The impact of COVID-19 on human mobility pattern and social equity in New York City

Keywords: COVID-19, human mobility, spatiotemporal analysis, POI
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Human mobility is critical to understand, evaluate, predict and control the transmission of COVID-19. Based on previous work, this study built a comprehensive understanding of COVID-19’s influence on human mobility and social equity at micro level with cell-phone tracked Point of Interest data, and provided a quantitative evidence of underlying disparity in New York emergency response system. Spatiotemporal analysis of human mobility from the pre-outbreak of COVID-19 to reopening phrases in New York City was conducted to detect the uneven changes of travel behaviors and travel purpose under different education, income, racial and age contexts. Sets of time-varying linear regression models were generated to examine the varied association between social-economic factors, COVID-19 cases and human mobility at different pandemic stages. Results revealed the consistency of COVID-19’s impact on travel reduction and the heterogeneity on individual response in different social-economic groups. For example, during the outbreak of COVID-19, significant decrease in visit counts was observed cross the city. However, people from bottom-quartile household income areas suffered higher transmission risk with the less decreasing degree in human mobility to gain necessary needs and service, while people from top-quartile income groups were exposed to lower transmission risk with increasing trend to move to suburban areas.