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Streets ahead

Marie Segger: data journalist The Economist, BERLIN AND LONDON

How will the pandemic change urban-transport patterns?

With more cars, but less road space, bicycles and e-scooters will become more

attractive options

OBSERVERS OF many industries claim that the pandemic has accelerated change in
their sectors. But is it true for transport? Over the past decade, city planners have
promoted public transport to ease congestion and reduce pollution. Since the start of
the pandemic, however, people have been opting for more solitary options such as cars
and bicycles. But street space is in short supply in dense cities such as New York and
Paris. As a result, big cities should expect big changes in how people get around in 2021.

Until a vaccine is made widely available or better treatments are found, the pandemic
will shape patterns of travel. To see how travel might evolve, we analysed mobility data
from Apple, Google and TomTom in ten big cities. Use of public transport in August,
when covid-19 cases had fallen from their initial peaks, remained 40% below its pre-
pandemic norm. That suggests that in 2021, while the virus remains a threat, people