How mobility patterns changed in 2020

TomTom, the GPS company, has published an annual report that shows where 2020 was unique, and some surprising insights.

Why it matters

Drivers are a major target for commercial radio and OOH advertisers, and while traffic plummeted in March and April 2020, the picture afterwards is more complex.

Details:

Escapes from major capitals were common, with the days immediately before subsequent lockdowns showing massive increases in traffic:

• Paris - 142%
• Athens - 123%
• London - 104%

Drivers changed their mobility patterns. In the Netherlands, for instance, Monday-Friday traffic fell by around a third vs April 2019, while weekend traffic was up between 33% and 74%.

On average, cities around the world are far less congested, with a big shift to remote (home) working and big increases in cycling and other low-carbon forms of transport for short trips.

Differences between cities around the world point to the ways in which the pandemic has affected people’s way of life. For instance, Minneapolis in the US saw 219 days of low traffic (50% lower than in 2019), while Kaohsiung in Taiwan saw no low traffic days.