COVID-19 lockdown in Poland – changes in regional and local mobility patterns based on Google Maps data

Abstract

As no effective treatment or vaccine have yet been developed, the only way to prevent the spread of SARS-Cov-2 is to introduce social distancing measures. Scientific discussion regarding their actual effectiveness and socio-economic consequences has only just begun. Both declining mobility and changes in mobility patterns are obvious effects of social distancing. The main objective of this article is to present spatial diversity of changes in regional and local mobility in Poland with the use of data gathered and provided by Google LCC. As for the regional dimension, the mobility has declined steadily in most of the analysed areas. The regional changes were more visible only in the case of the following categories of areas: grocery & pharmacy and parks. The initial correlation analysis has shown that distribution of those changes more or less reflects spatial voting patterns. Both historical and cultural factors may explain such results, including ingrained habits, collective attitudes towards politics and group values. In the local context, illustrated by the analysis of changes in travel time from housing areas in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot to the business and science centre in Gdańsk-Oliwa, a noticeable yet spatially diversified decrease in drive time (by private car) has been observed. The most significant reduction in travel time was recorded in peripheral areas accessible by high-speed roads which are normally jammed during peak hours. The mobility constraints have led to highly reduced traffic congestion, and consequently, shortened the travel time.

Towards Transit‑Oriented Development for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Insights from a Central European City

“…Such activity is in line with local policies in many cities aiming to increase the role of public transport in urban mobility [46,47] and as a side effect also increase the value of real estate [48,49]. The proposed research concept also corresponds with other studies conducted in Polish conditions on different transportation modes and their relation to sustainable cities [50][51][52][53][54][55].…”

Animal-vehicle collisions during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 in the Krakow metropolitan region, Poland

“…In our analyses, the months from January to June 2019 and, January, February and June 2020 were termed as ‘non-lockdown’ months. The lockdown period in 2020 was defined from March to May, hereafter termed ‘lockdown’ months based on the official government declaration 26 . Further, in our analyses, we used traffic data of Krakow to understand the impact of lockdown on AVC in the urban area.…”

The Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic in Relation to Sense of Safety and Mobility Changes in Public Transport Using the Example of Warsaw

“…The second known research [72] was conducted in a Polish city, Gda ńsk, and analysed the factors affecting the feeling of safety in public transport during the pandemic, including the fear of becoming infected, the fear of insufficient disinfection and the fear of other passengers not following the hygienic regime. The second important article describes the change in mobility and its analysis with the use of Google LCC [73], which directly showed a significant decline in mobility, also as a response to introduced restrictions. The article presents data showing the biggest drop in mobility in the retail and recreation (−78%) category and the smallest in the workplaces category (−36%).…”