There is some interesting thought coming from Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) in Scotland on best practices for post-Covid economic recovery.
They are proposing to “Walk Back Better” joining 27 organizations including Public Health Scotland, Scottish National Heritage and the University of Edinburgh in placing walking as a national priority in planning local development.
Director of RTPI Scotland Craig McLaren stated “As we look towards a post Covid-19 world, we want to see a commitment to walking and cycling embedded into how we design our towns and cities with walking environments placed at the heart of the recovery.”
What this means for Scotland is that through their National Planning Framework and the National Transport Strategy that walking will be seen as the first precept to design and develop approaches to stimulate the recovery. Several initiatives that were installed as temporary, including wider sidewalks and streets closed to vehicular traffic to encourage walking and cycling will remain, and reductions in vehicular speed limits will become permanent.
The initiative also is centering the recovery on the physical and mental wellbeing of citizens , advocating for walking as the base of every journey.
You can find out more about Scotland’s National Walking Strategy here.
