By Thomas Straatemeier and Michelle Kearns

Recovering Resiliently

COVID-19 acutely highlights the need for resilience in our transportation systems. A resilient system deals with disruptions from external forces while continuing to function. It can bounce back quickly.

COVID-19 has placed stress on urban areas that typically thrive off the density, connection, and proximity that inevitably leads to a robust set of mobility options – our downtowns are highly valued for the ability to walk, bike, take a subway, and other options to get to your destination.

“As restrictions lift and we begin to move around our cities again, how we get around will be crucial.”

As restrictions lift and we begin to move around our cities again, how we get around will be crucial. Some transit systems, such as the TTC, estimate that a 6’ social distancing measure can only be accommodated with a 75% reduction in capacity. The King Streetcar carried 80,000 passengers a day in pre-COVID times – even if only two-thirds of travellers return, and somehow spread out their trips evenly over 24 hours, the route would still require 55 second headways to move everyone safely. If half of these 52,000 daily King Street travellers instead moved to taking Ubers and Lyfts or their own cars, that’s still + 22,000 cars per day extra funnelling into downtown (assuming some level of carpooling). This is just one high ridership surface corridor. The Toronto subways move 1.5 million people per day.

On the west coast, Vancouver public transit usage plummeted with self-isolation measures in March 2020. What will recovery look like there? The charts below illustrate two scenarios: the first shows that without intervention, there could be significant growth in vehicle use for trips formerly done by transit; the second reflects the opportunity – what could it look like to recover trips by active transportation or transit?

*Figure 1 Vancouver Economic Recovery - By Car…?*

*Figure 2 ...or by Walking and Transit?*

A lack of choice (I can only take this bus to get to work), redundancy (the only bus route is out of service for the evening and I have no other options) and diversity (only transit is available to me) in a transportation system leads to a lack of resilience.

We know that some transit riders will be uncomfortable returning to their usual mode of travel. City centres have struggled with peak hour traffic volumes and the resulting congestion—this will be exacerbated if pre-COVID-19 transit riders begin driving themselves to work or taking an Uber or Lyft. Many transit riders don’t own vehicles, and many people don’t feel safe or capable to try biking for transportation.

In Toronto, we’ve seen that the bus routes that remained crowded at the beginning of the COVID shut-downs, serve communities in the inner suburbs, indicating that lower income essential workers are facing very different COVID realities than higher income knowledge workers who have the choice to work remotely.

MOVING PEOPLE SAFELY

With this basic idea of the scale of travel in Toronto, let’s reimagine our return to “normal” in a way that still moves people efficiently, but safely – not only from the threat of fast-moving vehicles, but also from the threat of close contact and overcrowded transit.

A COVID-proof, climate resilient, and attractive vibrant city are the same thing

“A COVID-proof, climate resilient, and attractive vibrant city are the same thing.”

“Six feet” society rules will eventually pass, and we will continue to face challenges like addressing growing transportation inequities and preparing for climate change. The devastating impacts of COVID-19 have highlighted how resiliency has multi-faceted benefits. Cities that have ample public green space that’s equitably allocated, room for safely walking and cycling, and neighbourhood amenities, will be more resilient to a pandemic and climate change, as well as being more attractive and vibrant.

Dutch cities have adjusted to shifting pandemic transport patterns quickly – as cities are designed to cater to all modes, changes in travel behaviour can be easily absorbed (especially by bike).

Multimodality comes in different shapes. On busy corridors with all modes of traffic, it’s important to create dedicated space for each mode or create a parallel route for active modes. The Dutch have recently invested in regional bike “highways” connecting suburbs with downtown, giving people from the cities better access to green space and people from the suburbs more options to get to work. Bike highways are an excellent alternative to commuter rail and have fuelled sales of e-bikes in the country. But in downtown areas, or residential streets, where space is limited, it might be appropriate to mix with traffic. However, this requires different thinking about street design, speed limits, and cultural expectations of active transportation.

Designing slower residential streets is a powerful tool to a more resilient city

On some narrower and slower residential and downtown streets, giving all the modes their own dedicated space (curb, parking, bike lane, cars) is not an efficient use of space. Since the start of the pandemic, it’s become clear that sidewalks are too narrow to comfortably handle pedestrian volumes. Lowering speed limits to 30km/h could allow easier and safer bike/vehicle sharing to more efficiently use space and encourage biking. If we go one step further and reduce speeds to 20km/h or even lower, we can mix all uses—in the Netherlands, limits on speeds allows kids to safely play on the streets.

