GLA Covid-19 Mobility Report
Since March 2020, London has seen many different levels of restrictions - including three separate lockdowns and many other tiers/levels of restrictions, as well as easing of restrictions and even measures to actively encourage people to go to work, their high streets and local restaurants. This reports gathers data from a number of sources, including google, apple, citymapper, purple wifi and opentable to assess the extent to which these levels of restrictions have translated to a reductions in Londoners' movements.
The data behind the charts below come from different sources. None of these data represent a direct measure of how well people are adhering to the lockdown rules - nor do they provide an exhaustive data set. Rather, they are measures of different aspects of mobility, which together, offer an overall impression of how people Londoners are moving around the capital. The information is broken down by use of public transport, pedestrian activity, retail and leisure, and homeworking.
Public Transport
For the transport measures, we have included data from google, Apple, CityMapper and Transport for London. They measure different aspects of public transport usage - depending on the data source. Each of the lines in the chart below represents a percentage of a pre-pandemic baseline.
activity | Source | Latest | Baseline | Min value in Lockdown 1 | Min value in Lockdown 2 | Min value in Lockdown 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citymapper | Citymapper mobility index | 2021-09-05 | Compares trips planned and trips taken within its app to a baseline of the four weeks from 6 Jan 2020 | 7.9% | 28% | 19% |
Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Location data shared by users of Android smartphones, compared time and duration of visits to locations to the median values on the same day of the week in the five weeks from 3 Jan 2020 | 20.4% | 40% | 27% | |
TfL Bus | Transport for London | 2022-10-30 | Bus journey ‘taps' on the TfL network compared to same day of the week in four weeks starting 13 Jan 2020 | - | 34% | 24% |
TfL Tube | Transport for London | 2022-10-30 | Tube journey ‘taps' on the TfL network compared to same day of the week in four weeks starting 13 Jan 2020 | - | 30% | 21% |
Pedestrian activity
With the data we currently have it's harder to estimate pedestrian activity and high street busyness. A few indicators can give us information on how people are making trips out of the house:
activity | Source | Latest | Baseline | Min value in Lockdown 1 | Min value in Lockdown 2 | Min value in Lockdown 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Walking | Apple Mobility Index | 2021-11-09 | estimates the frequency of trips made on foot compared to baselie of 13 Jan '20 | 22% | 47% | 36% |
Parks | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Frequency of trips to parks. Changes in the weather mean this varies a lot. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 30% | 55% | 41% |
Retail & Rec | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Estimates frequency of trips to shops/leisure locations. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 30% | 55% | 41% |
Retail and recreation
In this section, we focus on estimated footfall to shops, restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and so on.
activity | Source | Latest | Baseline | Min value in Lockdown 1 | Min value in Lockdown 2 | Min value in Lockdown 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grocery/pharmacy | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Estimates frequency of trips to grovery shops and pharmacies. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 32% | 55.00% | 45.000% |
Retail/rec | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Estimates frequency of trips to shops/leisure locations. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 32% | 55.00% | 45.000% |
Restaurants | OpenTable State of the Industry | 2022-02-19 | London restaurant bookings made through OpenTable | 0% | 0.17% | 0.024% |
Home Working
The Google Mobility Report estimates changes in how many people are staying at home and going to places of work compared to normal. It's difficult to translate this into exact percentages of the population, but changes back towards ‘normal' can be seen to start before any lockdown restrictions were lifted. This value gives a seven day rolling (mean) average to avoid it being distorted by weekends and bank holidays.
name | Source | Latest | Baseline | Min/max value in Lockdown 1 | Min/max value in Lockdown 2 | Min/max value in Lockdown 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Residential | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Estimates changes in how many people are staying at home for work. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 131% | 119% | 125% |
Workplaces | Google Mobility Report | 2022-10-15 | Estimates changes in how many people are going to places of work. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 | 24% | 54% | 40% |
Restriction | Date | end_date | Average Citymapper | Average homeworking |
---|---|---|---|---|
Work from home advised | 17 Mar '20 | 21 Mar '20 | 57% | 118% |
Schools, pubs closed | 21 Mar '20 | 24 Mar '20 | 34% | 119% |
UK enters first lockdown | 24 Mar '20 | 10 May '20 | 10% | 130% |
Some workers encouraged to return to work | 10 May '20 | 01 Jun '20 | 15% | 125% |
Schools open, small groups outside | 01 Jun '20 | 15 Jun '20 | 19% | 122% |
Non-essential businesses re-open | 15 Jun '20 | 04 Jul '20 | 24% | 120% |
Hospitality reopens | 04 Jul '20 | 03 Aug '20 | 34% | 115% |
Eat out to help out scheme begins | 03 Aug '20 | 08 Sep '20 | 44% | 113% |
Rule of 6 | 08 Sep '20 | 24 Sep '20 | 53% | 111% |
10pm Curfew | 24 Sep '20 | 15 Oct '20 | 51% | 112% |
Tier 2 (High alert) | 15 Oct '20 | 05 Nov '20 | 49% | 113% |
Second Lockdown | 05 Nov '20 | 02 Dec '20 | 31% | 118% |
Tier 2 (High alert) | 02 Dec '20 | 19 Dec '20 | 45% | 115% |
Tier 4 (Stay at home advised) | 19 Dec '20 | 05 Jan '21 | 22% | 124% |
Third Lockdown | 05 Jan '21 | 08 Mar '21 | 22% | 122% |
Roadmap 1 | 08 Mar '21 | 29 Mar '21 | 29% | 118% |
Roadmap 2 | 29 Mar '21 | 12 Apr '21 | 36% | 117% |
Roadmap 3 | 12 Apr '21 | 17 May '21 | 51% | 113% |
Roadmap out of lockdown: Step 3 | 17 May '21 | 19 Jul '21 | 65% | 109% |
Roadmap out of lockdown: Step 4 | 19 Jul '21 | 07 Nov '22 | 68% | 107% |
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