(2020-08-05) Making Great Strides Learning From The Revolution On Milans Post Pandemic Streets

Making great strides Learning from the revolution on Milan's post pandemic streets. Our conversation about Milan, London, Paris and other cities has led us to a kind of manifesto of new ideas for urban and transport planning in the post-Covid period.

1. Take advantage of this unexpected opportunity

after a few weeks of lockdown and empty streets, suddenly we have made progress on new bike lanes, nurtured ‘parklets’ in underused areas of the city and designated streets for pedestrian use – all of it done almost overnight.”

2. Experiment at speed

3. Private cars aren’t the future

4. Green the streets (put ‘parklets’ everywhere)

“We found shop owners coming together to request that their streets be re-zoned into ‘parklets’ or totally pedestrianised. And ten were agreed in just two weeks. The authorities don’t need new funds, they simply enable.”

5. You must sell the benefits

We have re-activated the city’s congestion charge and need to continue plans for our low emission zone

6. Be ready for some resistance

Let's create active cities