Google issues mobility reports

Google has released trip data reports from countries around the world, showing how Covid-19 and governments’ responses to the virus have affected travel demand. The reports present aggregated, anonymised data from smartphone users who have turned on their location history setting. Data for the UK is broken down by local authority area, though data for conurbations are not disaggregated further. The data is being released weekly and compares the latest trips against a baseline of the median data from 3 January to the 6 February. Trips are classified into six categories: retail/recreation); grocery/pharmacy; parks (including places such as beaches, plazas);  transit stations (subway, bus and train stations); workplace; and residential. All categories show big reductions with the exception of residential, which have risen,  though the reports do not actually explain what is being measured in the “residential” category.

Covid-19 community mobility reports are available at https://tinyurl.com/tvkeeuk