“We could have thousands of people going back to private cars, because it’s a unique way to guarantee security,” said one city planner.
As coronavirus lockdowns ease and people around the world begin to escape from their homes, a new challenge emerges. How do you socially distance on the commute?While many may choose to continue working from home, others will face no choice but to travel to work.
Figures following the recent lifting of lockdowns in China suggest that people are now using their vehicles more. Statistics from the country’s transportation department show that 4.5 percent more vehicles were on highways between April 4-6 than the same time last year. So cities around the world are looking for alternatives. Milan — Italy’s financial hub — has announced a strategy to tackle whamit deputy mayor Marco Granelli called the issue of “mobility in the age of the coronavirus.”
Major U.S. cities could also bolster the use of bicycle commuting, according to Columbia University’s Purnima Kapur — until recently the executive director of the New York City Department of City Planning. New York has suffered the worst outbreak in the United States, with more than 18,000 deaths according to NBC News’ tally.
Similarly, riding levels on a popular trail in Philadelphia have soared by 471 percent year on year, a local cycling advocacy group said, resulting in the city closing a four-mile stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to motor vehicles and making it available to cyclists. Kapur believes we are likely to see a “pretty significant change” to how our cities look post-lockdown, but admits she doesn’t “think anyone has a clear sense of how this is going to work.”While a big shift to working from home — and avoiding the commute altogether — could be one approach, Paul Swinney, director of policy and research at the Centre for Cities, a U.K.-based think tank, believes it will be temporary.
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