Travel Trends in L.A. During COVID
It’s common knowledge that COVID-19 has dramatically changed how people travel, and plummeted demand for transportation services. But new data analysis reveals how race, income and zip code vastly affected changes in Los Angeles. As cities grapple with how to manage the effects of this health and economic crisis, LADOT launched a study of travel trends during the pandemic. Our analysis affirms that long-standing racial inequities, created through decades of policies meant to intentionally oppress black, brown and other people of color, that impact how people travel have only deepened in recent months, impacting how many Angelenos in need get around.
Our analysis of multiple sources of mobility data, measuring activity prior to and during the City of Los Angeles “Safer at home” orders, confirms that most Angelenos followed social distancing orders and substantially reduced car trips. However, in the poorest communities of Los Angeles, where Black and Latino residents are disproportionately concentrated, we saw little to no change in travel patterns. In fact, residents in these communities traveled more during this pandemic, largely to essential jobs that didn’t allow telecommuting. To view the full analysis produced by LADOT staff, Rubina Ghazarian, Karina Macias, and Rosemary McCarron click here.
From the end of February to the beginning of March we saw an increase in vehicle trips, reaching a peak in early March. Then, following LA school closures, Safer at Home orders, and announcements that major employers were instituting telecommuting policies, we observed a several week long decline in vehicle trips — to as low as 30 percent of average daily trip volumes.
As “Stay at Home” orders relaxed, car trips increased. In the last two weeks of April, trips were nearly back to pre-COVID-19 levels, to 70 percent of average daily trip volumes.
(source: StreetLight Data, LADOT analysis)
We saw the biggest decreases in total number of miles traveled (which measures the average length of total car trips multiplied by the number of trips) in communities with the highest median annual incomes and the fewest share of people of color. Meanwhile, the places where the total miles traveled stayed mostly the same include places with the lowest median incomes and the highest shares of people of color, including Watts, Florence, and Wilmington.
This trend continued when we looked at economic and racial data. People living in high poverty communities, with primarily Black and Brown residents, did not cut back on travel as much as their more affluent, white neighbors. People living in communities with median household incomes of between $28,540 and $38,650, made fewer trips. However, they drove for longer distances and periods of time during the Safer at Home emergency order than earlier in the year. They also drove more than their more affluent neighbors. We see the same trend when we look at travel trends for communities where more than 60% of the residents identified as Black or Latina/o.
Similarly, data from LADOT Dash buses and Metro Transit and Buses, shows that while ridership declined systemwide, decreases were much smaller in Central LA (including MacArthur Park, Pico Union, Koreatown) and South Los Angeles than they were in neighborhoods like Downtown, Mid-City, and the North San Fernando Valley. According to an LA Metro survey of Transit app users, an overwhelming majority of public transit riders rely on the system as their primary source of transportation and use it for essential purposes. Survey results showed 85% of respondents currently riding transit do not own a vehicle. Additionally, the top three reasons for transit travel were: travel to work (72%), to run errands (49%), and to access healthcare (28%). We also saw a significant portion of transit riders who used the system during the pandemic to get to essential jobs including food prep & service (18%), building/grounds maintenance (9%), sales/retail (8%), and healthcare support (7%). Roughly half of all respondents to this survey also earn less than $20,000 per year, confirming that an overwhelming majority of public transit users are low income and working in essential services.
As a department, we are committed to providing all Angelenos safe streets that allow them to move around the City and access opportunity. That work starts with acknowledging that for far too long, we have failed to make this a reality for far too many. This analysis provides yet more evidence for what we’ve known to be true for generations. Black, brown and indigenous people disproportionately live in high poverty neighborhoods that were intentionally divided by freeways that clogged their airwaves with pollution and decimated historic neighborhoods to serve whiter suburbs. These communities were also denied the basic infrastructure upgrades that generate investment and provide access to jobs. Today, residents from these communities overwhelmingly need public transportation to get to essential jobs or they rely on cars to get to jobs that are increasingly further away from their homes. These are also the same communities that are suffering from the highest rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths — and the highest rates of unemployment or underemployment.
In the coming months, LADOT will continue working with City leaders to identify tangible ways to reorganize our policies, correct past mistakes, and prioritize equity. This work was critical before — but as this data reveals, now it is essential. We will work with thought leaders, our staff, and community partners to develop measurable goals and actions that work towards achieving racial justice. We will challenge ourselves and identify ways to transform business practices and policies to ensure a focus on underrepresented communities. And we will expand research efforts to better understand the evolving needs of neighborhoods. But above all else, we will listen to ensure that this work is driven by those who we seek to serve.
We’ll be updating this space as we make progress.
