It’s not surprising Americans spent most of 2020 rubbernecking in their living rooms. Now, a new AAA study describes just how much Covid-19 affected those habits and commuting patterns last year.
“It’s widely recognized Covid profoundly changed the way we traveled,” said Fran Mayko, AAA Northeast spokeswoman. “The study shows how drastically those changes affected road travel.”
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Research study reports April 2020 saw the average number of daily personal car trips plunge and commuter travel nosedive, both of which have since recovered slightly but were still at least 20% below 2019 levels during the second half of 2020.
However, despite more folks off roadways, 2020 traffic fatalities spiked 7.2% over 2019, resulting in nearly 39,000 deaths, the largest projected number of fatalities since 2007, reports the Federal government.
A similar scenario has occurred in Connecticut: the UCONN Crash Data Repository reports 83,690 crashes in 2020, of which 295 resulted in fatalities, compared to the 112,780 in 2019, of which 242 resulted in fatalities.
The CT Department of Transportation also reports use of the state’s highway system is back to pre-pandemic levels. However, the state isn’t seeing the usual high travel demand during peak commuting hours. Instead, drivers taking shorter trips appear to be on the rise since many people are still working from home.
“It’s counterintuitive to see traffic deaths surge when so many of us were driving less often,” said Mayko. “But our nation’s open roads became an invitation to speed.”
“As we continue to climb out of this pandemic, drivers need to curb their speed and buckle up, especially since Connecticut has a new rear seat-belt law that goes into effect October 1,” she added.
Other Study Highlights
Here are some highlights from the AAA study, comparing what occurred in April 2020, the first full month of the nationwide shutdown, to 2019:
- The average number of daily personal car trips decreased by nearly half to 45%, from 3.2 trips a day pre-pandemic to 1.8.
- The proportion of Americans who made any trip by transit, taxi or rideshare dropped from 5.5% pre-pandemic to 1.7%
- More than a quarter of all US residents (26%) stayed in the same place compared to pre-pandemic numbers, which previously fluctuated between 9% and 14%.
- Urban dwellers, teens/young adults, drivers over 65, college-educated folks and married couples were among the groups that drastically reduced their daily trips and commutes in April 2020.