The roads have also served as a place for social interactions to happen at a safe distance. Bikers and pedestrians have used the usually jammed streets for exercise and transportation. “Our Denver advocacy arm, The Denver Street Partnership, was one of the forces behind this,” Todd said. Jack Todd, media and communications director with bicycle advocacy group Bicycle Colorado, said that the experiment happened in part through efforts by local advocacy groups as well as citizens. Now, bike advocates in the city are working to make these changes permanent. The city fully closed streets in parks to cars and has designated eight additional roads as “open streets.” Local traffic - which includes those who live and park along the street, as well as delivery and emergency vehicles - is allowed to access the roads, but general vehicular traffic is not. Denver, Colorado, has done the same in its densely populated Capital Hill and downtown areas. In Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia closed MLK Drive, a major urban thoroughfare, to vehicular traffic in mid-March to open more space for pedestrians and cyclists to move about at a safe distance from one another. Now the city is trying again, closing off 40 miles this month, with an ultimate goal of 100 miles of cycle-and-pedestrian-first streets in the future. “We did end up using up a lot of NYPD personnel that we don’t have to spare right now,” De Blasio said in a press conference. In the US, New York City called off its initial initiative to close streets to vehicular traffic after 11 days, due to what Mayor Bill de Blasio said was an overwhelming need for police staffing to monitor the roads.
This approach could prove beneficial both environmentally as well as economically, as that $50 is likely to be put directly into bicycle shops and maintenance equipment. The $22 million initiative will also go toward installing new bike lanes and promoting cycling safety. Last week, Reuters reported that the federal government will pay 50 euros ($54) per person to help cover bike maintenance costs. In Europe, France is actually putting cash into the pockets of citizens who agree to bike commute. Mexico City hosts the same weekly bike ritual, and both cities have some of the strongest networks of urban bike lanes among Latin American capitals. The city has since added an additional 72 miles of temporary bike lanes to serve bikers during the pandemic. It’s a weekly ritual that draws tens of thousands of people. New Zealand was the first to use this line of thought during the pandemic, with its federal government agreeing to help urban areas fund temporary bike lanes in cities across the country.īogota, the sprawling capital of Colombia, has for years shut down a major thoroughfare each Sunday, opening the road to bikes, joggers, street musicians, and vendors. Finding what works for individual cities will take cooperation between local governments, citizens, and advocacy groups.
0 kommentar(er)
