North American street design for the coronavirus pandemic: a typology of emerging interventions

Abstract

This paper examines street design as an emergency response for physical distancing in public space during the coronavirus pandemic. We assess how design ideas for streets were discussed and promoted through news media from February through October of 2020. This marks a temporary, though potentially paradigmatic, shift in how streets function. To what extent the pandemic will enable longer-term street interventions is unknown. However, the initial impacts of the pandemic on streets are noteworthy. From our nine-month 2020 media analysis, we highlight a typology of emerging coronavirus-driven street interventions and assess how urban design ideas were discussed as a pandemic response. This is a clear break in the conventional management of urban streets, and the long-term impacts will continue to unfold in the years ahead. This paper focuses on reviewing the emerging street interventions from 2020. This is a significant moment for urban design in conceptualizing streets as public space.