Part 8/15:
The pandemic temporarily upended traditional urban patterns, accelerating the adoption of temporary street interventions, such as outdoor dining in curb lanes and pop-up bike lanes. Tucker notes these were experiments that proved many changes could be quick, reversible, and effective, encouraging cities to adopt permanent policies.
He highlights Copenhagen, where street design is adaptable and responsive, thanks to the use of modular cobblestones and flexible infrastructure. This stands in contrast to American cities, where bureaucratic inertia and extensive permitting processes slow down modifications, often making incremental changes prohibitively expensive and bureaucratically complex.