Improve-Measures

From responding to COVID-19 to promoting inclusive economic growth, transport is key to addressing global issues, but an important challenge of the sector is its considerable contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonizing transport and increasing its resilience require a long-term perspective, but COVID-19 has brought immediate challenges. In fact, the pandemic resulted in a marked reduction in emissions, but for the worst possible reasons: economies grinding to a halt, people getting ill, and the poor facing shortages of food and medicine.

Encouraging cycling and walking as means of transport for getting around the city is not only good for the environment and air quality per se, but currently also supports the overall public health goal of minimizing the spread of COVID-19. The kind of pop-up infrastructure described on this website's story map is therefore a useful ad-hoc measure for (re-)distributing space in favor of active modes, such as cycling and walking, while ensuring the required physical distancing can be kept. The story map on this website provides specific examples of such pop-up infrastructure projects in Berlin and other cities from around the world.

Responding to COVID-19: New ways cities are adapting their transportation resources to support their communities during the coronavirus pandemic.

Shilpi Bishnoi, Director, Traffic Commercial (Rates) at India’s Ministry of Railways, believes Indian Railways should use the current crisis as an opportunity to create a new business model by overhauling its passenger and freight segments, and that there are three areas the railway company should focus on now in order to safeguard its future.

The city has announced that 35km (22 miles) of streets will be transformed over the summer, with a rapid, experimental citywide expansion of cycling and walking space to protect residents as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

In the historical centre of Brussels, the Pentagon, pedestrians and cyclists have priority and can travel on the roadway, not just on sidewalks or bike paths. The speed of cars, trams and buses is limited to 20 kilometres per hour. This way, social distancing can be assured, which is especially important in hyper-density areas like the Pentagon, where the sidewalks are very narrow. Prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists is also a way to reduce traffic in the city center.

Every day more than 27 million trips are made in London, including six million walkall-the-way trips and seven million walks. However, the proportion of people choosing to walk has been stagnant for years. Breaking down the barriers to walking will help to tackle the challenges of climate change, air pollution and congestion driven by overdependency on private car use. Planning for walking is complex and no one approach fits all situations. Good planning requires an appreciation of how the whole urban system needs to be designed to encourage walking. Streets and open spaces, the buildings that front onto these, and the transport hubs that support onward movement all contribute to making city great for walking.

New on Streetmix today:

temporary barriers, including traffic cones, barricades, and jersey barriers. Perfect for separating bikes from cars quickly. Now available to all users!

The coronavirus crisis has put Citi Bike’s expansion into Upper Manhattan in the fast lane.

The bike-sharing service will open a new docking station Tuesday outside of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, offering health care workers at the Washington Heights medical complex another transportation option.

Life after lock down may look very different to before - and that even includes city streets.

Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter has revealed planning is already underway for expanded footpaths and temporary cycleways so people can still keep two metres of physical distance when the current Alert Level 4 for Coronavirus is lifted.

SIEMENS and Alstom have begun using their 3D printing capabilities to produce items to protect passengers, staff and medical practitioners during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dubai: If your vehicle is due for registration, do not delay. The RTA website offers a simple process to complete the registration which takes less than five minutes.

To help get essential workers around, cities are revising traffic patterns, suspending public transit fares, and making more room for bikes and pedestrians.

cargo-partner introduced two new weekly LCL direct connections between Duisburg and Hefei as well as between Linz and Xi’an. With a transit time of around 16 days, numerous customers make use of the rail transport solutions. This development is made in response to the capacity shortages in transport between Europe and China due to the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic. cargo-partner is offering a range of additional options.

Brompton of London wants to supply coronavirus-focused NHS staff with its iconic folding bikes and launched a crowdfunder on April 2 to build 1,000 machines, all to be painted in NHS colors. Within hours the crowdfunder had raised more than £40,000, including £250 donations from celebrities such as the Virgin Radio presenter Chris Evans and BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine. [The total has reached more than £100,000 on April 3. PLUS: update below on a further £100,000 pledged from British Cycling, Sport England and the U.K. government.

