Walking, rolling or cycling will be a vital part of a better London

In lockdown we all remembered the pleasure of walking. Now we need it to return as a vital form of transport.

Post-corona, the two-mile journey will be more prevalent than ever. Many will work from home, most will spend leisure time and shop in local areas and fewer secondary-aged children will take the bus to school. All these short journeys can be walked, rolled or cycled.

When the commute returns, many more Londoners can do so on foot — for the entire or longer parts of the journey.

But a lot must change for this to ­happen. The Mayor’s new Streetspace plan, to give central London some of the largest car-free city zones in the world, is an astonishingly brave start.

But now we need all London boroughs to follow. Some have ambitious plans, but others offer very little for pedestrians. For these, walking has been snubbed as too matter-of-fact for serious attention.

First, walkers, cyclists, people in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters need a city-wide network of “low-traffic neighbourhoods”.

These eliminate rat runners to create healthy corridors, that give people the confidence to walk, cycle and roll as part of their routine. This idea is gaining momentum but these need to be delivered in all boroughs so they connect across the city.

It is possible to do this quickly and cheaply, for example by installing a few planters as traffic “filters”. Lambeth council has just announced it will deliver four low-traffic neighbourhoods at roughly £100,000 each as soon as July.

Londoners also need to believe they can walk further. London Living Streets has created a network of safe, clean, useful and interesting walking routes in central London.

This reminds us, for example, that it only takes 25 enjoyable minutes to walk from Euston to Covent Garden. We will now work with volunteers to extend this across the city.

We also need extra pavement space to kickstart London’s economy. It is unfathomable that areas like the West End give so much space to cars, and so little to people.

Restaurants and bars won’t survive social distancing without extra street space for seating.

All these measures can be delivered fast and cheaply; they just require a little bravery and appreciation of what can be gained.