A methodological approach in order to support decision-makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics



2. The Portuguese context on Mobility Management

To better understand the Portuguese context on mobility and transportation policies, it is
important to present in a very synthetic way the status of the transportation infra-structure in
Portugal.

The road network was somehow poor before at the end of the 1980s. It was only by the end of
the eighty’s and during the ninety’s that there was a massive effort to create a freeway network
throughout the country, emphasizing the connectivity of the littoral (more densely populated) and
them slowly starting to built on the interior.

Today there are still a few major investments to be made (related with the National Road Plan
2000), but most of the road infra-structure is in place.

There is absolutely no doubt how important these projects were to the country. Not only by re-
structuring and developing new links to the major urban centres, but also by developing a more
cohesive country network that brought the interior closer to the littoral, and therefore partially
contributing to solve the problems of social exclusion and desertification recorded at those
regions.

The rail network has been lagging behind when compared with the roadway system. The railway
plan dates from the 1980s, and a new one is starting to take shape. The high-speed train project
has been very much discussed at the present moment as an important transportation element
both to Portugal and Spain.

In what concerns the air transport and maritime transport, there are three main airports in
Portugal, one in the north (Sa Carneiro Airport) another in the south (Faro Airport) and another in
the centre (Portela Airport or a new one maybe in Ota), and maritime ports will still be mainly the
same (Leixoes, Lisboa, Sines).

So, its possible to say that in a national perspective, the country starts to be more connected and
its transport infrastructure begin to consolidate and contribute to the territorial organization.
Therefore, regional and local plans and policies start to be more and more relevant.

The legal instruments available are poor in what concerns mobility and transportation. The DL
380/99 is the main legal instrument to define the spatial structure of the territory. In what concerns
to mobility issues, it demands for the definition of the area of intervention of plans (nationally,
regionally or locally), requesting the identification of transportation networks, the objectives,
means, and actions that should be accomplished, , and finally requesting the definition of urban
occupation through time.

The existent laws can be the background for what could be the foundations of a far more
complete mobility management policy, system and related instruments. One of the objectives of
this paper is to present the need of evolve in the direction of a more coherent and complete legal
background on the issues of mobility and transportation.

Mobility plans are becoming a more and more important tool not only to define the physical
characteristics of a road together with its road system, but also to explicit their functional
objectives (What is their propose? What is the level of service? Which measures can be taken to
improve functional operation if necessary? How can the transportation system enhance the
region’s economic activities?).

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