Berlin: Where the streets belong to children. And bikes.
On the day I started writing this article, the city of Berlin has already loosened many of the measures that came into force on March 22nd due to the Covid-19 pandemics. The first restrictions involved closing pretty much everything not necessary for everyday life, including all those places that make Berlin well…Berlin.
Life seemed to have stopped and the city looked different. The sounds of chatting in restaurants, glasses touching the tables in bars and pubs, music from clubs, and broken bottles in front of Spätis were transformed into a silence no one could relate to.
What was still allowed for Berliners to do was the much-loved outside recreation (jogging, exercising, open sport fields etc.) and the children playground were still open.
Few days later, due to a high increase in new cases, Berliners were not allowed to practice sports in groups and the adored children’s parks were closed. It was a strange feeling walking pass the playgrounds and seeing the red-white tape around all those games and on the entrance gates. In one day, there was a turn from always with bustle and songs filled areas to a strange and almost heavy quietness.
Since doing outside recreational activities was only allowed if being alone or with persons from your own household, I started running and biking. It was my first bike ride in Berlin since I moved to the city the last summer. The getting used to the city and then the cold-windy weather were my main excuses for not doing it earlier. Working from home and the lock-down gave me a reason to start with outdoor activities again. And before even seeing what the Covid-19 measures changed in general in the city, on my first biking day in Berlin one thing was very noticeable, sidewalks were full of families biking and roller skating with small children. Kids aged 3–4 biking by themselves.
So, the main outdoor activities became biking and roller skating. All pretty expected from a city like Berlin. But was it safe and sustainable to have a rising number of bikers and roller skaters on sidewalks even though the city has a pretty good network of bike lanes?
I did not wait long for my answer. In a few days while doing my already well-established round around Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts I saw new “pop-up” bike lanes. And there it was — a yellow sign on the asphalt saying the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg acted immediately to the pandemics situation, realizing that keeping distance is also important among cyclist and thus decided to either wider the existing bike lanes by converting a lane previously used by cars and trucks or add new bike lanes in streets that did not have one. Less traffic in general was noticed on the streets since the measures were announced in mid-March so the decision seemed reasonable. The new bike lanes that appeared also have a nickname — “temporary”. In fact, during the current corona pandemic, the Senate and districts are carrying out the long-announced redistribution of the Berlin streets. Although it seems to be temporary it is a situation from which it will be hard to go back from.
The measures taken so far seem to be just the beginning. On April 21st, the district of Kreuzberg announced that it would add an additional 4,5 km to the existing 8,2 km of temporary bike lanes. From what can be read in the newspapers, other Berlin districts are now following this example as well.
On May 1st, the playgrounds opened again. Following all the health and hygiene measures of course. Children rushed to play outside again. This all sounded well in plan, but how do you give children the required space to play following all the social distancing measures while keeping them safe in an area where cars and bikes are not allowed?
In the last week of April, already the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg decided to set up 19 temporary play streets for the first time on the first Sunday in May. The action is planned to be repeated weekly. The 19 car-free streets of the borough and the nice weather were an invite to play on the streets close to playgrounds and closed schools and day care centres. The idea is to give children more freedom, especially in densely populated residential areas. So, every Sunday, from 12 to 6 p.m. across the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, the specified streets will be closed to traffic. For drivers, this means that parking is still permitted in these areas, including driving out. Only nobody can drive in during this time.
I went out to make a stroll around the area and saw children playing football, ride scooters, jumping ropes and painting with coloured chalks on the asphalt. However, the newly gained freedom not only served the children, parents were playing badminton or were just sitting on the edge of sidewalks drinking coffee and chatting with other parents.
Around 280 people signed-up as volunteers to keep an eye in the 19 streets. Seven volunteers, the so-called neighbourhood pilots per street. They make sure that nobody drives into the play street and that distance and hygiene rules are observed. Although the idea was born out of the Corona crisis and therefore initially is created for two months there is a possibility of an extension.
The Sunday play streets are intended to help redistribute the number of children on the playgrounds that have been reopening in the district since May 1st. The crisis had shown more than clearly that there is a lack of green areas just for children to play safe. For this very reason, many in the district hope that the temporary play streets will remain even after the corona pandemic.
In addition to the corona virus pandemic, Berlin was also experiencing a second crisis. The very dry season that was unusual for the city in this time of the year weakened the city trees. For this reason, on Sunday the district office brought a water tank to one of the play streets. Equipped with buckets and watering cans, parents and children were asked also to water the surrounding trees. A fun activity while giving back to the city and taking care of nature.
Although no one knows how long this “new normal” will last, the measures taken by some districts in Berlin prove that even without big investments we can quickly and in a smart way reinvent the public space and make it more safe and liveable for the final user — the citizen itself.
