Alex Hollingsworth, Oxford City Council's Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Transport writes about the opportunities for cleaner streets the coronavirus pandemic has presented.

At a time when our daily news is filled with stories of heroism and tragedy it seems strange to be thinking about what Oxford and Oxfordshire might be like when we finally emerge from lockdown.

Most of all we want things to go back to normal; to see family, to go the pub with friends, to get back to work and start earning a living again.

Even so, things will be different. National chains of restaurants and shops won’t re-open.

Local landmarks like Boswells have shut their doors for good.

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And if things are going to be different, we need to start thinking about how they might be better.

When it comes to our roads, the COVID lockdown has brought unforeseen benefits.

As so many people have said to me, without most of the traffic, streets that are usually noisy, fume-filled spaces dominated by motor vehicles are now places where pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy clean air and hear birds sing.

At a time of such great national and personal stress, these are vitally important things for our mental and physical health.

And as the first academic studies are published about the pandemic, we are starting to see a new cost that comes with traffic.

This research seems to be showing a correlation between areas of high pollution from PM25 particles and NOx – both of which come mainly from traffic – and higher mortality rates from COVID 19.

We already know that pollution in our streets causes serious illness to citizens of all ages, and leads to thousands of early deaths a year.

COVID 19 is providing us with yet another reason to do something quick and decisive to address it.

Oxford Mail:

Alex Hollingsworth

But it’s not just air pollution and its impact on physical health that we need to think about.

As the experience of those on essential trips to the shops, or taking their permitted exercise, on the streets of our towns and city shows, the very presence of traffic is a disincentive to walk, to cycle, or just to linger and chat.

When it’s not there our public places are better places.

Across the UK and beyond cities are acting to make those benefits permanent, in Manchester, in Milan, in Hackney, in Auckland.

In Oxfordshire we already have a blueprint for what we need to do – our challenge is to deliver it, with more urgency than ever before.

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The city and county councils jointly proposed the Connecting Oxford strategy last year, with the aim of significantly cutting traffic across Oxford, boosting public transport and giving pedestrians and cyclists a greater share of space to encourage more people to walk or take to their bikes.

COVID 19 has given us a preview of what the benefits of that strategy might look like.

All the indications are that the lockdown will only be lifted gradually.

Measures like physical distancing will stay in place even as the economy restarts.

For shops and cafes that will mean that they will need more space inside and outside for their customers.

It means that pedestrians and cyclists will need space not just to stay safe, but to stay healthy.

So should we start to bring forward some of the benefits of Connecting Oxford by allocating more space to pedestrians and cyclists now?

We know that without public transport – which in Oxfordshire is overwhelmingly a bus – our city and county would grind to a halt.

As we come out of lockdown, we are going to need buses to be quick, safe and convenient.

So should we bring forward measures in Connecting Oxford like bus gates that will give real priority to buses over cars?

And we also know that without traffic, not just our local streets but the open spaces in our towns and cities are immeasurably better.

So should we realise a long-held dream of so many and remove the parking and the traffic from Broad Street and make it the great public space so many believe it could be?

Let’s hear from you about what that better future is.

To make this happen will require bravery and confidence.

But it is not often we get to see, in real time and real life, what a better future might look like.

We should grasp this opportunity with both hands, and instead of thinking about how to make everything exactly how it was before, we need to work towards something better.