New urban habits in Stockholm following COVID-19

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical distancing, mobility restrictions and self-isolation measures were implemented around the world as the primary intervention to prevent the virus from spreading. Urban life has undergone sweeping changes, with people using spaces in new ways. Stockholm is a particularly relevant case of this phenomenon since most facilities, such as day care centres and schools, have remained open, in contrast to cities with a broader lockdown. In this study, we use Twitter data and an online map survey to study how COVID-19 restrictions have impacted the use of different locations, services and amenities in Stockholm. First, we compare the spatial distribution of 87,000 geolocated tweets pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, we analyse 895 survey responses asking people to identify places they ‘still visit’, ‘use more’, ‘avoid’ and self-report reasons for using locations. The survey provides a nuanced understanding of whether and how restrictions have affected people. Service and seclusion were found to be important; therefore, the accessibility of such amenities was analysed, demonstrating how changes in urban habits are related to conditions of the local environment. We find how different parts of the city show different capacities to accommodate new habits and mitigate the effects of restrictions on people’s use of urban spaces. In addition to the immediate relevance to COVID-19, this paper thus contributes to understanding how restrictions on movement and gathering, in any situation, expose more profound urban challenges related to segregation and social inequality.

Changes in Everyday Internet Use and Home Activity During and After Pandemic‐Related Lockdowns: A Case Study in Shuangjing Subdistrict, Beijing

“…2021; Legeby et al . 2022). In other words, we may also expect a return to old habits, as not all people have the intention or the opportunity to maintain new habits of Internet use.Hypothesis Internet use increases during pandemic‐related lockdown compared with the pre‐pandemic period, and this increase partially remains post lockdown, when restrictions are eased.…”

“…Furthermore, the transition is not consistent across individuals but concerns socioeconomic characteristics and the urban built environment (Barbour et al 2021;Nguyen 2021). All this might exacerbate existing urban inequalities (Kar et al 2021;Legeby et al 2022).…”

From lockdown to precise prevention: Adjusting epidemic-related spatial regulations from the perspectives of the 15-minute city and spatiotemporal planning

“…The ideas have attracted even more interest after the COVID pandemic. The spatial regulations required people to perform everyday activities at home or near home ( Legeby et al, 2022 ), urging urban planners to reconsider how to redesign contemporary cities in the post-pandemic era in order to improve the resilience and sustainability in the community level ( Pierre, 2020 ). One example is the Milan 2020 Adaptation Strategy, a post-pandemic urban planning project aiming for strategic reorganization of spatiotemporal resources in the city ( Pinto and Akhavan, 2022 ).…”

“…We gain inspirations from ‘15-Minute City’ and spatiotemporal planning, because they well respond to the limitations. The idea of ‘15-Minute City’ argues that people could live locally if essential amenities are provided in proximity (e.g., 15-minute walking or cycling distances) ( Legeby, et al, 2022 ). The 15-minute accessible area is therefore considered as a more ideal spatial scale to implement epidemic prevention regulations, because residents can more easily maintain daily activities within this area.…”

Human mobility variations in response to restriction policies during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis from the Virus Watch community cohort in England, UK

“…GPS data can provide an individual's location sequence information over a given time span, which contributes to almost real-time snapshots of human mobility, helping to overcome the limitations of self-reported surveys (30, 31). Using a combination of human mobility indicators generated from integrated mobile phone GPS data and urban data (e.g., points of interest, land use), researchers can investigate the effects of restrictions on dynamic human activity behaviors (e.g., commuting, place visits, travel mode) with fine granularity (32)(33)(34). Moreover, location-based mobile phone GPS data can be easily merged with census sociodemographic data by matching the geospatial information, which helps to examine the socio-economic determinants in human mobility variations.…”