The Urban Land Institute’s Building Healthy Places Initiative profiled more than 30 approaches to the public realm during the pandemic from around the globe, representing a range of cities—small and large, on different continents, implementing pilot projects or accelerating long-term plans. The examples illuminate how cities can innovate with low-cost, immediately responsive, and creative interventions that promote health and social equity. Several of these examples, spanning four different types of public space projects, are highlighted in this article. The Pandemic and the Public Realm: Global Innovations for Health, Social Equity, and Sustainability is a forthcoming report of ULI

Along certain Calgary sidewalks and pathways with larger volumes of pedestrian traffic, crews have placed pylons and other barricades onto a lane of adjacent roadway for people to step onto so they can safely maintain a two-metre separation from others.

The Toronto Bike Brigade calls for volunteer bicycle riders in Toronto to help deliver goods to people unable to leave their homes

Emergency bike networks are proving integral for getting essential staff to get to their workplace safely, creating additional space on strained or non-existent networks for people maintain physical distancing. They also present an opportunity to trial future bike lane roll-out. Under normal conditions, it can take several months – and sometimes years – to develop a bike network, but these times call for quick measures.