Planning to reopen cities safely and securely: Florida

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Dr. Richard Florida

UTTRI associated faculty Professor Richard Florida recommends that cities plan now for a gradual return to business as usual, keeping in mind that COVID-19 may revisit in waves.

In his Globe and Mail opinion piece April 2, 2020, “COVID-19 has shut down our cities. Here’s how we bring them back to life,” Florida examines various aspects of urban life, including transportation:

Buses, subways and train stations are petri dishes for contagion. To keep rush hour crowds at a minimum, workplaces will have to stagger their start and closing times. Passenger counts will need to be monitored and waiting areas retrofitted for social distancing.

During this crisis, we have all learned that we can be outside for walks or bike rides. Biking and walking will be our safest way to get to and from work. Bike lanes should be expanded, and bike and scooter sharing programs should be, too. Some cities are already pedestrianizing crowded streets to promote social distancing. It makes sense to keep such changes in place for the long haul.

Florida notes that COVID-19 has further exposed an urban “density divide” or inequity. Those in higher-income areas are largely able to work at home. But public transit demand in lower-income areas continues to be strong, despite exposure risk, because no safer alternatives are available to those workers:

The virus has exposed a deep density divide: rich people density, where the advantaged can do remote work and order in delivery from their expensive homes, versus poor people density where the less advantaged are crammed together in multigenerational households who must head out on transit to work in crowded, exposed conditions.

Read Florida’s full article on the Globe and Mail website.

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