What beyond tactical urbanism? First lessons of a cross-cultural project analyzing the creation of corona cycle-ways

Panel: 6. Transport and mobility

Authors:
Nathalie Ortar, ENTPE-Laboratoire Aménagement Economie Transports (UMR 5593), France
Florence Pauhliac, University of Québec, Canada
Maelle Lucas, Université de Rennes 2, France
Mariane Thébert, Université Gustave Eiffel, France
Patricia Lejoux, ENTPE, France
Patrick Rérat, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract

The Covid-19 crisis prompted the public authorities to rethink the use of public space in order to develop means of transport that are both efficient and adapted to the health context. Fearing a desertion of public transport and a massive shift towards the automobile, the leaders and technical managers of Europe, North and South America have turned to active modes.

The creation of new cycle paths initiated in South America, in Bogotá, appeared as a simple and inexpensive way to meet health requirements while avoiding the negative consequences of a modal shift towards the automobile.

Since then, the Covid-19 crisis has prompted local authorities in many metropolises and medium-sized towns to develop “tactical urban planning” (Lyndon 2012; Baron 2019) understood as the installation temporary layouts using furniture that is easy to install (and remove) to demonstrate possible changes to the layout of a street, intersection or public space. Temporary cycle paths and “slow streets” have thus been created.

If the measures put in place in different metropolises seem close, both in material terms and through the communication orchestrated around them, the reasons which led to the creation of this tactical urbanism, the target audiences and the expected effects are different as the treatment of the health crisis has been confronted with unique spatial, social and political configurations.

In this regard, studying tactical urban planning policies not only sheds light on the reaction of local authorities to the health emergency, but also sheds light on local dynamics in terms of mobility policies and, more broadly, of energy transition to mobility. In this presentation we will present some of the first results of the comparison between 6 French cities, 3 Swiss cities and Montreal and Bogota.

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