Covid-19
The scope of COVID-19's impact, which can be said, without any reservation, to be multi-sectorial, gives rise to the most diverse reflections on the worldview of all the assertions with which it may be approached. Therefore, after the moment of generalized shock and the emerging radicalism with which it quickly imposed itself, the great question that arises today will always start from establishing whether everything will go back to the way it was, or, on the contrary, whether nothing will be the same as before. In fact, this dilemma is nothing new whenever a deep rupture occurs in the daily habits of a society, as is happening now. If prudence leads us to admit that there will be as much of one as the other, there will undeniably always be the circumstance for the acceleration of the processes underway. However, it does not necessarily tend to be for the benefit of only those perspectives considered to be more progressive or more proactive.
It is true that circumstances generate opportunities, dramatize the tactics over the strategy, valuing the most intangible areas of the process, such as the prognostic vision, the capacity for initiative and, naturally, the determination and conviction that is placed in the actions undertaken.
Hence, the concrete opportunity, in terms of urban mobility and of the collective design to proceed with the gradual transition to a sustained urban development, promoting decarbonization, the improvement of the environment and the pursuit of the quality of life of the populations, in this case, of the city of Braga.
As from the emergency measures of March 2020, issued by the Portuguese government in the sense of general confinement, we immediately witnessed a brutal cut in road circulation in our cities, a drastic reduction in the use of public transport and the closure of hotel units and tourist travel, having, in turn, resumed neighborhood and proximity relations, and started to witness an increase in pedestrian travel and the use of light and clean means of locomotion, being able to enjoy the liberation of the road network. Thus, the favorable conditions were created for the anticipation of some of the measures envisaged and, in the same sense, the possibility of implementing actions capable of favoring the inversion of the mobility pyramid, without implying conflicting tensions with the rooted advantages enjoyed by car circulation.