Lisbon, March 21, 2025 (Lusa) - EMEL - Empresa Municipal de Mobilidade e Estacionamento de Lisboa (Lisbon's Municipal Mobility and Parking Company) will be enforcing compliance with the Highway Code with a brigade dedicated to tuk-tuk and ride-hailing from 1 April, the city council announced on Friday.
Currently, EMEL's work is limited to parking and, with the extension of its powers, it will now include monitoring compliance with the Highway Code by all vehicles circulating in the city of Lisbon, with the capacity to issue fines, in accordance with the model of administrative offences in force, an official source from the city council told Lusa.
In parallel with the extension of EMEL's powers, an enforcement unit will be set up specifically for "tuk-tuk" and ride-hailing (individual and paid passenger transport in uncharacterised vehicles using an electronic platform), the municipality said, indicating that this new EMEL brigade, with 61 inspectors, will start work on 1 April, the day the ban on the circulation of tuk-tuk in 337 streets in seven parishes in the capital comes into force.
According to the Lisbon City Council, EMEL has 280 inspectors authorised to comply with the Highway Code.
Signed by the PSD/CDS-PP leadership in Lisbon City Hall, the proposal to delegate EMEL's powers to enforce the Highway Code, as well as the Traffic Signalling Regulations, other road legislation and municipal regulations on the restriction of vehicle circulation, was approved on Wednesday in a private meeting, with the PCP voting against.
As well as being voted on by the council, the proposal must be voted to the vote in the Lisbon Municipal Assembly.
Highlighting the enforcement of the rules on non-heavy tourist entertainment vehicles, known as tuk-tuk, the council says that EMEL inspectors will reinforce the activity of the Municipal Police and monitor the use of public space by tuk-tuk on the streets of Lisbon, "both concerning stopping and parking and the ban on circulation in 337 arteries of the city, as decreed by the government", and which will come into force on 1 April.
"As well as monitoring compliance with the Highway Code and the new rules that will come into force on 1 April, EMEL will also supervise compliance with the new regulations that should come into force by the summer and which should allocate 400 badges to "tuk-tuk" drivers who will be able to park in the 251 spaces allocated to these vehicles," says the municipality.
In a statement, the deputy mayor, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), who is responsible for Mobility, said that "the creation of this brigade reinforces EMEL as a company on the side of Lisboners and not against Lisboners, as it is sometimes unfairly perceived."
"The intervention that we know in parking management must be equally effective and determined in other areas that affect mobility, such as tuk-tuk or ride-hailing," says Anacoreta Correia, referring to EMEL's work.
Regarding the strengthening of EMEL's competencies, the council believes that "there will be more eyes on the city" to monitor because "it's not enough to have rules; you have to make sure they are complied with".
"These rules are not against "tuk-tuk" or ride-hailing, but are the opposite. If we step up the penalisation of those who don't comply. In that case, we'll be protecting the majority of those who comply and the future of their own activity," says the municipality.
This measure is part of the Lisbon City Council's work to impose rules and demand compliance in this area. The Municipal Police have also been increasing the number of enforcement actions and "already have an important track record in the offences detected in 2024, which more than doubled compared to 2023, with 3,821 occurrences."
The council emphasises that in addition to the EMEL brigade, Municipal Police officers will patrol the streets of Lisbon daily to enforce the new tuk-tuk rules.
SSM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
