COVID-19 will result in many changes for the way people live and move for the foreseeable future which presents both challenges and opportunities for the development sector.
i-Transport has prepared a short discussion piece which sets out the Practice’s thoughts on changes that are likely to result from COVID-19 (https://tinyurl.com/EndOfThePeakHour).
We believe that changes in the way people live their lives (i.e. increased home working, reduced business travel, increased online shopping and greater active travel), and the expected economic impacts of COVID-19, will mean that in many places traffic levels will be reduced from pre-COVID-19 levels and that future traffic growth forecasts will be revised downwards. We expect that this will flatten or even remove the peak hours as they currently are, which has the potential to create various opportunities for development:
- Older projects that have been held back for highway capacity constraints can be revisited
- Planning obligations (highway and public transport) could be renegotiated to improve viability / commercial return
- In some cases, development numbers could be increased without further infrastructure requirements
- New land can be considered in accessible areas that were previously constrained by highway capacity
We would be pleased to discuss these thoughts with you and to explore any opportunities that you think this may create for you. Please speak to your usual i-Transport contact, or email us at enquiries@i-transport.co.uk
