‘A new normal’: how coronavirus will transform transport in Britain’s cities

Amid the con­fu­sion that fol­lowed Boris Johnson’s tele­vised announce­ment eas­ing the lock­down, Will Nor­man was clear about one thing – the way peo­ple move around cities would nev­er be the same again.

“We are going to have a new nor­mal com­ing out of this,” said London’s walk­ing and cycling com­mis­sion­er the morn­ing after Johnson’s address to the nation. “Things are going to change whether we like it or not.”

The equa­tion is clear to city lead­ers around the world. The coro­n­avirus cri­sis means that packed pub­lic trans­port sys­tems can­not run at full capac­i­ty. If peo­ple turn to pri­vate cars en masse it will lead to grid­lock, eco­nom­ic melt­down as deliv­er­ies get snarled up and a rise in dan­ger­ous air pol­lu­tion – the last thing need­ed in the midst of a res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­ease pan­dem­ic.

Read the full arti­cle on the Guardian web site.