Publication Detail

Assess the Mobility and Health Impact of COVID-19 on Diverse Communities

UCD-ITS-RR-21-107

Research Report

Suggested Citation:
Darr, Justin and Michael Zhang (2021) Assess the Mobility and Health Impact of COVID-19 on Diverse Communities. Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the lives of communities in many dimensions. In this research, mobility data is collected for before and during the pandemic to assess how transportation, a critical service to the community for both daily lives and the response to the pandemic, is affected while paying particular attention to equity using San Francisco, California, as a case study. San Francisco was chosen for being a diverse city comprised of communities from various racial backgrounds and economic standings and for the availability of public data. This study investigates the effects of COVID-19 on travel behavior using a Prais-Winsten model for daily bikeshare ridership over time to determine if ridership is significantly affected by demographics and COVID-19 related temporal data. The results show that trip origins in majority low-income and majority minority census block groups became more statistically significant after March 2020, which supports our hypothesis that different demographics would respond to the pandemic with their travel behavior in different ways. The importance of bikeshare membership on ridership and changes in trip durations during the pandemic are also apparent in the model. Although total ridership has recovered this year, this research aims to provide a better understanding if specific communities are increasing ridership at greater rates than others. Additionally, some groups may not have resumed their bikeshare ridership rates to pre-pandemic levels, and this research may provide insights into these scenarios to aid in future policymaking regarding bikeshare.