Overheard somewhere in a big city in the year 2030, between a 65-year old grandmother and her 8-year old grandson
“Grandma, look what I’ve found!” The boy showed his tablet to his grandmother, who feigned amazement and disbelief. “What is this nonsense?” she replied as she smiled wryly to herself. The photo on the tablet showed one of our ancient urban highways completely congested with cars almost motionless in a long queue. “Come on”, said the little boy. “Don’t make fun of me! It’s an old photo from at least 15 years ago, you should recognize it. Back then you also owned a car, didn’t you?”.
It was true. She and her husband loved cars. She still remembers the blue Mini she used to drive when she and her future husband went on trips to the seaside, sometimes to the ski slopes, or merely to go to a cinema or a shopping mall. That Mini made her feel as a bird, free to go, free to be herself. A few years later, she was almost disappointed to know that her son, Lorenzo, was not interested at all in cars. He always preferred buses and bikes or simply taking long walks whenever it was possible. However, even her own passion for cars had slowly faded away. That feeling of freedom when she was young slowly gave way to the oppression of having to wait hours a queue of traffic closeted in that small car. Then there was no alternative: public transport was inefficient, always crowded with people and unreliable. In any case, commuting had become a real nightmare. This until the Coronavirus crisis of 2020. Her nephew, Federico, was only born in 2022 in a world which the Coronavirus had so profoundly changed, one which most people could still barely recognize. Indeed, in years to come, people came to refer to the new era or epoch as BC, Before the Crisis, or Before Corona.
She turned her head towards Federico, who was staring at her, waiting for an answer, and said to him: “You’re right. It’s amazing to think that just a few years ago everything was so different. You were born after the great crisis of 2020 and, although at the time no one suspected anything, soon everything changed so radically that I find it hard to even think that I have lived in two worlds which are so profoundly different.”
And so, she began to tell Federico a little about the so-called COVID19 crisis. “You have to know”, she continued, “that that little virus with such a regal name upset our lives because it affected us in one of the most primordial aspects of our being humans: the ability to meet with others, to talk, to hug or simply shake hands”. “The wiser ones,” she continued, “sensed that something big was about to happen, but most of us, including me, held our breath waiting for the “Corona Tsunami” to pass. But it didn’t! And it forced us to rethink our lives, our work, our relationships. When I think about it now, I realize what a great opportunity we could have missed. In the isolation we had been in for months, each of us confined to our homes, unable to go out except to buy bare necessities or for our one hour exercise each day, many of us began to appreciate that time had slowed, enabling us to stay more at home, with our loved ones, and to organize our days more freely”. “And what happened then, Grandma?” Federico asked. “Well! Something extraordinary. Something we humans wouldn’t have been able to conceive as possible in the months and years before. We began to appreciate long-distance work, distance learning. Your grandfather started taking much fewer planes to his meetings and driving much shorter distances to enact his business. He only moved around for really important things. Suddenly the cities regained a freshness that I had only heard about from my grandparents. Pollution began to disappear and each night you could begin to see the stars. There was a big change. You know, Federico, when you can’t go back, you try to go forward and explore a new world, a new balance, new solutions.”
“And that’s what we did. Each one contributed a little bit, and luckily enough, our science and technology allowed us to rethink our lives and invent a different future. So, mobility changed because society was changing, the way people interacted was different, and above all, the value people gave to many of our cherished material beliefs began to change. If I think about what we have now, I cannot even conceive that for so long we accepted such a congested, polluted, segregated and polarised world. We now embrace the real power of the internet for shopping, and work in any place at any time, from home if it is convenient to do so. Our schools and universities have changed too. There are now more opportunities to learn and teach, either online or with a very focussed presence. And not only for you, young people. We can all learn, even at my age. And it is so nice to rediscover how much “time” is a gift. We have changed the patterns of our social interactions a bit too, but I think we did this by filtering the many unnecessary communications that we were once plagued with, thus reducing the burden of social interactions. We had to be careful, of course, but this came naturally quite soon. Reducing the need to move and safeguarding the desire to move has been a big step forward. Now we can move around with ease because we are no longer forced to do it! And, you know, this change was made possible because we had to adapt to the environment very quickly. We had to think out-of-the-box and embrace what many have called lateral thinking. And I’m glad we did it!”
“You should ask your parents what they think of this revolution, from AD to BC! It really affected all of our lives. “ “I will Granma! One last question. Do you still own a Mini?” Of course, my dear. A few years, just when you were born, I lent it to the Museum of Transport as a vintage car. You know, it was 50 years old. And now it’s making a fool of itself in the museum. We should go there sometime. It’s impressive to see the traces of the mobility revolution that brought us here. I’ll take you there on Sunday.” “And before you go, I should say that the Electric Mini was launched just as the world turned in early 2020. And when the many waves of infection had passed and a vaccine was found and tested safely, governments and motor manufacturers began to install a massive charging network. All those big plugs you see everywhere with the little cars hooked up to them were the first things that the government did once the crisis was over”.
We thank Michael Batty (Unversity College London), Elsa Arcaute (Unversity College London), Pietro Gravino (Sony CSL Paris) and Anna Lo Piano for the useful comments and suggestions about this text.