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The government, office owners, and café and restaurant operators: London’s office workers are being urged from all sides to head back into the city centre after six months of working from home. But they are steadfastly refusing, and there is one big factor: transport.
Millions of words have been written about the 6-foot office, temperature scanners in lobbies or how to social distance in restaurants. In spite of research that public transport isn’t a major vector of coronavirus transmission, polls show that public transport is a big worry factor for Londoners, with 70% saying they were afraid to use the capital’s transit system. London First produced similar findings.
For a city like London or New York, where a high proportion of office workers use public transport and face long commutes, getting people back on public transport is vital, and city centres won’t be back in business until they do.
“The government has done a good job in scaring people and keeping them off public transport,” London Property Alliance Executive Director Charles Begley said. “It is hard to unwind that quickly.”
Solving London’s coronavirus transport conundrum is a tricky problem. It involves understanding our psychology and nudging our behaviour, but also creating new financial incentives. Issues like the way we pay for train season tickets, seemingly simple on the surface, actually require significant changes to long-standing economic practices. But the fact that we…
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