![]() ![]() One concern was that as commuters returned to London, worries about using public transport would persist. Quickly, shovels began to hit the streets. We needed to do something really urgently on this.” He stresses: “That’s when the alarm bells went off. And a toxic air crisis is the very last thing we need in the middle of a respiratory disease pandemic.” And if a fraction of those went to cars, we would end up with gridlock on the streets. “That would mean millions of journeys having to be made by other modes. “For those people who had to work, suddenly cycling was a safe, convenient option,” he says, pointing at the time when social distancing rules were set to 2 metres, which meant that both trains and buses could only carry a fraction of the number of people who usually squeeze on to them. Norman is Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, and he quickly found that his portfolio was a critical part of the response. “How do we keep people safe? How can we keep the transport network running to make sure that key workers could get to hospitals, so the electricity system still works, so people could actually work in the supermarkets in a safe way?” “To be completely honest, when Covid hit and the first lockdown happened across every bit of government it was crisis management,” says Will Norman. How on earth were people supposed to get around the city? Suddenly, the transport network that enabled London to function became something to be avoided. Then, of course, last year there was Covid-19. The London Underground was operating at far beyond its designed capacity, and every day saw an estimated 2.9 million journeys made by passengers, 38 per cent more compared to the year 2010, despite the network looking almost identical. Before the pandemic hit, the capital’s transport network was feeling the pressure.
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