Study: COVID-19 pandemic has changed city planning operations
Siobhan Treacy | August 06, 2020Researchers from the University of British Columbia studied how COVID-19 has forced cities to adjust and cope and how these changes will transform urban life in the long run.
UBC urban planning lecturer Erick Villagomez. Source: UBC
The pandemic has changed the way cities operate and some of these changes may be temporary, but many will stick around long after the pandemic. Such changes include planned bike infrastructure, street calming projects and sidewalk redesigns, according to researchers. There are a lot of city planning experiments underway that are exploring efforts to support businesses hit by the pandemic and allowing people to feel safe while exploring during the pandemic.
People’s sense of place and space has been permanently transformed by the pandemic, giving city planners and policymakers a chance to examine the links between urban planning, public space and well being.
When the pandemic started, cities and businesses had to adapt to the new limitations and drop in pedestrian traffic and commercial activity. The rate is rising slowly, but businesses are still struggling and many cannot afford to stay open long enough to see the end of the pandemic.
As such, the team predicts that more cities will be willing to implement low cost and temporary street calming and pedestrian projects in the near future. Cities can redesign streets to cater to the increase in online shipping, home food delivery and curbside service. Researchers said city planners should implement projects that make cities more attractive to pedestrians.
Researchers found that many people have a greater appreciation for easy access to nature and recreational activities since the pandemic. To accommodate this, cities should revisit the potential of unused spaces and provide more outdoor activities, including utilizing unused rooftop space and brownfield sites.
But these changes do not just happen on their own. The team encourages citizens to make their preferences and needs known to their city leaders and policy professionals to build healthier and happier cities.
This study was published in Cities and Health.
This was already happening in many urban areas long before the COVID-19 panic.
And then there are 'planned communities' like Columbia, Maryland.
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However, some people who may not have considered doing these things previously, may come to realize they like the idea once something like COVID-19 perturbs the normal way of life.