Travel Trends in L.A. During COVID
LADOT Assistant General Manager for External Affairs and LADOT's Racial Equity Officer recently posted an article on Medium analyzing travel trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. An excerpt is reproduced below:
It’s common knowledge that COVID-19 has dramatically changed how people travel, and plummeted demand for transportation services. But new data analysis reveals how race, income and zip code vastly affected changes in Los Angeles. As cities grapple with how to manage the effects of this health and economic crisis, LADOT launched a study of travel trends during the pandemic. Our analysis affirms that long-standing racial inequities, created through decades of policies meant to intentionally oppress black, brown and other people of color, that impact how people travel have only deepened in recent months, impacting how many Angelenos in need get around.
Our analysis of multiple sources of mobility data, measuring activity prior to and during the City of Los Angeles “Safer at home” orders, confirms that most Angelenos followed social distancing orders and substantially reduced car trips. However, in the poorest communities of Los Angeles, where Black and Latino residents are disproportionately concentrated, we saw little to no change in travel patterns. In fact, residents in these communities traveled more during this pandemic, largely to essential jobs that didn’t allow telecommuting. To view the full analysis produced by LADOT staff click here.