Albufeira City Council is considering regulating the pick-up and drop-off of passengers in the city center, during the summer, by passenger transport vehicles with TVDE licenses, the president told Lusa.
José Carlos Rolo justified the intention with the need to avoid the accumulation of vehicles in downtown Albufeira, which occurs during the months with the greatest influx of tourism in the municipality, and which makes it difficult to enjoy traffic in the city.
According to the mayor, the proposal “is not yet well defined”, but the objective is to avoid the departure and pickup of passengers in the city center of individual passenger transport in unmarked vehicles (TVDE).
The measure could be approved in a Chamber session until the beginning of the bathing season in the municipality, on May 15th, added José Carlos Rolo.
“I am considering whether it should be May 1st or May 15th, which is when the bathing season begins”, estimated the mayor of Albufeira, one of the 16 that belong to the district of Faro.
The intention is to “avoid the crowding of vehicles when dropping off and picking up passengers” in the city center, he argued, recalling that legally vehicles with a TVDE license “cannot drop off or pick up passengers on public roads”.
“Alternatives must be found so that people can move around and avoid the obstacles that usually occur when there is a lot of traffic there, from May until September”, explained the mayor, whose municipality accounts for around half of the hotel supply in the city. region.
José Carlos Rolo acknowledged that, during the summer and at times of greater tourist influx in the Algarve and Albufeira, there is a “large number of vehicles” in the city center, where it is usual to see “many, quite a lot”, TVDE vehicles operating .
“It creates a large concentration of vehicles and is not good for traffic, because it does not flow”, he stated, stressing that the legislation allows TVDE vehicles from other areas of the country to work in the Algarve and Albufeira.
Many TVDE vehicle drivers end up moving to the Algarve during the summer or periods of greater affluence, such as Easter, and carrying out their activities in the region, increasing the volume of vehicles dropping off and picking up passengers in downtown Albufeira and causing delays. and difficulties in traffic circulation.
Taxis have, on the other hand, “completely different rules” and this creates a “differentiation between one and the other”, to which municipalities are unaware, because it is a competence of the central Government and its structures, the mayor highlighted, considering that the activity thus becomes “easier” for TVDEs.
“While a taxi has to be limited to the municipal and municipal contingent, it has to compete in a public tender that is open, TVDEs do not. TVDEs come from any area of the country and work anywhere in the country, they have a completely different freedom. I’m not saying whether it’s good or bad, it’s different, completely different”, he considered.
Albufeira City Council is therefore considering “regulating traffic” in the downtown area, in an “experiment” that will be defined in the proposal that the mayor believes can be taken to the city council session for approval in time to come into force in May.
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