Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
People forced to hunker down in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic have retained many of those habits – which might change the face of our cities and urban spaces.
In 2023, people in the US spent about 51 minutes less time on activities outside of the house compared to before the pandemic, a new paper in the Journal of the American Planning Association has found.
People also reduced the amount of time spent on daily travel, such as driving or taking public transportation, by 12-minutes compared to 2019.
The authors of the paper, who are urban planners, say: “…even after the pandemic Americans are staying home to a startling degree” and if these patterns of altered behaviour hold “they could imply significant long-term changes for homes, businesses, cities, and transportation.”
The researchers analysed the work and leisure habits of 34,000 adult respondents to the American Time Use Survey in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
They grouped time use into 16 activities in the home, such as sleep, exercise, and work, and into 12 out-of-home activities, including arts and sporting events, shopping, work, and religious observance. They also analysed travel by car, walking, and public transport.
When comparing behaviour in 2021 to 2019, the results showed sharp declines in overall out-of-home activity, all kinds of travel, and 10 of the 12 out-of-home activities. This was accompanied by an increase in time spent on 13 of the 16 in-home activities in the same period.
The trend away from out-of-home activities and travel appears to be persisting in 2023, with time spent out-of-home, traveling, and on 6 out-of-home activities remaining lower than in 2019. Time spent on 9 in-home activities also remained higher.
The authors suggest that the shift towards staying at home has important implications for future urban planning.
“In a world where cities cannot rely on captive office workers and must work to attract residents, workers, and customers, local officials might seek to invest more heavily in their remaining strengths,” the authors write.
“These include opportunities for recreation, entertainment, culture, arts, and more. Central cities might shift toward becoming centres of consumption more than production.
“City planners might support this economic shift toward centre-city culture and consumption by revising land use plans to focus less on office and related commercial uses and more on dense, multi-unit housing favoured by younger residents and needed by lower-income households.
“Transportation policy might focus less on expensive and invasive investments to accommodate waxing peak period travel demand – such as wider urban highways and expanded commuter rail transit lines – and more on other priorities such as increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety and serving the basic mobility needs of disadvantaged travellers.”
