ILLUSTRATION
MAGGIE LI
there couldn’t have been
a more unusual
time to start a business. Back in May 2011,
just as Portugal’s bailout programwas
being discussed in a tense and hopeless
room in downtown Lisbon, Nuno Coelho
opened a bicycle-renting shop only a few blocks away.
But he was a man with a plan. “There were already a
few companies that were doing city tours for tourists on
bikes and I thought, ‘why not’?” says Coelho. Two years
later, his company, Rent a Fun
(rent-a-fun.com)
, now
includes a business partner and an employee, all of
whom are dedicated to showing outsiders their way
around Lisbon’s unpredictable, often uphill streets.
Of greater interest is the fact that not everyone riding
a bicycle in Lisbon today is a fast-pedalling tourist. Right
behind, still trying to master his home-town’s
cobblestone roads on two wheels, you’ll see a friendly,
potbellied, moustached, middle-aged Lisboner
on his way to work. He’s one of a growing
number of locals who have ditched their
cars for two-wheeled transport.
Right now, the Portuguese capital is
enjoying a boom in cycling that defies
the economic climate. Miguel Barroso, a consultant for
the Portuguese Federation of Cycletourism and Bicycle
Users, has no doubt that the sudden uptake in bike
commuters has something to do with Portugal’s
financial crisis. “[It influenced] not only those who had
no other choice but to use their bikes, it also made a lot of
people question their lifestyles.”
This has resulted in one of the best times for the
Portuguese bicycle industry. Businesses like Rent a Fun
are an evermore common sight in Lisbon, while sales in
urban bicycles have increased by 30% over the past year,
according to Portugal’s largest sports retail company.
It’s a positive story that locals can take pride in and
hopefully more will take to the saddle, even if Lisbon
isn’t called ‘the City of Seven Hills’ for nothing. But there
is a downside: between 2011 and 2012, the number of
road accidents involving cyclists in Portugal
soared by 21%. Bike riders and drivers there
just aren’t as used to each other as their
counterparts in Brussels or
Amsterdam. Hopefully, this will
improve over time, but in the
meantime, safe riding!
D O W N T O
B U S I N E S S
L I S B O N
“Wheels of good fortune”
Lisbon’s roads have seen an unprecedented increase in cycling – it’s a welcome
business success story in the financial crisis, says
João de Almeida Dias
It’s a positive
story that locals
can take pride in and
hopefully more will
take to the saddle
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V I E W P O I N T S
