As shelter-in-place orders are relaxed, Bay Area cities must balance public health and safety with equitable and creative approaches to economic recovery. SPUR recommends four steps to make public life the focus of San José’s recovery strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a profound threat to the future of transit. It’s hard to speculate how the future will play out when the world today looks so different from the one we inhabited just two months ago. But one thing is certain: We will still need transit.

SPUR is developing recommendations regarding the many policy issues arising in the Bay Area with the outbreak of COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders. Here are the resources, events, articles, and policy letters SPUR has produced so far.

Shelter in place has made it starkly evident just how much space cities allocate to cars and parking. The City of San José is currently considering changes to the amount of parking it requires of new development. All of this makes it a good time to unpack the many ways that parking impacts neighborhoods and quality of life.

The mayors of the region should follow Oakland’s lead and close some streets to through traffic to create space for walking and biking. By making it safer for us to be outside in a socially distant way, “slow streets” help us combat another public health crisis: chronic diseases caused by inactivity. They also equalize the opportunity to be outside for communities that lack open space.