Kevin J. Krizek How COVID19 reshaped US cities TED
when you think of most cities in the u.s
images like this come to mind little
green space lots of fast-moving cars
bumper-to-bumper traffic
and humans waiting at curbs and
crosswalks clearly outranked by the
automobile
since the dawn of car culture urban
transportation planning has been fixated
on moving automobiles quickly now
one-third of all the land in cities
is set up for cars we add lanes to six
lane highways
we cut down trees to widen two lane
residential roads
we pave over scarce open space for
surface parking
many car owners effectively pay double
to reserve up
space at home and work
providing for cars was a massive
investment and has provided us
immeasurable flexibility in how we
travel
but our dependence on them the costs the
noise the pollution
have taken a toll on us we can now do
better
and here’s how i’ve been studying
transportation and environmental design
for 25 years
i’ve encouraged designers engineers
decision makers and the public
to look beyond our current car as king
model
but widespread change has been slow to
come
and then covet 19 hit and we went into
lockdown
conventional rules that kept the auto at
the top of the heap
were ditched almost overnight
we opened up our streets for people
walking in the middle of them
we open them up for outdoor dining
and those emerging techie modes of
getting around town this meant more room
for
regular bikes electric bikes and all
forms of wheeled devices that are
cleaner
lighter and more convenient than cars
signs like
this went up scenes like this appeared
using street space to preserve
physical and mental health became an
imperative
now many cities have been trying their
hand at alternative street designs for
decades
these initiatives gained sudden traction
and natural experiment was unfolding
what happens when cars take a back seat
to people
it propelled my colleague and me to
start studying these changes in 55 of
the largest cities in the u.s
and what we found is thrilling the
cities that are innovators in our study
are closer to finding solutions to some
of the most pressing and challenging
problems of our time
like climate change equity
safety seattle was one of the first to
jump into action i was on their bicycle
advisory board
20 years ago with bill nye the science
guy for decades they’ve dealt with
that crumbling auto infrastructure all
those bridges and viaducts
they’ve long been striving to bring more
equitable access to more people
on the streets shortly after the
lockdown
the city unfurled a 30-page playbook
to use their street space better a few
weeks later
26 miles of streets were closed through
car
traffic opening them up for people on
foot and bike
the city chose these particular areas
because they were underserved by
existing
pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure
and they were in neighborhoods that were
experiencing more of the impact
from the pandemic both from a health
perspective and
an economic perspective a month later
the city mayor of seattle announced that
20 miles of these streets were going to
be closed to cars permanently city
engineers are now
working with neighborhood groups
volunteer based organizations like
neighborhood greenways
to bring together residents in designing
alternative visions for streets
over the summer on the other side of the
country pittsburgh rolled out a bike
plus plan
as the number of people opting to block
and bike
exploded this plan enabled the city to
slow down car traffic on even more
streets
now pittsburgh has a long-standing
commitment to innovation and this bike
plus plan helps usher into the
transportation system
new innovative forms of mobility it
might be that dusty schwinn
hanging on the garage now refurbished
with battery power
a cargo bike or an electric
three-wheeled variant of a bike
that provides more comfort safety or
protection
from the weather you see these types of
modes
they can serve mostly the same purpose
as cars trucks suvs
but they do so using a third of the
space to get around
and these new modes they can be great
for older people or those without a car
so they can run errands or visit friends
you see pittsburgh
is redesigning their city streets now to
accommodate more of these human scale
vehicles
and what we’re seeing is that they’re
redesigning 50 miles of streets over the
next two years
to bring in more welcoming environments
for bike plus type vehicles
and in so doing they’re ensuring that
technological advances meet the needs of
humans
and not cars further the bike plus plan
is helping the city reduce
transportation related emissions
50 by 2030 all while expanding
affordable access
to jobs and destinations i’m excited to
keep an eye on pittsburgh as they share
lessons for street transformations
with other cities moving forward
we also looked at austin texas a city
always on the fastest growing cities
list
now that growth can be good but the
residents have felt the strain
they too launched a healthy streets
program opening up select streets to
just walking and cycling
now this action proved valuable in
helping residents
realize and broaden the benefit of their
tax dollars that typically pay
to serve cars new designs were
implemented on south congress
the iconic main street of texas in
downtown austin
we see in these historic photos how the
stretch of road has changed character
over time evolving with advances in
technology
civic priorities or public preferences
with city council’s direction this
stretch of road now has two
fewer lanes of car traffic a third of
the street space was given over to
people
bicycling and rolling on scooters taking
them off the busy sidewalks better
suited for dining under the oak trees
and giving them increased
comfort and safety austin residents
recently and overwhelmingly approved
more than seven
billion dollars in an unprecedented bond
referendum
a nice chunk of which is going to just
transform
streets for active mobility and safety
hundreds of low-cost
high-impact projects are going to help
build out a new bicycle and pedestrian
infrastructure
for residents of all ages and abilities
seattle pittsburgh austin and other
leading communities they’ve all done
their research
more than half of all car trips in urban
and suburban areas
are less than four miles think about a
trip to
the grocery store to the gym or to grab
a bite to eat
unlike a few years ago we now have more
mobility options for these short hops to
be easily satisfied using vehicles that
are lighter cleaner
and greener now we didn’t need a
pandemic or 80
reduction in our local economies to
realize that our love affair with cars
has lost its luster but the public
emergency
helps spur quick change we can now build
on this momentum
and push it further you see coven 19 has
allowed us to time travel to see what
our cities would be like
in 10 years when there’s other ways of
getting around town and
the car is not always king we’re past
sitting indifferent
as multi-ton vehicles go hurling by our
homes at highway speed
cars are too big for these short trips
we don’t need insulated hiking boots to
attend ballet class within 20 minutes
of where most of us live that is in our
existing communities
we already have the goods and services
that we access
on a daily or weekly basis streets are
the single largest physical asset in
cities they are owned by the public and
we can get more out of them to achieve
our goals
but to do so we need to open up our
aperture
and look beyond having them always be
set up for cars
rethinking streets ramps up our climate
crisis plans nationwide
it draws into focus how these spaces are
engines for equity
by adopting new formula for how
infrastructure resources
can be spent to increase accessibility
for all
and let’s not lose sight of another
public health crisis the number of
people who die
in car crashes equal to a boeing 737
going down every other day
the city actions that i’ve described
document how streets
can change to accommodate emerging
cost-effective solutions
all while out without sacrificing much
comfort convenience
or accessibility a hundred years ago
as cities were grappling with issues of
clean water and safe housing
streets were handed over to a relatively
narrow goal
of maximizing vehicular traffic flow now
owing to technological economic and
environmental change
we hold in our hand the prospects for a
much brighter future
and we know how to get there we’re in a
once in a century situation with the
pandemic
we have the public’s attention
repurposing streets by inviting smaller
vehicles into our lives
and de-emphasizing cars is possible
the evidence shows us that in the long
run we’ll save money
lives and will make our communities more
just and resilient
thank you