Putting Pedestrians First: Sidewalk Infrastructures, Width Patterns and COVID-19

Abstract

As the COVID-19 crisis has forced people to adhere to social distancing, the proximity to each other of pedestrians on the sidewalk suddenly becomes meaningful: do pedestrians have enough space to safely move within cities? With decades of urban planning prioritizing roads and automobiles, the answer is ‘no’. Cities all over the world have been forced to make urgent changes to pedestrian infrastructure in order to make it safe for people to move about public spaces during the pandemic. In this study, using the sidewalk infrastructure from the Canadian city of Calgary as an example, we model sidewalk widths and then analyse the spatial patterns across the city. Our results reveal that Calgary's sidewalk widths vary substantially and form clusters of narrow sidewalks among residential zones, while wide sidewalks are typically found in downtown, and in some parks and recreational areas. We recommend that the City of Calgary, and all cities, re-evaluate their sidewalk and pathway development patterns, and upgrade sidewalk infrastructures in those narrow-sidewalk communities. By developing more robust methods for modelling and analysing sidewalk width, paired with adequate sidewalk data, cities can make informed decisions that lead to more inclusive, pedestrian-safe, cities.