Here’s a funny story. We’ve all heard of spontaneous urban interventions before such as Guerrilla Gardening and other forms of social activism. This time, a group of proactive Lisbon residents decided to take matters into their own hands and create a “pirate” roundabout on a previously treacherous street intersection.
According to the Portuguese blog Viver na Alta de Lisboa, this group of citizens made insistent calls to the City Council requesting a safe solution for the intersection, where several accidents have already taken place. Their calls have been unanswered for more than a year. Apparently, city officials are undecided as to the implementation of a roundabout or a traffic light system. Tired of waiting, they decided to install an improvised roundabout to regulate the confluent 18 lanes of car traffic.
It only lasted for a couple of days, since this time the City Hall was swift in ordering the removal of the illegal structures. And so the confusion is back in place, leaving the public waiting for the official solution, whenever it comes.
The video above is in Portuguese but the pandemonium kind of speaks for itself.