'Slow Street' Initiatives in Cities Promote Social Distance

摘要

AS THE PANDEMIC emergency drags on, inhabitants of dense urban environments are challenged to effectively maintain physical distancing. Sidewalks are narrow and often obstructed, and much public space has been engineered around parking and the flow of vehicular traffic. "COVID has revealed how little space we give to people in our cities and how much space we give to cars," says Brent Toderian, a Vancouver-based city planner. Now, as stay-at-home orders have resulted in largely empty streets, some local governments are temporarily converting roadways into pedestrian zones where people have space to safely accomplish essential trips on foot, to exercise, or to simply enjoy fresh air. Several U.S. cities-including Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Boston-have implemented programs that restrict vehicle access on select streets, prioritizing cyclists, joggers, and pedestrians. Oakland, California, has an especially ambitious initiative, with a phased plan for designating 74 miles, or 10 percent of its roadways, as "Slow Streets."