Professor Shauna Brail on St. George Street, University of Toronto
UTTRI associated faculty Professor Shauna Brail in her article “Cities lead the charge on the coronavirus front lines” (The Conversation, April 2, 2020) looks at how physical distancing is playing out in urban areas.
On the subject of transportation Brail notes the steep decline in transit use and shares a number of other changes in cities around the world:
Admonitions for people to stay home has translated into rapid and significant declines in vehicle traffic on city streets around the world. Streets comprise, on average, about 30 per cent of land in cities and represent about 80 per cent of a city’s total public space.
In Chinese cities, images of streets and highways empty of vehicles depicted the initial, stark results of lockdowns. Vehicle traffic declined sharply.
As efforts to physically distance take shape, residents in cities like New York have taken to cycling at the expense of public transit use.
The coronavirus has also led cities to reconsider street spaces dedicated to vehicles. Both New York and Bogotá have added temporary bike lanes to safely accommodate increases in cycling traffic.
Cities are also experiencing increased pedestrian activity as people cooped up indoors head outside for a walk. Calls for cities to create pedestrian-only streets, where people can get fresh air, exercise and maintain physical distance, have ensued.
Calgary and Philadelphia are examples of urban centres that have temporarily opened some streets to pedestrians, while similar discussions are underway in numerous other cities.
