How Will the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect the Future of Urban Life? Early Evidence from Highly-Educated Respondents in the United States

Abstract

Attitudes and habits are extremely resistant to change, but a disruption of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to bring long-term, massive societal changes. During the pandemic, people are being compelled to experience new ways of interacting, working, learning, shopping, traveling, and eating meals. Going forward, a critical question is whether these experiences will result in changed behaviors and preferences in the long term. This paper presents initial findings on the likelihood of long-term changes in telework, daily travel, restaurant patronage, and air travel based on survey data collected from adults in the United States in Spring 2020. These data suggest that a sizable fraction of the increase in telework and decreases in both business air travel and restaurant patronage are likely here to stay. As for daily travel modes, public transit may not fully recover its pre-pandemic ridership levels, but many of our respondents are planning to bike and walk more than they used to. These data reflect the responses of a sample that is higher income and more highly educated than the US population. The response of these particular groups to the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps especially important to understand, however, because their consumption patterns give them a large influence on many sectors of the economy.

COVID-19 related Attitudes and Risk Perceptions across Urban, Rural, and Suburban Areas in the United States

“…The data were collected through an online longitudinal survey that asked a variety of COVID-19 related attitudinal and behavioral questions to more than 9,000 individuals from across the US (Capasso da Chauhan et al, 2021 (forthcoming); Conway et al 2020;Salon et al 2021). Specifically, we use the data collected during the first wave of the survey, which was conducted from April to October 2020.…”

COVID-19, internet, and mobility: The rise of telework, telehealth, e-learning, and e-shopping

“…Post-COVID-19 impacts are still unknown. The investigation of changes in online activities due to COVID-19 offers essential input for shedding light on ongoing and future changes in mobility ( Conway, Salon, da Silva, & Mirtich, 2020 ). Overviews of changes in different types of online activities due to COVID-19 are needed to comparatively understand the degree of change in each online activity.…”

Covid-19 Pandemic Impacts on Essential Transit Riders: Findings from a U.S. Survey

“…Although there has been a survey has evaluated pandemic-related mobility patterns and changes among highly educated travelers in the U.S. (Conway et al, 2020), to date, no surveys have focused on Covid-related impacts on transit use and transit riders' lived experiences in the U.S. context. To understand the equity and justice implications of changing public transit service levels on essential transit riders, we conducted a nationwide survey of public transit users during the Covid-19 pandemic.…”