Lockdown News 4: How we stopped moving
Statistics from our favourite public transport app Citymapper show how cities came to a stop.
Statistics from our favourite public transport app Citymapper show how cities came to a stop.
Only 5% mobility in Paris
Citymapper is a mobility app that mainly gives you itineraries for public transport (you can also inlcude bikes and such in your search). They publish a “Mobility Index”, which is the number of trips compared to an average day.
Mid-March (Data: Citymapper)
Currently, Paris is at 5%.
Even though the data is not representative (western tourists are much more likely to use the app than local commuters), but it still paints a stark picture on how our cities went into lockdown.
Milano first
4 weeks ago, the world was still moving. Milano, at near the heart of the first major cluster in Lombardy, had already shut down at 9%, and Rome was following close behind.
Berlin, London and Paris go into shutdown (Data: Citymapper)
Seoul, affected since February, was holding steady at 42%. London still at 83%, Sydney, Moscow and Istanbul all bustling around full capacity.
St. Petersburg goes down last
The week after that, the picture had changed. Paris was now in lockdown at 11%, Berlin getting used to the new restrictions at 21%. London still unsure, but well below normal, at 36%. Only Singapure and St. Petersburg still busy at 75% and 79%, respectively.
HK soldiers on
Another two weeks, and nothing moves any more. Hong Kong and Singapore – hit early, but relatively well-prepared – manage to avoid a complete standstill at around 40% of normal.
Stockholm, maybe due to Sweden’s “soft” approach, maintains 30%.
Of the rest, only 3 cities see more than 20% of the usual activity.
Paris’ public transport is down now to 5%. The only ones still using the metro are health works and the people who keep the city running: Supermarket staff, bakers, shopkeepers, garbage collectors and cleaners.
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