The Impacts of a COVID-19 Related Lockdown (and Reopening Phases) on Time Use and Mobility for Activities in Austria—Results from a Multi-Wave Combined Survey

When activity locations were shut down in the first lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Austria, people reduced their trips accordingly. Based on a dataset obtained through a weeklong mobility and activity survey we analyse mobility and time use changes, as well as changes in activity loca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 14; no. 12; p. 7422
Main Authors Hartwig, Lukas, Hössinger, Reinhard, Susilo, Yusak Octavius, Gühnemann, Astrid
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 17.06.2022
Subjects
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Demographics
Demography
Diaries
Disease control
Emissions
Employment
Expenditures
Greenhouse gases
Households
Mobility
Pandemics
Public transportation
Questionnaires
Regression analysis
Shutdowns
Sociodemographics
Surveys
Time use
Travel
Travel time
Austria
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Summary:When activity locations were shut down in the first lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Austria, people reduced their trips accordingly. Based on a dataset obtained through a weeklong mobility and activity survey we analyse mobility and time use changes, as well as changes in activity locations and secondary activities. Regression analysis is used to analyse differences in time use changes between socio-demographic groups. We show that trip rates and distances as well as public transport use dropped significantly during the lockdown and did not recover fully in the subsequent opening phase. Former travel time was used for additional leisure, sleep, domestic tasks, and eating in the lockdown, but only the latter two retained their increases in the opening phase. The lockdown resulted in a convergence of time use of socio-demographic groups with formerly different patterns, but the differences reappeared in the opening phase. Our findings are consistent with results from the literature but offer an integrated perspective on mobility and time use not found in either mobility- or time use-focussed studies. We conclude that there is a potential for trip reduction through a shift to virtual performance of activities, but the extent of this shift in post-pandemic times remains unclear.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su14127422