A recent study showed that people who live in neighbourhoods with more types of birds feel better about their surroundings, even without being aware of the connection between the birds and their feelings of satisfaction.
Permanently reducing traffic and keeping it low enough to benefit birds and people will take a concerted effort and a many-pronged approach. We’ll need measures such as tax incentives to encourage people to work from home. We’ll also need improvements in public transit, financial incentives for taking transit, and financial disincentives for driving, such as the tolls in London, England, for driving into the city. Improvements can also be made in infrastructure for non-traffic modes of transportation such as walking and biking. For example, during lockdowns many city planners used the opportunity to install measures allowing pedestrians and cyclists onto the underused roadways, improving health and well-being for many of us. There are myriad approaches that we can use to reduce traffic.