To err is human. Towards a Lisbon's hodology

Abstract

The paper shows the historical origins of the support for the automobile in cities and its related effects in urban planning, pedestrian condition, and in the making and preservation of public spaces, beneficial for the exercise of citizenship. This study shows that the overall adoption of automobility as a multiple and harmful technology has not only affected a general methodology for space design but also led to an erosion of walking and of the sense of place in the historical centers of several European cities, sacrificing pedestrian needs and the conviviality of streets and public space. In the first part of this article, due to accessibility to the Hemeroteca archives, we choose to present the case study of Lisbon, illustrating how political power and urban planners have joined forces to modify the city, valuing the role of demolitions and of the automobile as a cure for social problems. Our analysis will center on the origins of the Traffic Code, in the speeches of the official periodical of the Portuguese Automobile Club and in other contemporary magazines that document the changes in the historical center of Lisbon in the first half of the 20th century. In the second part, using a phenomenological analysis, we examine how walking and driving constitute the world in different ways; each one hence promotes a differentiated access to the qualities of the city, and justifies a distinctive trajectory of perception and action in the urban form, adopted by citizens and urban planners. We conclude by remarking on the effects of automobility in urban life as it became a basic assumption in urban planning; public space is progressively converted into parking lots, road nodes, traffic signs, and crosswalks; pedestrians have been domesticated and neglected in their habits, gestures and behaviors; the pedestrian in Portugal has thus become socially, politically, and technically invisible, according to the context of the technical models of automobility.