“I know we’ll be looking to Milan for guidance from New York City.” It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a fresh look at your streets and make sure that they are set to achieve the outcomes that we want to achieve: not just moving cars as fast as possible from point A to point B, but making it possible for everyone to get around safely. “The Milan plan is so important is because it lays out a good playbook for how you can reset your cities now.

Photograph: Carlo Cozzoli/REX/Shutterstock “A lot of cities and even countries have been defined by how they’ve responded to historical forces, whether it’s political, social, or physical reconstruction,” she says.Ĭorso Buenos Aires in central Milan.

She says Milan, which is a month ahead of other world cities in the trajectory of the pandemic, could provide a roadmap for others. Janette Sadik-Khan, a former transportation commissioner for New York City, is working with cities including Bogota and Milan on their transport recovery programmes. The remainder of the work will be completed by the end of the summer, officials say. Work could start on an 8km stretch of Corso Buenos Aires, one of the city’s most important shopping streets, by the beginning of May – with a new cycle lane and expanded pavements. The average commute is less than 4km, making a switch from cars to active modes of travel potentially possible for many residents. Milan is a small, dense city, 15km from end to end with 1.4 million inhabitants, 55% of whom use public transport to get to work.

When it is over, the cities that still have this kind of economy will have an advantage, and Milan wants to be in that category.”ġ0:09 Life and death with a coronavirus ambulance volunteer in Milan – video We have to get ready that’s why it’s so important to defend even a part of the economy, to support bars, artisans and restaurants. “We think we have to reimagine Milan in the new situation. “Of course, we want to reopen the economy, but we think we should do it on a different basis from before. If everybody drives a car, there is no space for people, there is no space to move, there is no space for commercial activities outside the shops. Marco Granelli, a deputy mayor of Milan, said: “We worked for years to reduce car use. The locations include a low traffic neighbourhood on the site of the former Lazzaretto, a refuge for victims of plague epidemics in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Strade Aperte plan, announced on Tuesday, includes low-cost temporary cycle lanes, new and widened pavements, 30kph (20mph) speed limits, and pedestrian and cyclist priority streets. Plans for Corso Buenos Aires before and after the Strade Aperte project.

Chosen Guardian by Cortney Pearson