Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Restrooms, drinking fountains, sinks, doorknobs, street crossing buttons (etc.) in the time of pandemic

Image from the Twitter feed of the advocacy group, DC Department of Transformation.

(Although this is like initiatives from Portland City Repair and the UK Road Witch project, the first Parking Day in San Francisco, which I been writing about for 10+ years.)

One of the responses to stay at home orders and the pandemic has been shifting road right of way use away from cars towards pedestrians and cyclists, both formally through actions by local governments and informally by activists ("https://wtop.com/dc/2020/05/activists-block-off-dc-streets-to-create-socially-distant-outdoor-space/," WTOP radio; "

The Washington Post ran an article, "Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine," making the point that covid19 will be with us "for a long time" even forever and whether or not there is a vaccine or herd immunity, elements of public space will have to change. From the article:
Eventually, many experts believe this coronavirus could become relatively benign, causing milder infections as our immune systems develop a memory of responses to it through previous infection or vaccination. But that process could take years, said Andrew Noymer, a University of California at Irvine epidemiologist.
Doorknobs and pedestrian crosswalks. From the article:
Communities should be thinking about installing doors that don’t require grasping a handle, and re-engineering traffic signals so pedestrians don’t have to push crosswalk buttons, said Eleanor J. Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University.
More elements will require redesign.  Like putting flags at crosswalks that people can wave when they cross the street.  Maybe people will have to own and bring their own flags.  Although the flag intervention is too accommodating of car-centricity.

Restrooms and sinks. We will need to wash our hands a lot more frequently, throughout the day, regardless of where we are. Do we create a "network" of sinks in public spaces? How do we keep them clean? Can they be activated by proximity sensors so you don't have to turn the faucets on and off?

Many communities don't have "public restrooms" ("Restrooms as an element of the public realm," 2018). If that changes, how do we keep them clean?  Do laws and incentives change so that privately provided restrooms such as at restaurants and hotels have to be open to non-customers?

Drinking fountains. I've argued for an expanded network of public fountains ("Why not get office buildings to install water fountains in facades as a community amenity?," 2019).  London's been doing this.  Some supermarkets even have outdoor drinking fountains for dogs.

That doesn't seem practical now. And for all the about how bottled water misuses water and creates plastic waste, especially when local water sources are often superior to bottled water, we'll need to bring our own water.

But instead of buying it, people should be encouraged to have their own containers.  Many cities, including DC and Metropolitan Washington with the "Tap It" program, have created a network of businesses that have agreed to fill up people's water bottles.

What else?  What other urban elements will require redesign?  Obviously, transit is one.  What else?

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4 Comments:

At 9:19 AM, Blogger Christopher1974 said...

Contactless. Contactless. Water bottle fillers that don't require contact. Sinks that don't require contact. Toilets. All of that we have. Elevators are different. We have a lot of those "enter your destination outside the elevator" systems in NYC. They have often have people stationed in the lobby to help that.

On the other hand, the CDC is saying maybe contact isn't really that important a vector for transmission. I've stopped wearing gloves every place.

 
At 1:50 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

I don't wear gloves but do wash my hands often. That's why I am thinking about a public sink "network" ...

Thanks.

 
At 1:39 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

The contact ("Formite") transmission for this virus is very minimal.

As opposed to say norovirus.

The hand-cleaning mania was just a way to try and give people some control.

I think you've got two things going on:

1. Reluctance to be around poor people. We always try to put moral causes to viral infections. Is this justified -- no, of course not. Is the fear out there -- absolutely.

2. What we really need to do is rethink public toilets -- you need lids on toilets, full exertions and not prison-style parttions, probably removal of urnials, and removal of hot air dryers. Basically take out anything that turns virus into aerosols.

3. Continued removal of drinking fountains. Public sinks need to be cleaned which isn't going to happen.


I can't wait for someone to do a PCR study on drinking water; I'm sure all systems using a river already have large viral loads. Again just because a PCR test detects virus segments doesn't mean the virus can infect a cell -- the chlorine alone would kill that -- but again it is just the terror talking here not reality.


 
At 2:44 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Scary point about river water (I guess that comes from being the son of a virologist).

But yes, like with surfaces, this particular virus isn't likely to be contracted that way.

Basically it's about large events, contained spaces, aerosols, air exchange, viral load, proximity for extended periods of time + the co-morbidities.

 

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