Car access to Pico do Areeiro will be controlled by electronic panels and paid parking.

There are already solutions and procedures in place aimed at public procurement already underway to control the excess of cars seeking Pico do Areeiro. The Government’s intention is to have the new measures in place by the beginning of next year.

The Regional Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment announced that electronic mechanisms will be implemented to control the entry of vehicles, with barriers or gates, and there will be a panel informing drivers of the number of vacant or not parking spaces at Pico do Areeiro.

In statements exemplified that, if there are 500 parking spaces, and all are occupied, “the 501st does not enter.” In other words, “basically, the limitation of access for private vehicles is related to the number of parking spaces available,” which will be monitored with barrier mechanisms and an information panel, which will allow, “further down, near Poiso, the driver to know if he has a place or not and what the forecast is for having a place to park.”

In addition, works will be carried out in the car park next to the Casa das Sorveiras, with the aim of increasing capacity and relieving the existing pressure in the area.

On the area ascending to Casa das Sorveira, it will be reserved for light vehicles with people with reduced mobility and tourist vans, further down another parking cell will be created and, further up, near the Radar, for tourist buses.

As for the price of parking, the first fifteen will be free in the logic of entering to drop people off and leave. Every fifteen minutes will be 50 cents, and it will be two euros for each hour.