Our Cities are a Blank Canvas- What do We Want to Paint?
With traffic congestion largely gone from cities during our current COVID-19 Pandemic, it’s given residents a chance to view their cities in a new light.
Change from Crisis in The Netherlands
In October of 1973 The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo on numerous western nations including the Netherlands. The embargo lasted for six months, until March of 1974 and saw prices of oil skyrocket by nearly 400% in many places. While many nations began to ration their supplies (causing long lines at gas stations) and encourage residents to drive less during the crisis, The Netherlands saw this crisis as an opportunity. An opportunity to holistically change their relationship with oil and, in turn, the automobile.
Across the Netherlands, they built bike infrastructure, focused development on people-friendly cities and shopping districts and invested heavily in public transit. In the United States, during that same period, we built new highways, encouraged suburban sprawl and created cities that now make up half of the world’s top 10 most congested. America’s obesity rates are nearly double that of the Netherlands and its cities’ impact on climate change is nearly half that of a traditional American city. The stark differences in the direction both countries went when presented with similar difficult circumstances provide an example for our present day global cities wondering, “how do we come back from a pandemic and what changes do we want to see?”
Adapting our Social Spaces Around the World During a Crisis Requiring “Social Distancing”
In an age where “social distancing” is the word of the day, every day, cities from Melbourne to New York and Calgary are heeding the call of residents to get outdoors, get some sun and fresh air while continuing to practice safe social distancing.
Denver’s Mayor Hancock has started closing neighborhood streets to vehicular traffic in an effort to create more open space for pedestrians, while at the same time discouraging large scale “open streets” events that some fear may draw large crowds. So far, their plan has worked and plans are in the works to expand to more neighborhood streets in the coming days. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded with the NYC Mayor to implement open streets across the city. While an initial pilot occurred last week, there is a strong push for more of these neighborhood level open streets. In Toronto, Architecture Critic Alex Bozikovic has written a critique of the city’s current abundance of empty streets and how they could be reused for area residents; “With most of the world staying home, car traffic has dropped dramatically. Our streets are wide. It’s time to reallocate that space to allow for walking and cycling.” Bogota has extended their Ciclovia bike/ pedestrian paths to allow residents and commuters safer, less dense transportation options around the city.
In Vancouver, it was announced that the city’s massive public park, Stanley Park, is going completely car free to encourage safe social distancing while practicing passive recreation throughout the 1,000 acre park. The City also announced they’d be limited oceanfront roadways to a single lane to allow for one lane to be converted to a pedestrian and bicycle lane, widening a heavily used recreation path.
As I wrote about previously in a blog in late 2019, the trend of human first urban design was beginning to take hold across the globe prior to COVID-19. As more and more citizens push local leaders to expand pedestrian spaces during a time of crisis and social distancing, it also is showing our urban citizens just what city living can be like with human first planning policies in place. Will we stick with the status quo or push harder for the growing trend of human first urban design?
Presented With a Blank Canvas, What Does our Future City Look Like?
Most of the world’s cities have hit the “pause” button over the past few weeks. This pause has allowed urban residents the chance to listen, see and feel what a potential future car free or “car lite” city could look like. From famous journalists like Dan Rather calling for “wider sidewalks” and more room for pedestrians, to young children finally having the opportunity to learn to ride a bicycle on a closed urban street, many are seeing the wrongs in our previous ways, and now, a path towards righting those wrongs.
As the Netherlands and the United States discovered during the Oil Crisis of the 1970s the decisions we make to adapt our urban environments to a changing world today, can have deep, long lasting impacts on our post crisis qualities of life for not just ourselves, but for generations to come.
The choice for a better, more human centered, environment in all of the worlds cities is ours to make today. Do we want to continue with the status quo of auto-centric urban design…
…or use this opportunity to push for long term change, improving the quality of life for all of our urban residents, as The Netherlands did in their moment of opportunity?
