5 things that London could do today to transform the streets during coronavirus
Coronavirus is changing our world. With large cities like London, Paris, Milan, and New York the most heavily impacted by the virus, residents are struggling to cope with lockdowns. Mental health is suffering and demands for more street space grow louder by the day. Some cities are acting faster than others.
London could be leading the world in showing that more equitable mobility and land use is possible during these challenging times. There is an opportunity to use London’s streets, our most abundant public spaces, more equitably through this crisis and beyond.
Cities as diverse as Oakland, Vancouver, Toronto, Mexico City, and Brussels are already opening up their streets for walking and cycling during the crisis. Brighton has also joined the global group of cities taking action to open up streets for safe social distancing for pedestrians [1].
London Councils and TfL should take inspiration from the cities already acting to improve life under lockdown, and act now to help us transition out of lockdown in the best position possible to achieve a healthier, more sustainable and equitable city for the long-term.
- Introduce regular car free days.
This spring, we can move beyond one-off events to introduce regular car free days as a systematic tool, integrated in policymaking processes for testing pedestrianisation and active travel improvements across all London boroughs. The Covid-19 crisis highlights the inequity in access to public space as people struggle to maintain safe 2m spatial distancing on narrow footways.
Weekly car free days would provide respite for individuals and families to practice their daily exercise safely with full access to the public realm, and would also generate data and insights to help shape the future layout of our streets. A trial of weekly car free days could start this month and would ensure continued access for emergency vehicles, public transport, and residents with reduced mobility.
The success of the weekly ciclovia in Bogota, Colombia, in providing essential safe cycling facilities and access to exercise should inspire more ambition in London.
2. Enable all residential streets to become Play Streets.
Play streets enable communities to open their streets to pedestrians and block through traffic without incurring a fee. All residential streets in London should become de facto play streets between 9:00–19:00 if residents make this request. Streamlining the process and making it automatic upon the request by residents would avoid fees and the month-long use of valuable council officer time associated with implementing Traffic Management Orders (TMOs). TMOs in any case are generally designed for street works and can make formal changes too costly for many local authorities to consider, especially in the case of play street requests. London Councils and TfL could change this today.
Play Streets also empower residents to open their streets to pedestrians when it works best for them, and frees up local authority time for emergency responses and other more pressing concerns. If London Councils insist on an application for people to turn their street into a Play Street, it should be one-page in length, free to apply, with the same process in place across all London boroughs. We think this is an exciting opportunity for cooperation and leadership at London Councils and would build on decades of work at Play England, London Play and Playing Out to support healthy, active lifestyles. In the meantime, please request a new Play Street here from your councillors.
3. Roll out segregated cycle lanes on a London-wide strategic network.
TfL and London Councils should roll out an experimental network of segregated cycle lanes on key multi-lane roads to be ready by the end of this month. Using an Experimental Traffic Management Order (ETMO) would enable streets to be reconfigured within a week without consultation, a much quicker turnaround than the lengthier TMO process. London Councils and TfL could show leadership to quickly identify and enact ETMOs initially on essential routes for key workers near hospitals and supermarkets, and then proceed to roll out a wider strategic network through the spring. These routes would be live prototypes for the cycleways of the future and would establish safe, healthy routes for key workers to and from their workplaces, and for residents and families to move through the city as the lockdown measures are eased.
See Mark Strong’s article and recommendations for ETMOs here for more inspiration.
4. Create 1,000 Garden School Streets.
Accelerate the roll-out of pedestrianised, planted School Streets in front of primary schools across the city where feasible over the coming summer holidays. The long-term target should be for 1,000 pedestrianised school streets to be opened up with planting and space to play. That would be just one School Street for every 2,000 children in London. Providing a garden on these streets is key to ensure that all children have access to green space and a fresh food supply if fruits and vegetables can be planted. Pilot projects could be run in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society in lieu of the RHS Chelsea project and would build on existing work by Mums for Lungs to reach out to schools and parents across London. The Mayor and London Councils should work together to achieve this important goal.
According to the National Foundation for Educational Research, “School gardens have proved to be a source not only of learning outcomes for pupils, but also for other wider outcomes around both the Every Child Matters agenda and the wider duty of community cohesion. Schools [can use] the gardens to promote the development of active citizens as well as independent learners...” Why not roll out gardens school streets across London in time for September?
Ask for a new Garden School Street here.
5. Boost local shops safely by widening footways on high streets.
Social distancing can be better facilitated on local high streets by either converting on-street parking to walking space or using planters and other temporary barriers to reduce/remove the inside lane on dual carriageways to a walking route. Widening pavements in all of London’s high streets could be swiftly accomplished with ETMOs as an important step towards prototyping London Car Free Day’s vision for 200 traffic-free town centres across the city. Local councillors the authority to approve this, so please use our Ask For It tool to request a trial of a new walking high street here.
[1] There is a helpful open source list of all cities taking action to open up new streets for walking and safe social distancing, curated by Tabitha Combs, Research Associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill here.
