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I think it's just another instance of 'it's coronavirus, let's use it as an excuse to do what we had been wanting to do, anyway, and see for how long we can get away with it'. This is another:
Obviously, I'm all for a reduction in motor traffic, and if there are no major political problems, e.g. the Government forcing the Mayor to end those measures again, then I'm sure the intention is to make them permanent. Where Khan has really bought into 'green' agendas is over air quality, but the danger is that he may have bought the (fallacious) argument that by 'closing' the centre to cars you have to allow for more orbital motor traffic (which is something that has negated green gains in most European cities where those have been made, i.e. the centre has been pedestrianised, filtered, etc., but ring roads and other orbital motorways have been built), hence grandfathering Johnson's Silvertown Tunnel.
I still think that there will be a relatively quick return to 'normal', especially once there is a vaccine, but also, simply, once the infection rate is no longer seen as too problematic, and that a lot of the 'let's do it under cover of the virus' measures will probably be reversed, although it's quite possible that the above privatisation will stick. All too early to tell, really.
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Oliver Schick
Article doesn't make it clear (to me) if this is a long term plan or a temporary initiative to get people riding/walking to work in the short term. Would be phenomenal to think this could be the future in London.
Hearing Shapps encourage people to cycle, walk or drive to work made me want to puke