How COVID-19 could reshape city design

Since 2014, Anne Hidalgo has made cycling a key part of her policy platform as the mayor of Paris, as part of her radical plans to ‘green’ the city.  In 2017, when Hidalgo was up for re-election, she went one step further and said that she wanted Paris to be “100 percent bike friendly” by 2024.

Three years later, and it seems like that vision may be coming true. In Paris, segregated bicycle lanes now run along the iconic Champs Elysees, and car use is falling for the first time since the 1940s. It led many others to ask: could this happen elsewhere? Sooner than expected, people had some semblance of an answer.

Cities around the world – partially led by local governments, partially due to the efforts of campaign and advocacy groups – have turned over roads and main streets to bicyclists during the Covid-19 pandemic. In some cities – such as London, which is famously not friendly to cyclists – it could be the start of a new dynamic between drivers, cyclists and the city.

Bogota was the first city to experiment with reallocation of road space, pop-up bike lanes

“These stay-at-home measures disrupted our everyday mobility habits. They showed how interconnected our transport systems, our lives and our cities are,” said Meredith Glaser, at the Urban Cycling Institute in the Netherlands. “I believe Bogota was the first city to experiment with reallocation of road space and pop-up bike lanes in order to keep people moving in the city. This change in transport behaviour resulted in the visible experience of the emptiness of these cities, and that made people aware of how space could be changed, and this experimental approach just spread.”

But Paris is not the only city to have adopted new bicycle lanes. Milan converted 35 kilometres of road into cycle lanes, and in Oakland, 119 kilometres became soft access (for cyclists or pedestrians only).

As Glaser explains, having infrastructure in place to enable cycling means that more people will cycle. Statistics around bicycle usage from the last few months have gradually rolled in, which shows that in many cities, cycle usage is up over 100% – in Philadelphia, cycling is up by 151%, and even in established cycling havens like Copenhagen, shops have been selling almost double the amount of bicycles they did in the same month last year

“For some people, this is a good opportunity to test the waters about how biking fits into their everyday lives – in terms of how do I pick up my kids, how do I get my groceries,” added Glaser. In Paris, part of Plan Velo has also involved more than just the act of riding the bike itself.

It involved building out bike routes to the suburbs, creating parking storage solutions near stations and popular destinations for bicyclists, as well as reducing the maximum speed cars could travel on certain roads. People were given tax subsidies of up to €500 if they bought a bike (similar to a scheme in the UK) – something which the Italian government has also adopted, giving people up to 60 % off a purchase of a bicycle since April.

Hidalgo has also been successful with her campaign as she has explicitly made the link between accelerating climate change and changing how cities operate through interventions like cycling (among other factors, like green public spaces).

In a report on her website, two of Hidalgo’s staffers emphasise that greening the city is a way of, “rediscovering the human dimension, strengthening the conviviality of common spaces, designing cities where it is good to walk and good to cycle.” More people cycling or walking leads to better outcomes for the environment, a relationship which is obvious even with our limited data on the phenomenon. But these changes are more than just a matter of painting over bike lanes or updating city maps with new cycle routes.

It’s also a question of ensuring public space stays that way and making Paris less car-friendly in order to make it a better place to live in – for people. Research has shown that bicyclists often report higher rates of satisfaction on their work commutes.

“It has to be a network-based approach – which is something that the Netherlands does well, which is where you’re connecting all of the possible origins and destinations in the city, taking a person from door to door without having to go out of their way,” said Chris Bruntlett, who works at the Dutch Cycling Embassy and one of the authors of Building the Cycling City. “You have to make it as attractive, direct and cohesive as possible. The number of people cycling is in direct proportion to that.”

In the coming months, there will be an additional 650 kilometres of bike lanes in Paris, costing €30 million – the routes themselves will follow existing metro lines. This is something which Hidalgo is emphasising as the next part of her plan – a “15-minute city” where everything you need can be reached on a bike in fifteen minutes.

In order for these ambitious targets to be met, and for the long term benefits to be felt, Glaser points out that there are other questions which have yet to be answered, not just in Paris, but around the world.

"They’re seeing that literally, if you build it, people will come"

She asks, “What’s much more interesting is this transition to sustainability – how are stakeholders, like city leaders, learning from the experience? How will data that they’re collecting feedback into policy development?”  The world has changed overnight, and for many cities, those questions may not be answered for a long time.

But if pop-up bike lanes can have such a drastic effect – making people happier and healthier, creating cities that are genuinely enjoyable and healthy to live in – then, in the long run, those effects may compound. For mayors like Hidalgo, it may be a vindication of a policy platform that was sometimes written off as too ambitious and unrealistic.

“Many cities had ambitious plans, sitting on desks and in offices. They’re seeing that literally, if you build it, people will come,” said Bruntlett. “It’s just about those little nudges to leave the car or public transport to pedal to wherever they’re going.” – Sanjana Varghese

(Photo credit: Andrew Gook/Unsplash)