“Neighbourhood connectivity” is one of the trends to have emerged from the country’s lockdown restrictions and could inform how urban design is approached in the near future and beyond, says Dominic Collett.
With public transport forced to stop in the early stages of lockdown, Collett, an urban development engineer at Royal HaskoningDHV says people turned to supporting local businesses for essential goods and services.
Because they were no longer able to get to regional shopping centres, or other supply nodes, they started engaging with neighbours and businesses within walking or cycling distance.
“The urban design take-out from this trend is that people are safer in a community where everything’s within walking or cycling distance, as limited travel is linked to limited infection. It’s also made people realise that, depending on their work, they can be far more productive working at home and not spending time travelling to an office,” Collett says.