Barriers and enablers to local active travel during COVID-19: A case study of Streetspace interventions in two London boroughs

During COVID-19, UK local authorities increased emergency active travel interventions. This study aimed to understand what aspects of temporary Streetspace for London schemes representbarriers or enablers to walking and cycling for short local journeys.Focusing on two London boroughs, we sampled 885 publiccomments about Streetspace schemes and conducted 21 semi-structured interviews. We triangulated the data in a thematic analysis to identify barriers and enablers, which were categorised usingthe Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour(COM-B)model.Opportunity and motivation were reflected in the barriers (accessibility and integration; controversy, dissatisfaction,and doubt), enablers (new routes and spaces; sustainability and health beliefs) and mixed themes (changes to traffic and environs; feeling safe). Although aspects of Streetspace schemeswere seen to enableactive travel,our findingssuggest that additional processes to address the acceptability, equity, and unintended consequences ofemergency interventions will be important to their long-term success for health and sustainability.