People Are Walking More Than Ever As Mobility Climbs

More people walked than drove in every major region across the US during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Midwest leading as the area with the largest increase over pre-pandemic mobility levels. 

A new report from Commercial Café using smartphone search data indicates that after an “immediate and dramatic” drop in mobility through April 2020 in the early days of the pandemic, mobility picked back up into the summer before waning as winter loomed. But as summer 2021 began, more people got out walking, this time more so than the previous summer – likely due to continued occupancy restrictions, masking, and the availability and prevalence of vaccines.

Seattle, Chicago and Milwaukee are among cities where mobility has bounced back the most after a significant initial decline, according to the report. Overall, there were more searches for walking and driving directions in the Midwest and Northeast than in the Western and Southern states, with the former regions surging 122% and 95% respectively in walking direction searches when compared to January 2020. 

The report also notes that public transit use has still not reached pre-pandemic levels in  most areas, with the Northeast being the only region where usage has risen above pre-COVID numbers.

“This is partially due to how public transit is structured (as many people are often in enclosed spaces with very close proximity to each other for extended periods of time), whereas driving and walking are far more individualized,” the report notes. “Nowadays it’s more appealing, and frankly, healthy, to walk, bike or scoot to your destination rather than crowding on a subway train. One explanation for this inverse relationship is that people in dense cities with expansive public transit systems — like New York City, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago — are choosing to walk more often and for farther distances instead of taking public transit.”

Boston, Austin, Chicago; and New York City are all above pre-pandemic public transit levels after precipitous drop-offs during the pandemic’s peak. Boston is up 30%.

Seattle and Virginia Beach had the largest variances in driving data, followed by Chicago, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids. Seattle leads the largest increase in driving mobility since January 13, 2020, with an increase of 93% after falling 37% in April of last year. Driving searches dropped in San Francisco, meanwhile, by 57% in April 2020 but hit pre-pandemic levels at the beginning of the summer, and is now 15% above pre-pandemic levels. 

And in Milwaukee and Virginia Beach, residents are walking more than ever. Milwaukee is up 178% and Virginia Beach is up 187% in July, “far outpacing any other increases in driving anywhere else in the country. 

“Clearly, after the cold winter months (combined with occupancy restrictions and outright closures) greatly reduced the number of options available to residents, the warm summer months made open public spaces look incredibly appealing,” the report states. 

Walking searches are climbing in Jacksonville, Sacramento, and Phoenix, by a respective 70%, 65%, and 48%.

“Overall, it appears that we’re moving more and more as a nation. And, while this data doesn’t include air travel or hotel bookings, looking for directions is a very strong indicator of traveling — regardless of the means,” the report concludes. “Granted, the delta variant may very well change the trend we’ve observed in 2021. But, the previous 18 months have shown that, regardless of location, people will get out and go places.”

Separate data from Avison Young also show that foot traffic has increased since the start of the pandemic. The firm recently unveiled its The Vitality Index, designed to measure foot traffic across major US cities.