This is the third piece in the series Coronavirus and the City: One Question, an initiative of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto.
Each week, we ask urban leaders representing academia, government, industry, community, and civil society for their responses to a single question.
This week, we asked a group of mobility leaders and experts the following question:
What is the most important measure that has been / should be put in place to address the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on mobility?
Here’s what they had to say.
Professor Amer Shalaby, University of Toronto:
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious challenges to the way people move within cities all around the world, particularly in high-density urban areas. The dire impacts of the pandemic on public transit systems and their financial ability to sustain acceptable service levels have been unprecedented in recent history. However, public transit remains essential for many people who have limited access to other mobility options and who still need to make shopping trips or visit health care facilities. Of prime importance are the essential service workers, the lifeblood of pandemic-stricken cities worldwide, many of whom rely on public transit to travel to work.
As such, the most immediate action required for sustaining mobility in cities is to maintain public transit operations at acceptable service levels and in a safe manner for both the transit riders and operators. Several cities have combined their fixed route services with on-demand transit for serving the needs of essential service workers. In tandem with transit service, sidewalks and bike lanes are vital mobility options for cities, particularly in their urban core. Boosting the capacity of both pedestrian and cycling facilities is an indispensable strategy to allow our cities to continue functioning now and in the near future.
Barbara Gray, General Manager, Transportation Services, City of Toronto:
The most important ingredients to manage cities during the impacts of COVID-19 are clarity of communication so people know what to do, adaptability and agility in order to respond to a constantly changing situation, and unprecedented cooperation and compassion.
Sean Marshall, Spokesperson, Walk Toronto:
While most regular transit users are working from home right now, or staying away from school, family meetups, and social gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers continue to depend on the TTC and other local transit agencies to get to work. These commuters do not have a choice: they work at hospitals and long-term care homes, food processing plants, logistics hubs, grocery stores, and at other essential services and businesses. Many of these workers – who can’t work from home – face long commutes, made worse when physical distancing measures, meant to protect both passengers and operators, are in effect, reducing bus capacity.
Though the TTC, GO Transit, and suburban bus operators have done a great job ensuring their customers can safely get to work, they have all seen a severe drop in farebox revenue, putting current service, as well as future improvements in jeopardy. The Toronto region desperately needs investment to expand, rebuild, and operate a transit system that everyone can rely on. Transit agencies, like the TTC, need a long-term commitment of stable funding from all levels of government to maintain existing service and rebuild ridership once the pandemic subsides.
Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, Chief Customer Officer, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC):
Maintaining transit service is crucial in cities to support essential workers and allow residents to make trips to buy necessities and attend medical appointments.
Transit service levels need to be maintained despite the unprecedented low ridership of COVID-19 to ensure as much physical distancing as possible for customers and staff. At the TTC we have found that 20% of ridership still requires 70% of our service plus an additional 5-7% “extra” service to minimize crowding on key bus corridors.
This level of service is not only challenging to maintain as transit staff fall ill or self-isolate due to family illness, it puts tremendous pressure on cities’ weekly cash-flows; today’s low ridership has caused unprecedented revenue losses. For TTC, where fare revenue covers more operating costs than any transit system in North America, we are losing $20M a week in revenues, placing enormous pressure on City of Toronto finances.
In spite of all these pressures – high levels of urban mass transit must be seen as essential in Canadian cities because, in a crisis or recovering, good transit makes urban life possible.
Martin Gallagher, Chief Safety Officer, Metrolinx:
The safety of all of our staff and customers is central to everything we do.
Early on our teams identified a number of permanent strategies to help keep everyone healthy and safe on our system, including:
- We installed plexiglass screens to protect the drivers in buses and distributed face shields, gloves and hand sanitizer.
- We stepped up cleaning at all work locations, installed hand sanitizer stations and applied a long acting antimicrobial barrier on trains, buses and stations.
- The seats behind and in close proximity to our staff were decommissioned.
- Specialist vacuums (HEPA Vacs) that remove tiny particles like the droplets that transmit COVID-19 are in use.
- Education for both customers and staff is key and has helped change behaviours.
As more services in our communities began shutting down and our ridership dropped significantly, we reduced services to ensure we could rotate staff off shift and limit their exposure to the virus and keep them healthy.
This is a challenging time and we are doing everything we can. And we are now looking to the future and how to manage a transit service in the ‘new normal’ when people return to work.
Matthew Price, General Manager, Uber Canada:
The Coronavirus pandemic is being felt around the world by every community we serve. To help reduce transmissions, mobility providers must work to assist public health authorities in their response, taking actions grounded in the latest medical advice and designed to protect those most vulnerable.
One of the consistent messages from experts is that physical distancing and limiting non-essential travel play a critical role in reducing the impact of COVID-19. That is why at Uber we are urging our customers to stay at home, thereby helping drivers who still want to drive prioritize transportation of frontline workers and people in need, while doing our part to procure sanitization materials and educate drivers on how best to keep themselves safe.
Coronavirus and the City: Mobility was originally posted April 29, 2020 by University of Toronto School of Cities as part of the Coronavirus and the City: One Question series.