What is Passeio Livre all about?

The following is a presentation of Passeio Livre that was published in the CarBusters magazine #39, Summer of 2009.
“Passeio Livre” – the Portuguese expression for clear sidewalk – slowly evolved from a growing impression of the lack of respect towards pedestrian mobility to a new attitude: being critical of the apathy in which public authorities were sunk. The movement started in Lisbon, where several individuals gathered to organize an adequate response that could combat a disease which defiles all major cities in Portugal.
Inspired by the Greek “Street Panthers”, pedestrian advocates, in March 2009, decided to have 15000 stickers printed, with the slogan – don't just think about your navel (literal translation from the Portuguese meaning don't be so self-centered), respect pedestrians when parking – to be widely distributed and stuck on automobiles abusively parked.
The main purpose, to give pedestrian some power through a tool meant to express dissatisfaction, would make the problem visible and challenge the sense of impunity amongst brazen car drivers. Its popularity exceeded expectations; wide media coverage revealed a huge public interest under what had once been perceived as silent tolerance. Stickers were packed and sent to all over Portugal and some requests arrived from as far as Brazil.
A blog was created to document the actions and as a mean of communication. Readers were encouraged to send contributions to be published, home-printed copies of the sticker and they were also invited to participate in discussions.
In June all the stickers were gone; a contest was therefore promoted for a new design. Several proposals were judged by the blog readers and, in July 2009, 20000 new stickers in 4 different designs will be ready to be distributed at request.
Gradually, parking attitudes are changing.