{"id":41999,"date":"2020-06-12T11:43:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T10:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=41999"},"modified":"2020-06-16T18:04:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T17:04:42","slug":"will-take-cycle-lanes-make-green-pandemic-proof-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2020\/06\/12\/will-take-cycle-lanes-make-green-pandemic-proof-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"It will take more than a few cycle lanes to make green, pandemic-proof cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

As large swathes of the world start to reopen after weeks of coronavirus lockdown, urban planners are rethinking how to build future-proof cities. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The lockdown emptied the roads and cleared the skies over the world\u2019s largest and most polluted cities. It opened a window on what cleaner cities could look, sound and smell like.<\/p>\n

At its peak in early April, the slowdown of road, rail and maritime transport contributed the largest drop in global emissions \u2013 just under half of a 17% daily fall in CO2 emissions, according to a study published last month in Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now restrictions are lifting, while the risk of infection puts people off public transport, a shift to private cars threatens to send emissions rocketing. Global emissions have already bounced back<\/a> to just 5% below pre-pandemic daily levels.<\/p>\n

City authorities have a challenge to make sure commuters can travel to work at a safe distance from each other.<\/p>\n

\u2018Final blow\u2019<\/strong> to aviation climate plan as EU agrees to weaken rules<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many mayors have promised to rebuild greener and fairer. From Mexico City to London and Bogota to Milan, plans for hundreds of kilometres of new bike lanes have been announced \u2013 strengthening a pre-pandemic movement to reduce car dominance.<\/p>\n

Nearly 40 members of C40, a network of major cities working to address climate change, committed<\/a> to use the recovery to drive investments in \u201cexcellent public services\u201d and increasing community resilience against future threats, including climate change.<\/p>\n

This will require a holistic approach, going much further than a few cycle lanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCycle lanes shouldn\u2019t be an end in themselves – they are a means to live differently,\u201d Carlos Moreno, scientific director of the Entrepreneurship, Territory, Innovation chair at Sorbonne University in Paris and a planning advisor to mayor Anne Hidalgo, told Climate Home News.<\/p>\n

Moreno believes the transformation of cities needs to align with a pathway to holding global warming to 1.5C, the tougher target of the Paris Agreement. To achieve that, the best available science says global emissions need to nearly halve by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 10 years to radically transform our cities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Climate news in your inbox?\u00a0Sign up\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To live within today\u2019s climate, biodiversity and public health constraints, Moreno argues for an overhaul of urban design to bring essential services closer to people’s homes. People get around by foot or cycle and streets are redesigned not merely as places of transit but as \u201cliving spaces\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pandemic compelled local authorities in densely populated areas to reclaim<\/a> streets for public use: entire road sections were pedestrianised in Tel Aviv, pavements enlarged in Auckland, parking spaces became bikes lanes in Tirana, and restaurants were encouraged to use outdoor spaces for dining in Vilnius.<\/p>\n

Janette Sadik-Khan, former transport commissioner for New York city, said the move would have been considered \u00a0\u201calmost revolutionary\u201d a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic moment when cities can change course,\u201d she wrote in a report<\/a> by the National Association of City Transportation Officials which she chairs. \u201cEmpty lanes\u2026 form the outline of the future cities we need to build,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While there is clear public support<\/a> for policies that would maintain air quality improvements, private cars are still perceived as the Covid-safe transport option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be na\u00efve to think the pandemic is going to lead to the death of the car, in a context where public transport is associated with risk,\u201d said Tim Schwanen, director of the Transport Studies Unit at Oxford University\u2019s School of Geography and the Environment.<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> Coronavirus shows why we need an economy designed for wellbeing<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The swing back to private cars is a serious concern, he told CHN. In the absence of holistic transport policies, it could cause emissions to rebound sharply.<\/p>\n

A spike in air pollution would aggravate any future respiratory pandemic. Researchers established a link<\/a> between long-term exposure to PM2.5 air pollution, much of which comes from diesel cars, and a higher death rate from Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Yet in Wuhan, ground zero for the pandemic, car sales boomed to unprecedented levels<\/a>\u00a0when the city reopened after being sealed off for weeks.<\/p>\n

An Ipsos survey<\/a> in March found 66% of Chinese respondents used private cars after lockdown, compared with 34% before the outbreak. Use of buses and public transit dropped from 56% to 24%.<\/p>\n

The study also found an uptake in people\u2019s intention to buy a car \u2013 a trend so stark it is likely to foreshadow a similar rise in other parts of the world, Schwanen said. Early indications suggest this could already be happening.<\/p>\n

Data published by Apple Maps<\/a> on searches for directions to travel by car shows notable increases compared with volumes recorded on 13 January \u2013 a 16% rise in the US and 14% in Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities cannot do without public transport. It\u2019s absolutely vital that it is brought back to some forms of normality within the constraints of public health,\u201d Schwanen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reopening cities w\/o reopening transit,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Sadik-Khan in response to guidance<\/a> to employers by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggesting incentives for staff to drive private cars to work.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLet them drive cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CDC telling workers to drive alone assumes that everyone owns a car and that cities can handle the traffic.<\/p>\n

This is a fever dream.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reopening cities w\/o reopening transit. Ruling it out doesn\u2019t make it safer. https:\/\/t.co\/CduIy87kma<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Janette Sadik-Khan (@JSadikKhan) May 30, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n