Berliners, Londoners and New Yorkers Are in a Battle for the Streets

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As cities tiptoe out of lockdown and businesses start to reopen, there’s one thing we’ll prize much more highly than before: personal space. In an expression of my newfound freedom here in Berlin, I’ve broken the habit of two decades of adult life and got myself a car.

I’ll still drop my kid at kindergarten by bike, and cycle to the office when it reopens, but I no longer feel comfortable using public transport or car-sharing to get out of the city. The new vehicle will come in handy for my planned August staycation.

This may be the right thing to do for my family’s well-being, and for the struggling auto industry, but — as someone who trumpets the green cause — I still feel like a hypocrite. If lots of people do the same thing and take to their cars when workplaces reopen, then our cities will soon be gridlocked and even more polluted than before the Covid-19 outbreak, something the most enlightened city governments are determined to avoid.

It’s just one example of what will be a defining feature of the post-lockdown world: the battle for urban space. Coronavirus has devastated rural communities too but the challenge of social distancing is most pressing in cities whose very density feels threatening. Severe outbreaks have made many New Yorkers, Parisians and Londoners reevaluate where they live.

Fortunately, while the supply of urban land is fixed, the way we use it is mutable. To restart commerce and protect public health, cities will have to reclaim territory from those who use it inefficiently, such as car drivers. This trend had taken hold in some urban areas long before the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, businesses and residents will have to make maximum use of all available outside space, where the chance of catching the virus is much lower. Until there’s a vaccine, we’ll all have to embrace going alfresco, so cross your fingers for decent weather. This will all be easier if your city home has a garden, but most of us aren’t that lucky. 

When commerce and tourism was shut down to deal with Covid-19, one happy consequence was that once-crowded streets suddenly became bearable again, and the air more breathable.

These are qualities we’d do well to preserve, not least because there’s some evidence that pollution particles help the virus linger in the environment and that sustained exposure to bad air raises the risk of dying from Covid-19.

But even if many of us continue to work from home, our cities may feel busier than before because so much previously occupied space will be off limits. Restaurants and cafes will probably have to seat customers further apart, potentially cutting capacity by half. The same goes for shops and museums that will have to control the number of visitors, which could create long queues. If gyms remain closed, more people will work out in the parks.

These pressures will be felt most acutely in the transport system. The requirement to maintain a safe distance between people could reduce the passenger capacity of London’s bus and tube network by 85%, threatening chaos at peak travel periods unless commuters are told to stagger journeys. Londoners usually take about 10 million bus and tube journeys daily. 

Like Paris, Milan, Berlin and other European metropolises, London wants people to walk and cycle rather than get in their cars. The city is hurrying to add new bike lanes and widen pavements, and whole streets will be closed to traffic so commuters can access offices safely and kids can walk to school. Paris will expand parking on the edge of the city, from where suburban commuters will be able to continue their journey by bike or other means. It will also seal off streets near major rail stations and interchanges to ease crowding.

New York, meanwhile, aims to close up to 100 miles of streets to cars in the coming months to aid recreation and social distancing. Outside-dining venues in Chicago will be allowed to stay open until midnight to accommodate more guests. In Tampa, Florida, sidewalks and on-street parking are being repurposed for extra restaurant seating and retail space. Back on this side of the Atlantic, Lithuania’s Vilnius has gone further by promising to turn over whole town squares to cafes and restaurants that lack outside space.

In time, governments may follow Denmark in deciding that less than 2 meters (6.5 feet) of social distancing will suffice. Doing so would free up more room on public transport and in restaurants.

Still, even the most enlightened city policies will trigger yet more arguments about precious urban space. In Berlin, where cafes and restaurants sell beer and cocktails to take away, drinkers tend to congregate on the sidewalk or in nearby parks, making some pedestrians feel uncomfortable. In the trendy Kreuzberg district, thirsty twentysomethings have carved out more space for themselves on the canal where they drift along in dinghies. Their social-distancing skills aren’t optimal.

Perhaps I’ve already joined the petrolhead ranks after my recent acquisition, but car drivers aren’t always the enemy. At the height of the pandemic, drive-through virus testing sites helped keep the infectious away from hospitals and surgeries. They could play a similar role now for more enjoyable activities. Traditional cinemas may take a while to reopen but the drive-in variety is already doing a brisk trade. In Germany, you can even visit a drive-in nightclub.

Nevertheless, I’m planning to surrender my car when the rental contract expires at the end of this year. Our cities will be all the better if more of us did the same.

Lara Williams contributed the chart.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.