Opinion
Keep the new pedestrian spaces, COVID or not
By David Gordon July 13, 2020
COVID showed us what's possible when the roads aren't clogged with cars. Let's hang onto that when things get back to 'normal.'
Ottawa's Queen Elizabeth Driveway, ca. 1912 was designed to be enjoyed at slow speeds, so it is an ideal candidate to convert for walking, cycling and other forms of active transportation, writes David Gordon. Photograph courtesy of David Gordon and the Ottawa Improvement Commission
The “great re-opening” of our economy has been accompanied by an extraordinary burst of experimentation in the use of public space in Canadian cities. After automobile traffic evaporated during the lockdown, we noticed that our streets had lots of space for other modes of travel.
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