Post-pandemic redesign of downtown streets for people. The Bahía Blanca city experience.

GRASSI, YAMILA SOLEDAD; DÍAZ, MÓNICA FÁTIMA

Cancún

Congreso; IV Ibero-American Congress of Smart Cities (ICSC-CITIES 2021); 2021

CYTED - CITIES

Sustainable urban mobility in a city encourages active mobility and public transportation. Rethinking better use of streets will reduce vehicular congestion and pollutant emissions, discouraging private car use and promoting pedestrian traffic and sustainable mobility. As a result of the lifestyle changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, government authorities have begun to evaluate improvements in urban mobility, prioritizing projects that reappraise public spaces. In Bahía Blanca, before the pandemic, interventions such as semi-pedestrianization and the construction of bicycle and bus lanes were already underway. However, in the pandemic times, changes in public spaces have been reappraised with the aim of developing an environmentally friendly and people-centered urban mobility. Therefore, the sidewalks widening and the more recent creation of the so-called urban living rooms, as well as the permissions for the construction of parklets, have been favored by the social distancing measure adopted to avoid massive contagions. In addition, active mobility was also reinforced during the pandemic with the construction of new bicycle paths. Undoubtedly, the pandemic situation has given cities the opportunity to rethink the manner in which citizens travel around and the way in which urban public spaces are used.