Streets for Social Distancing

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to reduced vehicular traffic on streets and increased challenges for New Yorkers to exercise and take walks while social distancing. The situation is even more acute in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods where living spaces are often smaller and more crowded, and where open parks are more scarce. Our streets, if managed properly, offer an opportunity to be repurposed—to allow for a broader range of outdoor activity, to aid the public in maintaining physical distance, and to support mental and physical health. In the early months of the pandemic, as New York City struggled with lockdown and social distancing requirements, a collaboration between FXCollaborative and Arup made five recommendations for the City to meet its pressing needs for outdoor space and to create a more controlled public environment by adapting and transforming streets—an immense and underutilized public resource.

In summary, recommendations include: 1) Pedestrianize one lane of traffic on most major avenues, demarcating pedestrian areas with temporary paint striping and protecting them with a parking lane, loading lane, planters, or quickly deployable metal barriers. 2) Paint 6-foot safety strips on sideways and pathways to aid pedestrians in maintaining social distance and being able to judge that distance. 3) Dedicate a traffic lane to bikes, scooters, and other personal transport, to offer commuters alternatives to move more easily and safely than crowding together on subways or buses. 4) Allow restaurants to use adjacent parking spaces to create safely distant and naturally-ventilated table seating. 5) Offer dedicated parking and standing spaces for delivery workers, and mark loading lanes and sidewalk sorting spaces with temporary paint, to support the increased use of delivery—whether of goods or from local restaurants.

Renderings by FXCollaborative and Arup.