New steps to a shared future on our streets
In Auckland’s suburbs, the car has roared back into life as the boss of city roads. However, those rowdy engines have not yet erased the Covid-19 lockdown images of mostly carless streets and how our home patches were temporarily transformed.
During lockdown, walks in residential areas showed neighbourhoods turned into mini villages.
Traffic noise was down, bird warbles were louder. Joggers and walkers dodged kids careening around the blocks on bikes.
For those children, could it be the start of a lifelong special interest in two wheels rather than four?
It was possible to glimpse a healthier and more home-centred future.
Auckland has made great strides in recent years in increasing the area given to walk and cycleways but could the coronavirus pandemic mean a wider reimagining of how we live?
Cars are the easy option for getting from A to B. They are the past of city planning and how we have preferred to travel.
However, the pandemic has put a huge question mark over the health safety of public transport with passengers in closed, confined spaces.
Officials and experts have cited the impossibility of ensuring distancing on crowded public transport, which will clearly need new safety innovations.
City authorities around the world, who don’t want car-use boosted, believe walking and cycling can take some of the load.
The temporary absence of vehicles during lockdown highlighted how they dominate the road space instead of sharing it more with pedestrians and bus and cycle lanes.
Overseas, there has been an immediate uptick in the pedestrian and bike revolution.
At the weekend, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced that some main streets in the city will be limited to buses, walkers and cyclists. Cars and trucks may be kept away from Waterloo Bridge and London Bridge.
It is a smart way of addressing the emergency and longer-term issues — such as climate change, pollution, health, security threats — at the same time.
“By ensuring our city’s recovery is green, we will also tackle our toxic air, which is vital to make sure we don’t replace one public health crisis with another,” Khan said.
Previously, authorities in Berlin set up temporary lanes to meet demand for safe cycling. Bogota, Budapest and Vancouver have also set aside more road space for cyclists during the outbreak.
Melbourne plans to create 12km of temporary bike lanes.
Milan has ambitious plans to rework 35km of streets to enable cycling and walking.
Paris has set aside hundreds of millions in euros for a cycle network, while New York, Seattle and other United States cities have schemes to widen footpaths and close streets to cars.
As more people work from home, and get household items delivered, daily wanders through their local area will become their new normal.
This newspaper is subject to NZ Media Council procedures. A complaint must first be directed in writing, within one month of publication, to formalcomplaints@nzherald.co.nz. If dissatisfied, the complaint may be sent to the Media Council, P O Box 10-879, The Terrace, Wellington 6143. Or use the online complaint form at www.mediacouncil.org.nz Include copies of the article and all correspondence with the publication.