Streets Are Arable Lands Lying Fallow

As communities around the world adapt to a new normal, one unanticipated dilemma lies in finding space in cities for residents to walk, bike or run outside while still social distancing. Many sidewalks and bike lanes are at capacity. This leaves city streets as some of the only remaining public space for residents to move about. But given that car traffic is more than halved, these free-flow traffic conditions allow drivers to go faster than normal. This creates unsafe and unwelcoming conditions for walkers and cyclists—users whose demands are increasing.

The current context of significantly curtailed trips to stores, school, and work provides an opportunity to strategically build out human-scaled transportation networks in cities. Now is the time to repurpose select streets for only walking and cycling. This will allow us to provide safe access to the outdoors while also spurring a paradigm shift for transport planning. Streets are now arable, really for the first time ever, which makes it is a perfect time to cultivate new uses.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials recently responded to this issue, in part, by releasing an evolving toolkit of 22 response strategies designed to protect road users. This is layered on other advice. These measures include changing lane configurations, repurposing parking lanes, and opening up other streets only to nonmotorized travel. They are now being rolled out and framed as emergency response measures–in terms of what can be done now, as in tomorrow.

Berlin’s temporary protected bike lanes installed almost overnight in response to #COVID19. 🚲 pic.twitter.com/Yy1AFllE8C

— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) April 23, 2020

Missing in many of these deliberations is a systematic thinking through of long-term implications. An opportunity is being offered to consider where street alterations will most advantageously enhance human-scaled access for the most people in cities, now and beyond. Planners and designers can toy with data-driven optimization models and partner in visioning exercises to present leaders in cities with compelling alternatives.

Addressing two issues would support city transport planning efforts here. The first lies in knowing where on a city’s street system to make changes. Places with linear park systems like Minneapolis, with its Grand Rounds Parkway, no doubt have a leg up. But are there other streets that would provide value? Balancing equity and costs of implementation as top priorities will provide a good first step.

It is also important to think through which streets, if opened up, could set new precedents for how to get around. Changes to such streets can be used to stimulate a positive feedback loop for the next generation of improvements. Data influencing some of these decisions is readily available and could be analyzed quickly. As a starting point, cities should prioritize where many short trips congregate such as neighborhood shopping districts.

A second issue lies in having a framework to evaluate these changes. Important here is to afford ample time and patience to let any experiments play out. People take considerable time to establish new routines for how they get around town. Our current circumstances—stay-at-home orders combined with over-capacity bicycle and pedestrian facilities—will helpfully serve as a fast-forward button for many users to create a firm routine that can last beyond this pandemic. In general, however, we will need months to allow new patterns to play out if necessary.

Theory-based predictions have historically guided thinking about what streets would look like without cars. Seeing streets in COVID times absent of cars, an idea typically deemed as too extreme, has been turned into reality. A view into a range of possibilities, what policy analysts call the Overton window, has opened up. Ideas previously dismissed out-of-hand can now be envisioned, if not fully viewed as politically possible.

“Street space is arable land, laying fallow in this crisis. Let’s put it to good use to humanize our city streets.”

The idea is to let a community come away with a solid understanding of how its human-scaled transport network might work, should it be more realized. We can seize upon easy opportunities today while working swiftly to put a strategic framework into place that can expand our successes. Many small successes can coalesce to create substantive gains. It might even trigger tipping points to reset the pace and health of our cities and their residents, thereby helping preserve the heritage of our streets as they become the pathways for our future. Street space is arable land, laying fallow in this crisis. Let’s put it to good use to humanize our city streets.

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About the Authors

Kevin J. Krizek is Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder whose work analyzes the design of cities and transport alternatives. His research has been awarded a post as a visiting professor of “Cycling in Changing Urban Regions” (Radboud University, the Netherlands) and two Fulbright appointments (University of Bologna, Italy; EAFIT University, Medellin). Krizek is the co-author/editor of four books, including Metropolitan Transport and Land Use (2018, 2nd ed.) and also served as the scientific director for the global Velo-city 2017 research symposium. 

Marya Morris, FAICP, is a planning consultant and freelance editor & writer of planning books and articles. While at the American Planning Association from 1988 until 2006, she was instrumental in reestablishing the connection between planning and public health through APA's partnerships with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Assn. of County and City Health Officials, and the CDC. She is the author of Integrating Planning and Public Health: Tools and Strategies to Create Healthy Places (APA 2006) and many other works. 

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