Faro is one of the 20 cities in Portugal that has an accessible itinerary, for people with reduced mobility, in the VisitPortugal website. Although it does not cover Vila Adentro, this route, which also aims to increase tourism and will be implemented in the 2017 and 2018 biennium, includes areas such as Jardim Manuel Bivar or Rua de Santo António.
In statements to the Sul Informação, on the sidelines of the ceremony for the delivery of the accessibility certificate of the Institute of Cities and Towns with Mobility (IVCM) to the municipality of Faro, which took place on the 13th of December, Paula Teles, president of this entity, explained some of the minimum requirements for the areas through which this route passes.
“They have to be places with sidewalks, which allow a wheelchair to pass without problems, without any holes, trees or traffic signals in the middle of the way. In addition, they must be 1,20 meters wide, without obstacles».
the course of Faro it even ends up being “a little more extensive than what we evaluated and verified”, reveals Paula Teles. This is because it is “a route that, with some technical help, allows for the ability to travel”.
For the president of the IVCM, reduced mobility "is not restricted to people who use a wheelchair, but also includes the elderly, children, pregnant women or people who, at some point in their lives, had mobility problems."
And he points out strong numbers to support his thesis: «in Portugal, cities are designed for only 40% of people, taking into account that we have 30% elderly people, 10% disabled people, 15% children and 5% pregnant women ».
this course of Faro even so, it does not pass through the Vila Adentro area, where much of the historical heritage of the Algarve capital can be visited. “The area is marked in yellow because it has a very uncomfortable sidewalk. It is necessary to place a sidewalk or create a comfortable channel with granite slabs, which manages to unite all the main points of interest», explained Paula Teles to Sul Informação.
In this regard, Rogério Bacalhau, president of the Chamber of Faro, announced to our newspaper that “a set of improvements in accessibility to the Baixa and Vila Adentro will be implemented next year, both for people with reduced mobility and for all others”.
Although the routes have not yet been completed, it is expected that both Tavira and Lagos will also be part of this network of 20 cities.
In statements to the Sul Informação, Paula Teles said that the work on the ground in these two cities "has not started yet".
In this session of delivery of the accessibility certificate, it was also attributed to the municipality of Faro the flag of the Network of Cities of Excellence, level II, by the Network of Cities and Villages of Excellence. According to Paula Teles, this distinction «it is based on the degree of evolution of the implementation of the local action plan proposed by the Municipality, focusing on the axes of city with cycling or pedestrian mobility and city of regeneration and urban vitality».
As for this distinction, Rogério Bacalhau said, to Sul Informação, to be “the recognition of a work that is invisible, the good part of which is changing people's lives and causing them less inconvenience”.
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Photos: Pedro Lemos/Sul Informação
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