North-south painful? Haven't you swapped the axes? North-south is the axis which the the Eixão lies on, which is a three lane express way. Meanwhile, every day around both noon and evening all the streets and roads on the east-west axis will be crammed with cars, to the point of blocking the roundabouts, because most of them are single lane roads chockful with roundabouts and pedestrian crossing.
Edit: changed, from "pedestrian way" to "pedestrian crossing."