Introduction

These three webinars were about what impact COVID has had on transport and what challenges and opportunities it has created and how we deal with these. 

National and local governments around the world have tried to use lockdowns to implement active travel measures such as new cycle lanes, car-free streets and more. These have often lead to heated discussions about how or to whom public space is allocated. 

While lockdowns and social distancing requirements gave hope of an increase in sustainable active travel modes it simultaneously brought rise to fears of the opposite, a substantial increase in personal vehicle use at the expense of public transport. Public transport is seen as a key measure in the path to 'net-zero' for transport.

In this webinar series we asked what awaits for transport on the other side of COVID, what opportunities and challenges has COVID brought with it and what is the status of the active travel measures put in place. 

These key questions about the impact of COVID were discussed at three separate lunchtime webinars.

A Post-Pandemic Future

Professor Nick Tyler CBE, Chadwick Chair of Civil Engineering, University College London

Lessons Learned from Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Pop-up Active Travel Infrastructure

Spencer Palmer, Chair of CIHT's Network Management Panel, Director of Transport and Mobility at London Councils

Sam Monck, Head of Network Sponsorship, Transport for London

Nick O'Donnell, Assistant Director for Traffic & Engineering, Richmond and Wandsworth Councils

Mark Frost, Director, Fern Consulting Services