“We must let go of the idea that the residential street is a place primarily for traffic and think of it as a public space, a collective extension of our homes. ”

The notion of lowering speeds may seem like an unusual one for North American cities that are used to wide roads and speed enforcement challenges. It requires changing the design of the street entirely to indicate intuitively what kind of speed is appropriate. Road users, traffic engineers, and politicians must let go of the idea that the residential street is a place primarily for traffic and think of it as a public space, a collective extension of our homes. Designing our streets with this new vision will create a much more attractive and resilient street which also has plenty of room for green space and stormwater.

*In Amsterdam, slower speeds create better mobility options for kids. Photo credit: Diga Verde.*

The Dutch pioneered the “woonerf” in the 70s, where design conveys a shared space where drivers intuitively understand their role as guests, and not owners of the space. A woonerf requires a network approach to prevent traffic spillover effects from one street to another. The Dutch created “living areas” streets - streets between main arterials with lower speeds where through-traffic is discouraged. When this idea was first implemented, some worried it would result in the clogging of traffic on main arterials. But, in most cases, this has not happened as more people chose to walk or bike for short trips as a result of the increased feeling of safety.

A woonerf designs the street as a public space in the first place. Photo credit: Amsterdam Municpal Affairs and Housing — A *woonerf* designs the street as a public space in the first place. Photo credit: Amsterdam Municpal Affairs and Housing

Disruption is a chance to reset and shape the transit system to best serve a city’s needs

“Combining the door-to-door flexibility of the bike with the reliability and speed of high-quality transit creates a system that can compete with the car and deliver more benefits to the whole city.”

In the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), researchers found that over 700,000 daily transit trips are short enough to potentially be done on a bike. If some trips shifted to active transportation, more capacity could be freed up for trips where transit is required (due to ability, distance, cargo, etc.) and transit could speed up.

Continued network development of slow streets helps take pressure of feeder bus routes, allowing some travellers to get to their local subway station by biking instead of taking a crowded bus, also reducing potential health risks.

*In Amsterdam, different modes share the same space. Photo Credit: Diga Verde*

The combination of commuter rail and bike has been the fastest growing mode choice in the Netherlands for 20 years. The ability to pick up a shared bike with your transit pass has been an incredible success. Combining the door-to-door flexibility of the bike with the reliability and speed of high-quality transit creates a system that can compete with the car and deliver more benefits to the whole city.

*In the Netherlands, bike streets are designed to cater for active modes. Photo credit: Diga Verde.*

This window of opportunity requires flexible and timely decision making

“In a public health crisis...decisions must be bold, ambitious, and quick to deal with the crisis-at-hand, but also to intervene in future habits upon returning to normal.”

In a public health crisis, we must move quickly so that people feel like they have options. Decisions must be bold, ambitious, and quick to deal with the crisis-at-hand, but also to intervene in future habits upon returning to normal.

Daily and habitual travel has been disrupted with COVID. Flexibility means having long-term strategies but allowing short-term reactions to deal with imminent issues. Dutch cities have a strong tradition of strategic transportation plans and programs that ensure consistency on a network level. This also makes it possible to speed up parts of the program in times of change.

The City of the Hague was already working on a program to close streets near schools during drop-off and pick-up times to ensure children can arrive safely by foot or bike. They saw the need to act quickly because social distancing measures could lead to more people arriving at schools by car, thus hampering the space for other people to keep distance.

Quickly, the city created 15 new “school streets” with more to follow. School streets are streets that during drop off/pick up times are closed for motorized traffic. So instead of allowing the disruption of COVID to increase auto traffic, they successfully shifted travel trends in a positive direction. They ensured that this is not seen as a temporary measure, but part of moving forward as a resilient city. In North America, the City of Oakland implemented a similar program in record time.

*In Brussels, school streets are closed to motorized traffic during drop-off and pick-up times. Photo credit: RDA Suisse*

Toronto has rolled out recreationally-focused weekend road openings for walking and biking as well as some 24/7 residential roads designated as “shared streets”. In May, the City approved 40km of on-street cycling lanes, accelerating some projects that were previously discussed but not yet implemented.

The pandemic will surely be temporal in nature and cities and societies will return to normal. The question for our transport system will be will we return to the old normal or will we return to a transport system that makes our streets more attractive and is more resilient to face future crises?

We look forward to seeing future active transportation plans become part of strategic network thinking about speed limits, traffic circulation, and multimodality as the Dutch have shown can be done with great success. Contrary to popular belief, the Dutch do not cycle so much because it is in their genes, but as a result of 30-40 years of deliberate policies put systematically into place.