Empty streets, empty buses, commuter-less streets, 2020’s months of lockdown have offered urban planners a unique chance to carry out research… by simply looking out the window. Like many in my field, I’ve been both struggling with the pandemic but also interested in what it might teach us. I knew that my former Arup colleague, Demetrio Scopelliti, had also been pondering this question in his role as Director of Urban Planning and Public Space at the Agency for Mobility, Environment, Territory (AMAT) in Milan – a city hit hard by the virus and a very strict lockdown. So, we decided to discuss how the city has responded.
Many authorities are poised to spend stimulus money, but are faced with new questions about air quality, public transport demand, ongoing safety issues posed by the virus, encouraged by a general public sense that better choices should now be made. 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.
Read the full insight on the Arup website