Coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown had a dramatic impact on Londoners’ travel patterns and local transport provision. This project brought the challenges facing local authorities and Transport for London into focus, highlighting the indirect consequences of the lockdown, and exploring potential ‘silver lining’ transport opportunities for recovery.
Coronavirus had a profound and wide reaching impact on London’s transport system. Tube passenger numbers dropped by 95 per cent and bus passengers by 85 per cent at the height of lockdown. Transport for London had been struggling with the financial implications of this, which led to a substantial government funding package in May to aid the recovery of the transport network.
With many Londoners feeling uneasy about travelling on public transport once restrictions are lifted, the Mayor and boroughs looked at how the wider transport network can be adapted and improved.
This project brought the challenges facing local authorities and Transport for London into focus, highlighting the indirect consequences of the lockdown, and exploring potential ‘silver lining’ transport opportunities for recovery.
It looked at:
- The economic impact, long recovery and rapid bounce back scenarios;
- The impact that coronavirus has had on user behaviour and transport preference;
- The direct financial impact these changes have had on local authority transport budgets, and the indirect financial impacts arising from ridership, Transport for London grant funding and Department for Transport road repair funding;
- Insight into ‘tactical’ transport responses from around the globe, from temporary bike lanes to parking measures.
Through new polling we looked at Londoners’ changing attitudes to transport as a result of the pandemic, and what the medium and long term impacts might be. Read our analysis of this polling in Part 1 and Part 2 on our blog.
The project started and closed with public webinars to disseminate our findings and provoke a lively discussion of these pressing issues.