The European Court of Auditors indicates in a report that Lisbon’s mobility plan did not make public transport an effective alternative to the car for those who need to make daily trips between home and work.
The European Court of Auditors (TCE) report, released this Wednesday, February 4, is based on an audit of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (PMUS) in six European cities: Lisbon, Seville (Spain), Prague (Czechia), Budapest (Hungary), Lille (France) and Katowice (Poland).
In Lisbon, as well as in Seville, Lille and Katowice, the TCE highlights that “public transport is not competitive with car travel” for most people who need to make daily trips between home and work.
In the case of Lisbon, the TCE gives an example of a journey from Avessada, a village in the municipality of Mafra, to Lisbon airport: according to the court’s calculations, the journey takes 33 minutes by car, but takes 80 minutes by public transport.
Among the reasons identified for this situation, the TCE highlights the fact that Lisbon’s mobility plan does not cover a vast geographical area, which includes the municipalities of Benavente, Alenquer, Azambuja, Sobral de Monte Agraço or Arruda dos Vinhos, where at least 15% of the population works in the capital.
In these areas, the TCE indicates that there is no viable alternative to the car, since “the availability of public transport [nessas localidades] It’s much smaller.”
By not covering these areas, the TCE estimates that Lisbon’s mobility plan ignores around a tenth of the daily flows made by citizens between home and work. The rate, although significantly lower than that of cities such as Seville (64%), Budapest (46%) or Lille (21%), is higher than that of Prague (5%) and Katowice (-11%).
The “exclusion of a significant part” of these flows, warns the TCE, “harms the plan’s ability to comprehensively respond to mobility challenges and achieve the sustainable mobility objectives that most require intervention”.
Another reason why public transport has not become more competitive is that there are no policies that discourage the use of cars, for example by establishing restricted circulation zones or limiting parking spaces.
In the case of Lisbon, the TCE states that “fewer parking spaces were authorized in new buildings” in areas close to public transport stations, in addition to regulating access to circulation in some areas, but financial incentive policies were not developed to discourage car use, unlike what happens, for example, in Lille.
In the French city, the TCE states that “a scheme was created to reduce the use of private cars during rush hours, paying drivers for each car trip they avoid in defined corridors”.
In a statement accompanying the report, the TCE argues that “cities have to do more to get people out of cars”highlighting that, currently, “cars can reach many more areas” than public transport, “even during rush hours”.
“Efforts to convince people to use sustainable (i.e. environmentally friendly) transport instead of cars are often insufficient, especially at the level of cities, which is where urban mobility is managed”, reads the statement.
The TCE audit was carried out in January 2025, so the Lisbon mobility project that was analyzed was the one from 2019, and not the one approved by the Municipal Assembly in September 2025.
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