COVID is pushing cities to quickly plan everything from pop-up bike lanes, temporary parklets, and transit recovery services to keep residents safe and moving.
In the Dallas, non-profit Better Block built a temporary parklet in a day to help with distancing.
As many of us enter month three of shelter-in-place, much of our country remains on pause. Businesses are shuttered, transit is operating with limited service. Healthcare workers, first responders, grocers, bus drivers, and others continue to work, keeping our cities moving.
This pandemic—and the distancing required to stop the spread—has created an instant transportation crisis for densely populated cities. Everything we’ve ever learned about efficiently moving more people in as little space as possible has now been turned on its head. We must find new ways to achieve the goals placed on transportation service delivery.
Even while local government budgets are cratering, cities are responding and adapting. Transit agencies, departments of transportation and public works — not typically known to be the swiftest organizations — are jumping into action. They are re-evaluating existing infrastructure to identify new ways to get essential employees to work. They are repurposing streets—once used exclusively for automobiles—for pedestrians and cyclists. The creativity, adaptation, and unprecedented speed behind this will keep us safe and lay the foundation for a more sustainable recovery.
In Barcelona, the famous promenade Las Ramblas remains a global inspiration for functional, public … [+]
Fast implementation is foundational for recovery
Due to shelter-in-place, car travel plummeted more than 60% nationally according to Inrix since February 29. Since then, nearly 200 cities around the world from Brussels to Baltimore have responded to COVID with distancing approaches that would likely have taken months or years to implement before.
According to urban planning consultant Mike Lydon’s COVID19 Livable Streets Response Strategies crowd-sourced spreadsheet, they range from:
- full or partial opening of streets to pedestrians (as in Oakland, Minneapolis)
- expanding sidewalks in front of essential businesses (DC)
- converting vehicle lanes to pop-up bike lanes (Barcelona, Rome)
- adopting temporary parklet programs (San Marcos, TX)
- traffic signal changes (Seattle), and more.
These solutions can use simple tools and low-cost materials like cones, barricades, signs, movable bollards, and allow for planning and execution in a matter of weeks.
So far, traffic may return to near-normal (Salt Lake City) or escalate (Wuhan), squeezing more people onto limited sidewalk space as they queue up to buy groceries or move safely in their neighborhoods. Accelerating safe streets initiatives (also known as slow, healthy, or active streets) allow cities to move fast and spur behavioral change before traffic volumes resume to pre-COVID levels.
Every week is a new scenario
More remarkable than even the speed of implementation in cities these days is the amount of sheer planning taking place. With fewer staff and constrained budgets, transit agencies are preparing for a staggering number of scenarios, likely some combination of:
- cutting service to focus on core routes for essential trips
- adding trips on busy workhorse routes to allow for distancing
- analyzing ridership and maximum loads to understand new travel patterns
- potentially experimenting with on-demand or micromobility services to augment fixed routes
- restoring service slowly based on ridership trends and public feedback.
Every week, something new is implemented. With constant change, it is likely that agencies will constantly redesign networks and operational processes in faster, more agile ways, as they start envisioning a phased approach to recovery.
In a few days, MTA planned Enhanced Overnight Bus Service to mitigate NYC’s first-ever overnight … [+]
Learn From Others: Three Actions to Take Quickly
This is the type of rapid experimentation required to battle COVID not only in big metro areas, but every city across the globe. Leaders should consider these three actions as they prepare:
1. First, prioritize areas of greatest need. COVID is disproportionately impacting communities of color in the US, both infections and death. Services for essential and frontline workers who are more likely to be lower-income and minorities should take higher priority than recreation. When determining areas of investment (be it new initiatives, projects, or funding itself), there are many considerations including appropriate and equitable public outreach, but particular focus should be given to neighborhoods with the least amount of access to transit, to public space, and the greatest need.
2. Second, open not one street, but a thoughtful network. When a few cities moved to shut down singular thoroughfares, advocates initially balked (see Lakefront Trail in Chicago, JFK Drive in San Francisco). Shutting down one street may cause crowding and risk public health; opening several will help residents stay healthy and get to and from essential locations, especially as transit capacity is impacted.
3. Finally, embrace the “temporary.” Instead of expensive civil engineering projects requiring heavy construction and high regulatory/permitting barriers, we can show what’s possible today with quickly-sketched concepts, paint, and posts. With lightweight infrastructure interventions under the framing of “a pilot”, or simply planning for 4 different transit service scenarios in 4 days, more cities can build, test, and learn right now than ever before.
Everything does not need to happen all at once. “Temporary” means things may likely change. Phase 1 can be cones and barricades; phase 2 can be extending the curb or generating a shared space with a local community group; phase 3 can be providing gifts-to-the-street such as colorful crosswalks, tire planters, movable gardens, and more. Community feedback can be rolling, as opposed to more rigid, pre-COVID public engagement to fit a capital project timeline.
Concept proposal for a slow street, including temporary barricades, orange cones, modified signage, … [+]
Beyond COVID
As we improve testing capability, develop a vaccine, and combat this pandemic, experimentation will be required to keep our cities moving in the meantime. Perhaps we will see broad decongestion efforts, with new travel patterns and flattening of typical commute peaks. Perhaps we will see holistic emission-reduction measures that are rooted in justice and equity. Perhaps we will have new streets designated for people.
Because we’re in an emergency, city departments are collaborating in more nimble, cross-functional ways than ever before. Wherever we land, our cities must adapt, pushing beyond our traditional transportation paradigm, building back better and more resilient than before. Our lives depend on it.
Tiffany Chu is the environment commissioner for the City of San Francisco and the chief executive officer of Remix. Special thanks to Rachel Zack, Peter Donald, and Arti Harchekar for their perspectives.
