ended people’s routines so dramatically. It does not matter whether you walk past the
coffee shop or not if it has closed down—or if you rarely leave the house.
Many changes were for the worse. But not all.
During the lockdowns unhealthy snacking increased, but so did cooking at home and
eating family meals together—practices generally linked with healthier eating patterns.
People could not see friends and family, but they got to know the people next door
(about 20% of Britons said talking more to their neighbours was a change that would
outlast the pandemic). With gyms and organised sports closed for months, some people
cut down on regular exercise. Others, however, took up new sports. In England the
proportion of people cycling at least once a week reached 16% in June 2020, twice the
level of the early weeks of lockdown. Nextbike, which runs shared-bike schemes in
several European countries, reported a 35% increase in rides in April and May,
compared with a year earlier.
The greater popularity of cooking, neighbourly chats and cycling will persist. If you do
something new once a day for two weeks, it starts to feel automatic—the defining
feature of a habit, says Benjamin Gardner of King’s College London. Doing something for
longer helps solidify the habit. One study of people who took up healthy eating or
regular exercise found that the degree to which it felt automatic increased, but then
plateaued, on average, after 66 days. That is roughly how long Europeans spent in
lockdown.
Other things will help, too. Many people with office-based jobs will work from home in
future, at least some of the time. That will help them stick with home-cooked meals and
being chummier with their neighbours. Those returning to offices may feel nervous
about travelling on crowded public transport, making cycling more attractive. Big cities
are trying not to waste the crisis. They are pumping up cycling’s prospects by
subsidising bike purchases and laying down more cycling lanes.
The pandemic has changed many things. But for some people at least, the changes are
like new-year’s resolutions they wish they had made long ago.
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