1970-01-01 02:00:00
The cycle walkway designed to cross the Pinheiros River and connect the Pinheiros and Butantã neighborhoods, in the west zone of the city of São Paulo, should finally get off the ground. It took 28 years of waiting for the city hall to publish on Tuesday (11), the bidding notice for contracting the work.
Budgeted at BRL 49.6 million, the cycle path is more than a bike path connection between two neighborhoods, it is the missing link to quickly and safely connect the bike paths in the west and south zones to the bike paths in the city center.
According to specialists, the work will allow for a modal change in several neighborhoods, enabling a significant reduction in CO2 emissions, in addition to also contributing to the social and economic development of various regions of the city.
The project, run by SPObras (municipal company linked to the Secretariat of Infrastructure), was discussed and had its value adjusted by the group managing the Urban Operation Consorciada Faria Lima — a program created by municipal law to manage real estate occupation rates and apply the money to development urban, social and environmental part of the west zone.
The same management group, which includes representatives of public authorities and civil society, also approved, on December 7, 2021, the renaming of the project. From Ciclopassarela Bernardo Goldfarb (name originally adopted because it is adjacent to the Bernardo Goldfarb viaduct), the project came to be called Ciclopassarela Jornalista Erika Sallum.
The decision for the exchange was taken unanimously, in an open vote, about 3 months after the death of Sallum, who, in addition to being a journalist, was also a cycling activist and strong defender of the causes of peripheral populations.
Once completed, the work will connect the Pinheiros river cycle paths (which connects the Jaguaré neighborhoods, in the west zone, and Jurubatuba, in the south zone), the Eliseu de Almeida avenue (which connects Butantã to the city of Taboão da Serra) and from Avenida Rebouças (which connects Pinheiros to the center and other bike paths that lead to different regions of the city).
Under pressure from cycling activists, the idea of transposing the Pinheiros River emerged in 1994, and a year later it officially became a municipal project, with dimensions and objectives protected by law. Even so, the project dragged on through 9 municipal administrations, during which time the city saw its population jump from 9 to 12 million inhabitants, and traffic was increasingly strangled by the excess of cars.
The city of São Paulo foresees 60 to 90 days for the conclusion of the bidding process and another 12 months for the delivery of the work, which will allow its delivery by the current management.
For cycle activist and deputy councilor Renata Falzoni, “the benefits for mobility, for connecting and heating up businesses in the region with the Jornalista Erika Sallum cycle walkway will be so great that, in fact, this infrastructure will be a landmark for the western and western regions. south of the city”.
However, the cycling activist recalled that the city hall still owes a large debt to the city. “The works already tendered and in progress are being constantly postponed. There is no janitor and the work of resurfacing the streets has been systematically removing sections of bike lanes”. Falzoni completed by saying that “this cyclewalk may be the only positive work for mobility in the entire mandate of this mayor”.
Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) has received harsh criticism from those who use bicycles for work or leisure, especially for being late in complying with the Cycling Plan.
With information similar to that of Sheet had already reported on the Ciclocosmo blog, TV Globo published on Thursday (13) a report on the abandonment of the cycling network and the delays in the delivery of new cycle paths by the Ricardo Nunes management.
With almost 9 minutes of content, the TV brought criticism from the population and highlighted that the current administration built only 108.6 km of the 673 km of bicycle paths provided for by the Cicloviário Plan for its period of government.
Geologist Sasha Hart, a member of the Bike Zona Oeste collective, has been advocating the implementation of the work since 2006, when he started in cycle activism. “This process highlights the importance of society’s participation and pressure to seek improvements, even if they only come to future generations. [cicloviários]and this should be continued to connect all regions of the city”.
Hart says he regrets the city hall’s refusal to use the project’s new name in the bidding document. “Cyclists from all over the city, of all types, mobilized asking for the cyclewalk to be named after Journalist Erika Sallum, who with her work and personality managed to build several types of bridges. A cyclist, a woman, from São Paulo, who we admire a lot and that everyone should know and remember”.
Falzoni also commented on the absence of Sallum’s name in the bid. “It’s another slip that we hope will be quickly corrected, so that there is not that eternal impression that the legitimate demands of cyclists always take a backseat,” he said.
In a note, the city hall said that “as clarified at the meetings of the Grupo Gestor da Importação Urbana Consorciada Faria Lima (GG-OUCFL), the definition of street names in the city of São Paulo occurs through the approval of a law by the Chamber of São Paulo , always after the implementation, conclusion and start of the operation of the public place. The GG-OUCFL has no competence to define the name of a public place, especially one that has not yet been executed”.
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