As the coronavirus pandemic tightens its grip around the world, city streets have transformed overnight – roads from Beirut to London to Atlanta have become arteries without blood.
With offices, schools, businesses and public institutions closing their doors, and households buttoning up under “shelter in place” orders, public transit systems are seeing ridership tank as millions of commuters follow work-from-home orders or choose options that involve less social contact.
But as the transportation leaders fight to keep networks and businesses intact in the teeth of this pandemic, the world is getting a striking glimpse, in certain ways, of the things that sustainability advocates have been imagining for years. Air and water pollution is clearing. It remains to be seen how many of the 1.35 million lives lost every year in car crashes around the world might be saved by coronavirus-related shutdowns.
Read the article at CityLab.
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