This April, we hosted the latest installment of our monthly webinar series Complete Streets 301: Putting people first. We heard from leaders working across the globe to support community responses to COVID-19 through Complete Streets and other transportation initiatives. You can view a recording of the webinar with closed captioning below or download a PDF of the presentation.
Watch the webinar, led by Emiko Atherton, director of the National Complete Streets Coalition, and hear from a panel of experts working on COVID-19 response.
This webinar is among the resources related to the pandemic from Smart Growth America, all of which can be accessed here:
Explore our COVID-19 resources
Highlights from Complete Streets responses to COVID-19
Mike Lydon at Street Plans outlined the use of tactical urbanism and walked us through six “COVID-19 street typologies,” including open streets, open curbs, shared streets, temporary bikeways, and more. He also shared examples of cities both large and small who are successfully applying these strategies around the world.
Robin Hutcheson with the Minneapolis Department of Public Works discussed the fast-paced changes that the city has implemented in response to COVID-19, such as their initiative Stay Healthy Streets to support comfortable walking, rolling, and biking while social distancing, and the city rapidly issuing permits for curbside pickup at restaurants and other local businesses impacted by the crisis.
Excited to listen to Minneapolis’s own @rchonthego speak at the @completestreets webinar on transportation responses to COVID-19. Three new sets of #COVID19Streets! pic.twitter.com/V97xpRSf7W
— Becky Alper (@santabeckyMSP) April 27, 2020
Keith Benjamin, Charleston’s director of traffic and transportation, focused the conversation on the safety and well being of transportation workers while responding to COVID-19. He discussed the work his department undertook to prioritize transit routes during the crisis to ensure that people who rely on transit were served appropriately, and pointed out the limitations to the speed and agility of the response due to the way some roads are financed and managed.
Carlos Pardo, with the New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO), presented an innovative COVID-19 response project that provided 400 e-bikes to healthcare workers in Bogotá, Colombia, in concert with the government establishing dozens of kilometers of emergency bike lanes. He also described the results of a survey showing an increase in biking for transportation during COVID-19.
An amazing conversation yesterday representing the small city perspective with @completestreets speaking to over 1,000 virtual attendees on #COVID19 #transportation responses. Salute to my colleagues from New York, Minneapolis and Bogota bringing so much knowledge to the table. pic.twitter.com/ta2XNM90TE
— Keith Benjamin (@rkbtwo) April 28, 2020
Bogata, Colombia, not only established an ambitious network of temporary bike lanes for the Pandemic, but has recently made them permanent! pic.twitter.com/kzoE11iiqp
— Complete Streets (@completestreets) April 27, 2020
For more information on how communities are using Complete Streets and other transportation initiatives to aid in the COVID-19 response, visit the National Complete Streets Coalition’s map that tracks community responses related to Compete Streets and complete communities.
Explore our COVID-19 resources