Patricia LEJOUX, LAET-ENTPE, France
Florence PAULHIAC-SCHERRER, UQAM, Canada
With the Covid-19 crisis cities had to deal with a new problem : allow their inhabitants to move around the city, while respecting physical distancing. To avoid overcrowding on public transport and road congestion, many cities in the world decided to implement a new sharing of public space to favour active mobilities like cycling and walking. During 2020 and early 2021, numerous cities reallocated street and public space to cyclists and pedestrians with emergency measures like the creation of pop-up bike lanes or bigger sidewalks. By requiring more rapidity and more flexbility, these measures provided cities with a momentum to rethink their approach towards urban public space and suggest alternative option to design it. Several notions were used to name these new ways of designing urban public space : « tactical urbanism », « temporary urbanism », « transitory urbanism ». But it is quite difficult to understand the differences between them and their specificities.
This contribution will examine the measures implemented by two cities, Lyon and Montréal, to reallocate public space in favour of active mobilities (walking, cycling) during the Covid-19 crisis (March 2020 to August 2021). To characterize these measures, we will use a new notion : « crisis urbanism ». We will define this concept and we will discuss its common features and differences with the notions of « tactical urbanism », « temporary urbanism » and « transitory urbanism ». Then, we will explore the consequences of this (re)nogociation of the sharing of public space in Lyon and Montreal during the Covid-19 crisis. To what extent is this new way of designing urban public space in favour of active mobilities a first step toward a « transitional urbanism » ?
Mots clés : public space|COVID-19 crisis|Cycling|Pedestrian|Lyon, Montréal
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