Coronavirus pandemic has led the world towards a major shift in many aspects. An important one is the climate-smart lifestyle that people will now be adopting. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala seems optimistic on this transition, at least for the people of his city.
After recording 1200 deaths, the Italian city has now started to lift its lockdown. As it does so, Sala expects people to be more cautious towards the environment and hopes cleaner mobility practices to be followed in the city, ultimately leading to its set target to electrify all public transport by 2030.
After a taste of a cleaner environment around, Sala believes that ¡°the people are ready to change attitude, to change behaviour¡±, in an interaction with Thomson Reuters. As per Sala, 70% of Milan residents now back plans to switch 35 km (22 miles) of street space exclusively for the use of bicycles and pedestrians.
A glimpse of this can be seen on how the city resumed on Monday, as construction and factory workers headed back to work using temporary new bike lanes. In addition, cab drivers in the city limited the number of passengers per ride to maintain spacing.
With that, and the crowded public transport, bicycling to nearby places is the safest and the most viable option for Milan residents. ¡°if you live one kilometre from your office, walk or bicycle. It¡¯s good for us, and for you,¡± says Sala.
The situation is a stark contrast to the pre-COVID 19 days, when proposals for such bicycle lanes were a source of conflict, especially with cab drivers. Such measures of personal mobility and designated resources for the same were not met with much enthusiasm.
The economic reboot being observed in Milan is specifically being met with ¡°simultaneously bootstrap environmental measures,¡± specifies the report. The city is using stimulus funds to install electric vehicle charging stations as well as to reserve public spaces for pedestrians and cycling.
The ultimate idea is to have a city-wide network of shared electric vehicles as well as bicycles in the post COVID 19 era. To further ensure smooth mobility, Milan¡¯s companies are being asked to increase work from home culture and to adopt irregular working hours for employees who need to attend the workplaces.
Milan municipality portrayed an example of this by keeping some of its offices open till 11 pm to accommodate such irregular shifts.
There is a bigger picture in mind for the post-COVID 19 era. Since the lockdowns have hinted at the environmental conditions that can be expected with reduced activities and mobility, Milan now wants to resurface from the pandemic in a way that would accommodate a climate-centric approach, hopefully dealing with both the challenges in one go.
With climate-friendly measures such as dedicated bike lanes and sidewalk space for pedestrians being ¡°relatively inexpensive¡±, the city is deeming such measures as the only correct way forward. Social distancing is a crucial part of the resumed mobility and such methods help keep them in practice while simultaneously helping the environment.
If not? now, it might just be too late to adopt such green measures later down the line. As Sala puts it, "It is fundamental to work on that. Otherwise in a few decades the world will be a disaster."