Jolien Hermans

STREET SPACE: TIME TO COLUMN RETHINK AND REVISE

Crises have been used many times in the past as a factor to accelerate changes in the public space. The increased use of the vehicle since the 50’s and the 60’s of the 20th led to dramatic changes in the urban environment. Demolishing entire neighborhoods to make space for motororized traffic and transferring city squares into parking areas. These changes have also taken a heavy toll on human life. In 1971 alone, there were 3300 deaths from road accidents, of which 400 were children under the age of 14. Protest movements arose and called to stop the “Child Murder” (“Stop de Kindermoord”) and demanded safer streets for children. Cooperation between the bottom-up activists and the top-down policies led to a series of actions that had a great impact on the public space.

During the current global crises of the COVID-19 virus, the example of the Dutch case has been mentioned many times by policy makers, planners and urban activists. Whether the instructions were total lockdown or ‘stay in place’ – People all over the world faced dramatic changes in their way of life. The limitations of indoors and crowded places, working and studying from home and the concerns of people from using public transportation and shared mobility systems – were bringing upfront questions about the quality of the public spaces in the cities. How many green areas including ‘pocket parks’ spread in the city and in what areas. Is there enough space to walk on the streets in your city to keep the social distance regulations and what are the additional ways of safe transportations that the city has to offer besides relying on vehicles? Questions that were mainly discussed in professional and academic discourse became more apparent in the general public discussion.

Many Cities around the world reacted to the changing reality and the new guidelines by using tools of Tactical Urbanism. A term that describes fast and cheap interventions in the built environment. These changes are usually temporary but may become also permanent. Germany implemented pop-up bike lanes in more than 100 cities to react to the new patterns of transportation that increased dramatically during the pandemic. The Mobycon company published a guide that gives practical advice and guidelines on how to plan safe and temporary cycling infrastructure that can be implemented in only 10 days. In Milan, the “Strade Aperte’’ (Open streets) program was launched at the end of April, to widen sidewalks and paved bicycle lanes to encourage the return of traffic and activity to the main streets. This also includes limiting vehicles to 30 km/h in some areas. In New York City more than 160 km(!) transferred temporarily to open streets, a street that is closed for vehicle traffic during the day (except for emergency vehicles and limited local traffic), to have enough space for pedestrians and cyclists near the “new” attractions such as parks. The city also implemented major programs to help the restaurant business to recover and return to activity. By filling out an online form, close to 9500 business owners have received permission to convert the parking area into a seating area for the restaurant’s customers.

Most of these measures that were (and still are) taken during the pandemic in public space were highlighting an important topic: Our street space. How are the streets designed in different cities and countries? How much space is given to each of the street’s users. Is the planning approach more car centric or pedestrian and cyclist oriented? The pandemic highlighted the need for a spacious and unbaling public space on the short term period: in order to maintain the 1.5 to 2 meter of social distance on the streets, to create an alternative mode of mobility and to enable businesses to operate under the instructions, but we should not forget the long term. The temporary solutions that were promoted all over the world by tactical urbanism strategies, to limit the speed and movement of the vehicle from central areas in cities and change the hierarchy of the street space design to become more dominant by cyclist and pedestrian, showed an alternative to distributing the street space. A way that promotes sustainable mobility and turns the streets space into a lively and active public space, where people are welcome to stay and not just pass by.

This way priorities values of health, environment, air quality, accessibility and inclusiveness. So, if we want that the changes that started during the crises will stay here for the long term and will not fade when the pandemic will be over – we should pay more attention to how our street space represents our values and priorities.

Sara Siegel

University Lecturer of Urban Design Unit at the TU/e

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