions on motor vehicle traffic during the school's entry period at least once a week. During this time, the school street becomes a pedestrian or cycling area.

This activity takes place during school hours and access is permitted to residents (with restrictions), pedestrians, bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards, and scooters, people with reduced mobility, and emergency vehicles. If you travel by car, park properly and travel the remaining distance to school on foot, by bicycle, or scooter. This is a traffic calming measure that takes place around the school, allowing children to travel safely, actively, and sustainably, contributing to a reduction in noise and air pollution levels within the school's area, as well as encouraging students to engage in physical activity.

For this measure, a first analysis of city schools was conducted in order to determine which ones had an adequate profile to develop this project. 4 Schools were then selected. Bilateral meetings (February 2024) with 4 Parishes were conducted to introduce this UPPER measure, branded through the Mexe-te pela Tua Cidade municipal program. This programme promotes safety and active modes in school surroundings with the closure of several streets to car users (non-residents) during the morning school entrance schedule, once a week, throughout an entire school year.

Watch the time-lapse video of the Escola Dona Filipa de Lencastre

 

Photocredit @CML EB+JI Adriano Correia de Oliveira (Olivais) – 2023-2024

Photocredit @CML EB+JI Adriano Correia de Oliveira (Olivais) – 2023-2024

Photocredit @CML 2024-2025

Participating schools

In the 2024-25 academic year, the following schools will be part of the project:

EB Professor Manuel Sérgio (Ajuda)
Tuesdays, from 7:45 to 9:30

EB Dom Luís da Cunha (Alvalade)
Thursdays, from 7:45 am to 9:30 am

EB1 Telheiras (Lumiar)
Wednesdays, from 7:45 am to 9:30 am

EB Professor Lindley Cintra and JI do Lumiar (Lumiar)                                                                  Fridays, from 7:30 to 9:30                                                                                                                   * The activity of this school was developed outside the scope of the UPPER project

EB Santo Amaro (Alcântara)
Tuesdays, from 7:45 to 9:30
* except during school holidays

After the pilot phase of the project, six schools entered a new phase that aims to consolidate the implementation of other measures to make school fronts safer:

D. Filipa de Lencastre School Group (Areeiro)
ES Padre António Vieira (Alvalade)
EB+JI Arco-Íris (Olivais)
EB+JI Adriano Correia de Oliveira (Olivais)
EB Sarah Afonso Elementary School (Olivais)
EB das Piscinas (Olivais)

Learn more here