Pedestrian-Only?

Just before the Easter long weekend the City of Victoria closed some roads in Beacon Hill Park to vehicles, and reduced the number of parking spaces near the park.

Initially I thought these actions might be to make for a vehicle-free experience in the park over the long weekend, but in fact, the purpose was to provide for more space for pedestrians to make physical distancing easier, as part of the City's COVID-19 response planning.

Beacon Hill Park main road closed, April 11, 2020

The City of Victoria's way of closing parking spaces. No special event was planned; the City simply wanted to keep vehicles from parking in these spaces

In the last few days the City of Victoria has created more ways to give pedestrians space in the physical distancing being sought these days. Because of its popularity with walkers, and the density of people living here, James Bay has been a "pilot" of sorts.

Overnight, the one-way section on Simcoe Street was extended for several more blocks. The other lane is now a pedestrian-only space.

Simcoe Street, just outside of Thrifty's, looking west. This two-way street was turned into a one-way street, with one lane that used to be available for vehicles now dedicated to pedestrians.

To the City's credit, it provides explanatory signs for its actions, explaining that the measures are to increase "usable space".

Bollards, and a painted line on the roadway, mark the pedestrian only section of road.

A number of other Canadian cities have closed traffic lanes to make more space for pedestrians, including Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Montreal.

And, here in Victoria, transit fares have been eliminated, to make it feasible for people who need to use the bus, to board it from the back without driver contact.

So we have more people walking, no fares for transit, fewer vehicles on the roads, and people staying close to home in their communities. Reports indicate far less pollution globally. Anecdotally, family and friends who live in Calgary report seeing much more wildlife on the streets, quieter ambient noise levels, and - amazingly - fresher-smelling air. The air is so fresh, in fact, that a relative told me it "smells like the mountains".

Calgary road with closed traffic lane (Source: Global News) 

So, my question is: once COVID-19 has run its course, what will be the new "normal"? Do we want to go back to more vehicles on the roads?

We have been able to get by with a new way of operating - much less travel in our vehicles, more local travel in our communities, by foot, transit, bicycle.

If I had suggested, last fall, when there were global climate strikes, that one of the things we could do for climate change would be the re-purposing of roads away from vehicles, to increase the "usable space" for pedestrians -- well, people would have called me hard-nosed, idealistic perhaps, naive.  Yet -- here we are -- massive changes, in such a short period of time.

Let's celebrate what has happened. And, let's work to keep these roads, and sections of roads, permanently vehicle free - and identify more that can be re-purposed. Many European cities have had vehicle-free central cores for years.

Let's keep the vehicles off the streets!

Update - May 8 2020

The City of Seattle announced yesterday that it will be permanently closing 20 miles of city streets to vehicles, to make more pedestrian and cycling routes available. Good start, Seattle! Here's a link:
https://mynorthwest.com/1858217/seattle-streets-closed/