Cities across the globe have seen a massive decrease in fossil-fuel powered cars on the streets, and a significant amount are considering to keep it that way.
As global lockdowns continue to keep people working from home, our once congestion-crammed, pollution-populated roads have suddenly transformed into silent streets. This massive education is vehicles, mainly the car, has contributed to a significant drop in emissions of CO2, NO2 and other fine particulate matter. Some cities have responded to this by converting some of the spaces into walking and cycling-only zones to allow socially distanced exercise and commuting.
Milan - the centre of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, declared it would alter an enormous 35km of its streets to promote cycling post-lockdown. This pandemic may catalyse many countries to make a movement towards clearing the streets of traffic and towards cleaner air.
The impact of the pandemic has had staggering effects on the environment. Emissions for carbon based fuels are looking to a record 5.5 - 5.7% annual drop. Between mid-January to mid-February, the carbon giant China’s emission output fell by approximately 25%. In Delhi, a city that is often sited with the worst air quality on the globe, predominately from PM 2, reduced by almost 75% as congestion fell by 59%. Shocking figures such as this could be seen across the globe: Paris cited a reduction of 70% of NO2, Milan’s NO2 levels dropped by around 40% and London quoted a decrease in toxic emissions by almost half
Milan’s NO2 levels dropped by around 40% and London emissions by almost half
However, with a decrease in car usage has also come a decrease in public transport usage. Where public transport usage has been dwindling, bicycle riding has been taking the slack. Throughout March use of bike-sharing systems grew by nearly 150% in Beijing and 67% in New York.
Many cities have responded to this change by installing temporary cycle lanes and have even closed off entire streets to cars. Cities such as Budapest, New York, Dublin and Berlin have seen miles of pop up bikes lanes rapidly installed and governments across the world have allocated funding for more. Brussels have decided to make the entire city core a priority zone for cyclists and pedestrians from May.
All this change is excellent progress towards a more ecologically sustainable world but there are large concerns that an avoidance of public transport will leads more people than ever to private cars, leading to further congestion and pollutions once restrictions are fully listed. Cities in China such as Shanghai and Beijing and already seeing this.
With this fear in mind, Milan has announced a plan to make significant changes post-pandemic that will support alternatives to driving. As restrictions are slowly lifted the government will begin building the cycle lanes, taking up space from the cars, alongside reduced speed limits and widened pavements. Paris has promised to make every single street cycle-friendly by 2024 and reduced on street parking by 72%. This plan has also been accelerated in response to combat the crisis. Mayor Sadiq Khan of London, has made it clear that the air quality improvement should not be temporary effects and that combating air pollution should be an ongoing challenge.
Developments are also taking place at a national level, with the government recently publishing a strategy for reducing car use to tackle climate change, to achieve the country’s goal of net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
URBAN ELECTRO wants to help our country and county continue to be mobile during this pandemic and to make electric transport accessible to all price points which is why we have some of the more affordable bikes on the market and also a selection of B-grade bikes with minor damages at reduced prices. We are also committed to quality so strive to find a balance between affordability and quality.