The Changes in Daily School Commute in the Context of Pandemic

Abstract

Life in a modern metropolis offers a massive number of opportunities, including a variety of educational trajectories for children. To select a school, a family needs to solve a complex equilibrium between the school characteristics, the family expectations, and the geographical factors. Daily commute to school and back home has a serious impact on the lives of schoolchildren. Taking the autonomous territory of the Moscow metropolis as an example, we reflect on the effect of pandemic restrictions and lockdowns on the daily mobility of schoolchildren. Based on data from more than 35 thousand students living and receiving education on the local territory, we analyzed the age and territorial distribution of students, as well as their mobility under the conditions of a natural experiment caused by COVID-19. The study shows the picture of daily mobility of schoolchildren before and during the COVID-19 lockdowns and explores the possible delayed effects on students' mobility in the future, connected with the development of remote technologies which allow access to better educational products without the geographical limitations.