Our cities may never look the same again after the pandemic

From Auckland to Bogota, urban planners are already adapting our cities to lockdown. But will the changes last, and which more radical design proposals -- be it sewer monitors or "epidemic skyscrapers" -- will shape the post-pandemic city?

or advocates of walkable, unpolluted and vehicle-free cities, the past few weeks have offered an unprecedented opportunity to test the ideas they have long lobbied for.

With Covid-19 lockdowns vastly reducing the use of roads and public transit systems, city authorities -- from Liverpool to Lima -- are taking advantage by closing streets to cars, opening others to bicycles and widening sidewalks to help residents maintain the six-foot distancing recommended by global health authorities.

And, like jellyfish returning to Venice's canals or flamingos flocking to Mumbai, pedestrians and cyclists are venturing out to places they previously hadn't dared.

In Oakland, California, almost 10% of roadways have been closed to through-traffic, while Bogota, Colombia, has opened 47 miles of temporary bike lanes. New York has begun trialing seven miles of "open streets" to ease crowding in parks, with Auckland, Mexico City and Quito among the dozens of other world cities experimenting with similar measures.

There are many purported benefits of "reclaiming" the streets during a pandemic. Encouraging cycling may reduce crowding on buses and subways, where people can struggle to get distance from one another. Vehicle-free roads also offer those without access to parks the ability to exercise safely.

Other urban initiatives have been introduced to directly control the spread of the virus. Cities in the US, Canada and Australia have reconfigured traffic lights so that people no longer need to touch crosswalk buttons. (In any case, many pedestrian crossings are equipped with "placebo buttons" that have no impact on whether the lights go green).

It is unclear if these urban interventions will continue once the pandemic is over. Milan plans to build 22 miles of new cycle lanes and permanently widen sidewalks after its lockdown lifts. Authorities in Hungary's capital, Budapest, have suggested that its new bike lanes may become permanent if the measures "prove favorable," while planning officials in Providence, Rhode Island, have said crossings will now remain button-free.

But few other cities have been so committal. And it will be harder to make the case for pedestrian- and cycle-friendly streets once their benefits are weighed against the knock-on effects of congestion elsewhere -- especially in countries as dependent on cars as the US.

Indeed, the cities in which pandemic-era measures seem most likely to stick are those already committed to change. Take Paris, for instance, where more than 400 miles of pop-up bike lanes (or "coronapistes") are set to open when France's national lockdown ends on May 11. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has called returning to a car-dominated status quo "out of the question," but she was already backing a huge overhaul of biking in the city.