These corridors are crucial to ensure the delivery of goods. Check out the map to see where they are located.

The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented calamity, simultaneously striking at the global, national, local and personal levels. How we respond at each level will make the difference between a flatter and less traumatic COVID-19 curve or the acute health, economic and social impacts that could leave long-lasting consequences, especially for the poor.

Justice has finally been delivered. Churned into all the sausage of the Fiscal Year 2021 budget that agreed to on Wednesday evening is one prime cut: the legalization of the e-bikes favored by New York City’s increasingly important delivery riders. It’s a victory almost a decade in the making.

City transportation officials are responding and innovating in real time to address the growing Covid-19 crisis. Even as workplaces shift to telecommuting and travel demand drops, they’re adapting to help essential employees get to work while keeping supply chains moving, residents safe, and transit workers protected.

In the Corona crisis, a large part of the country is paralysed. So that the doctors and nurses can continue to do their job, Munich's taxi drivers are now driving for them free of charge.

Due to the corona pandemic, many mobility companies are offering healthcare workers reduced or free use of their services. Now Uber Jump's e-bikes and Tier's e-scooters are also free.

Bogotá, March 31, 2020. Taking into account the situation that the capital is going through and the declaration of Obligatory Preventive Isolation due to the public health crisis caused by the COVID-19, TRANSMILENIO S.A. is implementing 11 new routes of the food and zonal component of the Integrated Public Transportation System, to attend to the health professionals and other workers of hospital centers that mobilize daily in the city.

Because the threat of this virus or others may remain for many more months, possibly years, the new normal in our lives is the requirement for social distancing. The current approach to moving people around our city is inadequate and incompatible with social distancing.

Even in the wake of the Corona pandemic, Hamburg is ensuring that bus and rail services are available throughout the city. In order to make it easier for passengers to keep a sufficient distance, the transport companies will monitor the load factor of the journeys and adjust the scheduled services to the current passenger volume. The following measures will be implemented on 1 April 2020.

Cities and transit agencies are taking action now to address the most critical impacts of the coronavirus and ensure that essential services operate in their communities. To help city and agency staff plan responses to the pandemic, NACTO is regularly updating a summary of rapidly-deployed responses.

As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolds, local authorities are stepping forward into the frontlines. This crisis is being tackled in our hospitals, but also in our streets and plazas, on our buses, trains and subways.

Lisbon has recently announced a series of measures in urban mobility in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Portuguese city has announced a suite of measures to combat the spread of the virus, including several measures on transport. These include new measures on public transport, parking and home deliveries.

Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) says it may reduce the number of passengers who board its commercial buses. The number of passengers per seat will be reduced to avoid crowding in the trotros.

Health Service Staff, social care workers and health service volunteers get free parking at sites and local authority bays.

The ridesharing provider Clever Shuttle wants to support employees in the health care, police and fire departments during the Corona crisis: They can receive a 50 euro bonus. The white-green vehicles will continue to operate.

Black cab drivers to offer reduced rates to NHS workers through the "FREE NOW" app during Covid-19 outbreak.

Taxi drivers will give free rides to health care providers who travel from hospital or make home visits.

All regions will step up sanitary and disinfection measures in the public transport, at bus stops, on the streets and in public use areas.

Restaurants build up drive-in-facilities and take away services for their meals to maintain their businesses in times of restaurant close downs for the public in Germany.

The taxi services Bolt and Uber will transfer the medical staff to work for free following a statement of Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

Several transit agencies have chosen a novel and counterintuitive strategy to weather the current crisis: Let passengers ride for free. On March 16, for example, agencies in Akron, Canton, Toledo, and Youngstown all announced that they are terminating fare collection until the virus recedes.

