The Municipality of Ílhavo carried out, the previous weekend, traffic counts to assess accessibility to the municipality's beaches, targeting the access points to the beaches of Costa Nova and Barra. This action is part of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUS) and aims to address the lack of detailed data on trips to the coastal areas.
The municipality intends, through these counts and surveys, to understand the main demand dynamics and comprehend mobility needs. The municipal authority considers that the main challenge is not to produce announcements of hypothetical proposals, but rather to find solutions based on quantitative data and knowledge of reality.
The information collected will enable understanding of traffic volume and its fluctuations throughout the day, peak hours, residential origin areas, vehicle occupancy rates, vehicle types and trip purposes, including the proportion of residents, commercial activity and beach visitors. The surveys also assessed users' propensity to change their mode of transport.
The local authority advocates that future mobility policy decisions should be more structured, robust and evidence-based, avoiding reliance on mere empirical perceptions. These technical tools will enable the evaluation of possible solutions to minimize constraints on beach accessibility during summer, covering matters such as parking, cycling and pedestrian routes, public transport and changes to the road network.
