Iván Tosics on… urban lessons learnt from the pandemic

Milan decided to undertake radical interventions to extend its cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Streets totaling a length of 35 kilometres have been redesigned to reduce car traffic by widening sidewalks and creating new cycle lanes. In parallel, a 30 km/h speed limit was introduced for greater safety of pedestrians and cyclists. In the short run, city officials hope this will prevent a resurgence of car use once residents return to work. The first aim was, therefore, to manage the short-term crisis of 2020, and only later would the urban management start thinking about how the provisions could be prolonged and eventually incorporated into longer-term plans.

Tactical interventions: quick decisions about complex issues

Many of the changes introduced in spring 2020 under exceptional conditions and in extraordinary ways could be labelled as ’pop-up’ or temporary measures. The methods of municipal decision-making were, therefore, closer to tactical urbanism as to the usual way of municipal planning. However, the ambitions were quite high: in the drawings about the future, cars almost completely disappeared from the streets (pictures on the right).

To achieve such dramatic changes would, in the case of normal municipal decision-making, take a lot of time and effort, as lengthy planning processes have to be accomplished with extensive public participation. This can be illustrated via the case of the centrally located Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna.

The top picture, taken around 2010, shows the street dominated by the 12 thousand cars using it daily. Then came the vision of the car-free street, followed by 2 years of intensive public consultation process, during which the city knocked on 31 thousand doors to connect people. The final decision was taken on the basis of a local referendum. 53% voted for the change, and since the completion of the project in 2015, the share of satisfied city-dwellers is much higher.

During the spring emergency, this method of municipal decision-making was not possible for two central reasons:

1. Changes had to be introduced very quickly (the patience of people locked down in their flats was quickly evaporating), and;
2. The normal governance mechanisms were not functioning, it was not possible to organize lengthy council debates, nor to ask the opinion of larger groups of residents.

The case of the Budapest Danube embankments is a great example. The discussions around changing the embankment started with the new mayor after the October 2019 elections. In January 2020, the opening of the embankment was still being negotiated slowly, but the virus massively speeded up the process: only 3 months later in May, the embankment became car- free every weekend.

So what happened in European cities in the autumn?

In Athens, the mayor took the bold step of re-allocating around 50,000 square metres of space to walking and cycling as a ’once in a lifetime opportunity’ to clean up the city from the effects of space-consuming, polluting cars. At the heart of the scheme was the long planned four-mile long ’Great Walk of Athens’, uniting archaeological sites in the historic centre.

In the spring there was political consensus around the bike lanes. But the implementation of the project was ad-hoc, disconnected, haphazardly done, and lacking the comprehensive ideas needed to form the basis of the implemented plan. Moreover, very few people cycled in the 40 degree Athenian summer. Thus by autumn, both large parties and the media turned against the project and public enthusiasm also decreased. In late autumn, the local government promised to make more planned interventions. The future of the great walk remains unclear – the bike lane is still there, although faded…

In Budapest, the municipal government introduced bike lanes in the busy Grand Boulevard in May 2020, reducing the available lanes for cars from 2*2 to 2*1 lanes (picture below). By autumn, this bike lane became the second busiest used by cyclists among all the Budapest bike lanes. Even so, car drivers were furious about it. A central government politician even issued a public statement that ’the oppositional Budapest mayor should stop chasing car drivers’. Finally, the city had to make changes, giving back one part of the Grand Boulevard fully to car drivers and redirecting the bike lane to the busy pavement.

Without having detailed proof, it seems that in Milan, Vienna and London, there is a better chance that the temporary projects introduced in the spring might survive in the long run.

Different views about the future of urban life

The changing use of car-dominated public spaces is only one, though the most visible, of the consequences of the pandemic. In a broader sense, the non-spatial interventions – the housing, homelessness, food, etc related urgency measures – are also still being debated. The question remains: to what extent can cities defend these in the longer term?

It is clear that the emergency measures implemented were not (or could not be) decided in the normal way, based on broad participation processes. Even so, progressive city leaders consider the new situation to be an opportunity to achieve changes that were unthinkable before the pandemic.

In Paris, as part of her successful reelection campaign, Mayor Anne Hidalgo rolled out ambitious plans to make city life more local and slow-paced. Paris also introduced new bike schemes and reclaimed streets to allow for people to move around without crowding. The “15 minute city” idea is also being further developed, which assumes that skilled workers will go to the office only twice per week, or a few days per month. The idea is that with less traffic and pollution, cities can actually become even more attractive. Furthermore, the cheaper rents for office space can attract new startups and other types of users.

Barcelona aims to assert the “digital sovereignty” of its citizens by emphasising civic participation, social impact and public return. Decidim, an online platform, is of central importance, enabling citizens to participate in decision-making. The data of the city remains the property of the citizens themselves, while opening up the civic data sets helps to stimulate local businesses and civic initiatives.

In Budapest, the local government aimed to open several vacant properties to host homeless people, including even some properties within the city hall – this has been, however, prohibited by the representative of the central government.

In UK cities and in many other European cities, street homelessness virtually disappeared with the opening of new sheltering places, even hotel rooms, for them.

What are the chances for more equitable urban development after the pandemic?

The pandemic highlighted the huge contradictions and crises of the present economic model. Following the model of tactical urbanism, new efforts are needed also for tactical economic and social interventions, and later for their normalisation. This means that cities should be much braver about using the rights they do have: zoning, taxation, determining the conditions for public procurement, etc. They should find ways to favour local businesses over multinationals via public space management, smart zoning and planning policies. They should also do much more to solve local social problems that are not handled under normal market conditions.

The exceptional conditions of the COVID crisis might contribute to the development of new, progressive municipal policies. These have to be – after the initial, experimental phase – participative and inclusive. Residents’ needs and opinions can be gathered via active communication. Cities experimenting with such new policies should also be in alliance with their neighbouring settlements, expanding the new policies to the metropolitan level.

The examples shown in this essay prove that cities can do a lot. However, long-lasting changes can finally only be achieved if cities develop a cooperative, multi-level government framework with their own national administration. The case of Budapest shows how limited a city’s capacities are if it is crippled financially and politically by the national government.

In order to achieve success, progressive cities have to develop close links with each other, launching international cooperation. One such example is The Alliance of Free Cities, launched by the Visegrad 4 capital cities, which has now developed to include a much broader circle of large European cities that aim to convince the EU to support their efforts towards new types of urban policies.

In this essay I have used some ideas I have heard from Oleg Golubchikov (Cardiff), Thomas Maloutas (Athens), Ramon Marrades (Valencia), Corrado Topi (Stockholm), Levente Polyak and Cili Lohasz (Budapest). I have also used quotes of some of my recent publications.

This photo-essay has also been published by the URBACT blog here.