Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Mobility: Empirical Evidence from the City of Santander (Spain)

Abstract

This article analyses the impact that the confinement measures or quarantine imposed in Spain on 15 March 2020 had on urban mobility in the northern city of Santander. Data have been collected from traffic counters, public transport ITS, and recordings from traffic control cameras and environmental sensors to make comparisons between journey flows and times before and during the confinement. This data has been used to re-estimate Origin-Destination trip matrices to obtain an initial diagnostic of how daily mobility has been reduced and how the modal distribution and journey purposes have changed. The impact on externalities such as NO2 emissions and traffic accidents have also been quantified. The analysis revealed an overall mobility fall of 76%, being less important in the case of the private car. Public transport users dropped by up to 93%, NO2 emissions were reduced by up to 60%, and traffic accidents were reduced by up to 67% in relative terms.

Preliminary Assessment of Air During COVID-19 Lockdown: An Unintended Benefit to Environment

“…Additionally, considering the results of other towns the NO2 values has declined during lockdown and presents the improvement in air quality. Therefore, in support of this result, several studies have been reported globally (Aloi et al, 2020;Bao and Zhang, 2020;Bashir et al, 2020;Kerimray et al, 2020;Kaplan and Avdan, 2020;İban, 2020).…”

Analysing urban traffic volumes and mapping noise emissions in Rome (Italy) in the context of containment measures for the COVID-19 disease

“…The mobility restriction led to a drastic reduction of urban traffic volumes, with a consequent strong decrease in road congestion, pollutant and noise emissions [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The study presented in this paper focuses on two principal aspects.…”

Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown

“…The COVID-19 lockdown is revealing the stress, noise and pollution present in urban areas [25,26,28,29]. Under normal conditions, bird behaviour is altered and the possibility to enjoy the natural values of our cities is notably diminished [8].…”

“…Overall, the measures have contributed to a global diminishing of human activities [24]. This abrupt and dramatic disruption of most human social and economic activities have already had quantifiable effects on urban environments by marked reductions in air pollution [25–27] and noise [28,29]. One of the most noticeable and generalized measure has been applying certain degree of population lockdown, which renders our city streets empty and virtually silent.…”