Improving urban mobility in Lisbon South Margin

It’s 8h43AM, I’m commuting to Lisbon on the boat from Cacilhas to Cais de Sodré. in front of me there’s a young couple and talking and checking the boat schedule to Montijo, another city on the south margin of the Tagus River. They seem to be struggling with the schedule between boat stops so I offered to help them and also took the change to ask a question that was bothering my mind:

I couldn’t stop noticing you are taking a boat trip to Lisbon to get a on a boat again towards the south margin to Montijo. Isn’t there another way?

Their answer was worrying… This young couple didn’t have another choice. There’s no direct bus to Montijo and even if they needed to switch transportation the journey would take more than 1 hour, so they said.

On the other side they have a boat from Cacilhas to Cais de Sodré every 10 minutes and the boat to Montijo in Cacilhas a few meters away.

Taking the 8:40AM boat from Cacilhas they should arrive in Cais Sodré around 8:50AM allowing them to than go to the Montijo terminal to catch the 9AM boat and take a 25 minute ride to Montijo.

In the end this young couple journey between Cacilhas, Cais do Sodré and Montijo, if well planed, will take around 45 minutes, just a bit more than the 30 minute car drive with the benefit they don’t have to worry about tolls, fuel and other possible costs such as parking, this is also considerably less time than taking a bus, or several, to Montijo.

This couples journey left me curious and I started digging on this urban mobility issue.

Getting some numbers

The shortest distance, by car, between Almada and Montijo is about 40KM(~25 miles), meanwhile if done in a straight line across the Tagus River the distance is reduced by more than half to 16KM (~10 miles).

Knowing the distance between these two points is so short and considering that there are boats between Cacilhas to Lisbon and also from Montijo do Lisbon, and that large ships, considerably heavier than the boats transporting people, also cross the river around that straight line, I have to question:

Is it so impracticable to have a boat connection between Cacilhas and Montijo?

Montijo is a growing city with direct access to Cais do Sodré by boat, to Parque das Nações by Bus, quick access to highways and the cost of living is considerably cheaper when compared to other areas nearby such as Seixal or Almada. This makes Montijo a very appealing area for several families and young adults.
Meanwhile people that don’t have a personal vehicle are dependent, on my humble opinion, on a scarce public transport network that has constant fails.

Meanwhile in Lisbon, particularly in more touristic areas and near the city center, it’s common to find several alternatives to the public transport network. With a Smartphone and Internet connection one can quickly get access to a car, bicycle, scooters at affordable prices that are charged according to the use one has with them. Sometimes using a bicycle or an electric scooter is faster than using any other transportation due to traffic.

There are other options such as Uber, Cabify or Kapten and even, the not so glamorous Tuk Tuks and the Taxi network that is very active in particularly the mentioned areas.

On the other hand in Almada the alternative to public transports restricts to Uber or owning a personal vehicle. I believe in Barreiro, Montijo and Alcochete would be pretty much the same.

This shows, to me at least, the urgency of serious investment in urban mobility on the south margin of the Tagus River from Alcochete to Cacilhas with particular focus on Barreiro, Cacilhas, Montijo and Seixal.

Seixal — Almada: A Urban Mobility Case Study

I analysed the route from Seixal and Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia in Monte de Caparica, Almada using the site Transporlis. A route around 16KM that can be made by public transport and it’s a painful route to take.

The fastest route will take you on a 50 minutes ride that includes taking two buses, the Fertagus train and walking between stops. The 50 minutes is best case scenario for someone lucky enough to catch the transports within a minute after arrival, other wise if you happen to loose a bus or the train the 50 minutes can quickly become 1h30min.

These, best case scenario, 50 minutes represent 100 daily minutes to commute from Seixal to the University. In terms it means that you’ll spend, per month, at least, 35 hours, almost one entire working week, just commuting to the University.

Having this into account I can clearly see an opportunity for services, already available in Lisbon, such as Drive Now, Emov, eCooltra being, at least processing in terms of cost and time saving.

With current average cost of these services being around 0.29 cents per minute, the daily cost of the commute between Seixal and Monte de Caparica would have a cost of around 11.6 euros. This represents a monthly cost of around 232 euros.
The daily driving duration would be around 40 minutes, instead of the 100 minutes from the public transportation meaning a monthly commute time of 13.5 hours instead of the 35 hours of the public transportation. This is less than half of the time from the best case scenario with public transportation.

But there’s room for optimization.

Drive now, for example, allows users to acquire, at the time I am writing this article, a 12 hour pack for 80 euros, and a 3 hour pack for 20 euros. So you can get a 15 hour pack for 100 euros allowing for some detours that might happen.

This represents a saving of 132 euros with hour packs.

If these 100 euros are split between 4 roommates each will pay of 25 euros.
A value lower than the current public transport pass and a saving, per person, of 21h30min per month.

You save time, money and gain mobility.

Another idea would be a partnership between the university and the digital platforms to create opportunity and exposure for the platforms and ensure rides and lower prices for their students.

There are many options that are working on other cities that can, at this time, be implemented in the south margin of the Tagus River and improve urban mobility.

But independently of the options available, any solution will require that public entities and private companies to come together and create a plan to increase urban mobility at competitive prices.

From my perspective, at this point in time, the plan would have to depart from traditional public transportation services and create opportunities for digital platforms to come into play.