PT TransJakarta will only implement non-cash payment system at all TransJakarta stops to prevent transmission of the Corona Virus. The Head of the Corporate and Public Relations Division of PT TransJakarta, Nadia Diposanjoyo, stated that top up stations were available at all BRT shelters. "Starting Thursday, March 19, 2020, all forms of transactions using cash in top-up activities or top up for electronic money and starter card purchases will be unavailable," she said.

New York City’s ban of electric bicycles has been shelved to help support food delivery during the coronavirus crisis.

Despite the growing popularity of electric bicycles, they have been outlawed in New York City.

The issue has largely been centered around throttle e-bikes, which use a hand throttle similar to a motorbike and don’t require the user to pedal to engage the electric motor.

These types of electric bicycles were the go-to method of transportation for NYC’s approximately 40,000 food delivery workers, according to the New York Post.

Government endorses decision to ban passenger conveyance and limits mass events to 10 participants. Following the order of the President of Ukraine and the decision of the State Commission on Technological and Environmental Safety and Emergencies, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to restrict passenger traffic in the territory of Ukraine in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. The Resolution imposes a ban on rail, air as well as bus intercity and interregional passenger transport services, as well as the operation of subways. Apart from that, from March 17 till April 3 transportation of passengers by subway is suspended in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

Nextbike offers rental bikes in Berlin for free. If you have to get from A to B in Berlin, you will get a free alternative to buses and subways from Tuesday: Due to the spread of the corona virus, the state-sponsored Nextbike rental bike system offers free rides of up to 30 minutes for a month.

1000 Staff members clean and sterilize Dubai‘s public transport daily. All Cabins of Dubai Metro are disinfected after the completion of every journey to secure the safety of the 1.5 million daily passengers.

A public transport company in Shanghai has deployed ultraviolet (UV) light units to disinfect public buses using less time and manpower. Officials from China’s National Health Commission point out that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is sensitive to ultraviolet light and heat. The World Health Organisation, however, cautions the general public about the use of UV lamps for directly sterilising hands or other areas of skin.

In Bangkok, Thailand People are sprayed with disinfectant before using public transport.

Ticket sales stopped by drivers, front door of buses no longer opens to protect drivers.

To prevent the risk of #Coronavirus outbreak, passengers at the Kigali Bus Park have to wash their hands before getting onto buses. #Rwanda has recorded NO case of the epidemic but the country has stepped up vigilance.

A strategic working group for epidemic prevention and control has been put in place. The have established an executing preventive measures, procuring medical equipment and sanitation materials, free transfer service for blood donours, etc.

Streetfilms went to the foot of the Queensborough Bridge to ask bicycling commuters if they are using their bikes more due to the novel Coronavirus or if they see the benefits in doing such on a daily basis. The day prior both the Mayor and Governor issued updated guidelines for residents asking them to try to avoid crowded subway cars or work from home and to consider biking or walking to work. As you can see from the reactions, there were a lot of opinions in favor of using 2-wheels not only during the current crisis, but every day!

The government is slowly beginning to lift restrictions, but it is continuing to implement many quite inventive procedures. Elevators in a Beijing building only allow four people at a time.

Kochi Metro Rail today carried out special sanitation and disinfection drive across all its stations and metro premises to keep Corona from Spreading.

Beijing plans to experiment with a “subway by appointment” system to prevent crowding amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report. Commuters can now use any of five apps to make appointments to enter two of the Chinese capital’s busiest subway stations during rush hours, CNN reported. They will then be given a QR code on their phones that will be valid for a half-hour window, the report said. The appointment process is meant to better stagger ridership.

Seoul Metro has reassured subway passengers that its trains are COVID-19 free. The subway operator has been disinfecting trains used by confirmed coronavirus patients. It added that stations have also been wiped down. Busses set up box with free masks & hand sanitizers, subways are disinfected more regularly.

Some cities in China are requiring commuters to register their identities when using public transport to track the possible spread of the virus. Real-name registration was previously used for transport between cities. Commuters in the southern city of Shenzhen and east China’s Ningbo are required to log their identities by scanning a QR code.