Our world has drastically changed since COVID-19 hit in March. Half of the department stores anchoring retail districts have closed permanently. Hotels are projecting occupancies below 20 percent. Student housing, multi-family, and senior housing demand have experienced uncharacteristic, disproportional demand reductions. Increased work from home (WFH) has reduced the need for office space. Major event venues are closed. Active transportation depends upon people’s need to travel. What happens when near-term events etch indelible change in how and what people find a need to travel for?
What should ITE members be ready for, and how can active transportation continue to help shape your community? Here are a couple areas for us to be thinking about in the coming months.
How Can I Cross the Street? With most of us working from home, our travel has significantly decreased. People are active within their neighborhoods and an increased need
for active transportation has emerged. The desire for supporting travel that builds upon a “new normal” with more WFH and home delivery is before us. Seems like community investments in walking and biking will be rewarded with greater citizen support now more than ever. But how can we advance this opportunity to improve safety when crossing the road? And can we be more equitable in addressing these feelings and negative safety outcomes for people with limited economic means?
As ITE members, one area where we tip the safety scale in favor of people is establishing a standard of care. We do this using the wealth of research on the subject of pedestrian street crossing treatments. The array of signs, markings, street design, speed management, gap availability, sidewalk widening, and visibility enhancements is staggering. With good intent, we create new shiny objects every month. The outcome becomes so many options with disjoined, siloed criteria that many practitioners misapply perfectly good countermeasures in various contexts. The ITE Pedestrian and Bicycle Standing Committee of the Complete Streets Council is tackling this subject (see more on page 16). This year they will be circulating concepts that provide greater clarity in the selection of enhancements based upon characteristics (speed, width), context (functional class, area type), and users (pedestrians, vehicles).
Emergence of E-Bike for Short Trips. When looking at mode share in most urban areas, the potential for WFH to become the second mode choice in North America is favorable with its barriers destroyed by the pandemic. What mode could have the potential to pick up a greater share? E-bike is where I would invest. Electric bikes are affordable and compact, providing convenience to bike travel (less sweat). There is room for significant growth. To have major impact, one does not need to bike every day—one to two days a month, once a week, or multiple times a week when paired with daily bicycling equates to big mode-share shift. Not to mention its environmental benefits. For suburban areas, these trips have potential to grow with networks of buffered lanes and trails, and in urban areas, slow lanes and better speed management. There will be lots to discuss at our virtual meeting in August—I can’t wait to see how all of us are shaping our communities.