New Google Mobility data for Montgomery County show that transit use has only picked up by 1% since spring 2022, and that fewer workers are toiling in on-site offices than were this past spring. The data use a five-week period just before the pandemic hit the United States, January 3 - February 6, 2020, as the baseline. In reports I've posted over the last two years, numbers for office and transit use have been poor, as expected. But we've also seen some surprising shifts in behavior, which continue in the latest period examined here, from June 23 - August 4, 2022.
For starters, with the overwhelming message from governments and the media being to drop precautions and go back to business as usual, it's intriguing that there's been no significant increase in transit use in Montgomery County since President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. And would you have expected that the number of residents going into an office in Montgomery would actually decline by 12 percentage points since then, as well? Time spent in offices of employment in spring 2022 was 30% less than the pre-pandemic period; this summer it was 42% less than early 2020. The return of vacation travel may have been a factor - but not entirely, as summer 2021 office use was only 2 percentage points higher at 44% below the pre-pandemic period.
Use of public parks in Montgomery County has bounced back since spring. This summer, residents were 19% more likely to be in a park than they were during the pre-pandemic period of 2020. Shopping in stores and supermarkets has picked up since spring, too. The percentage of people going into retail stores compared to this past spring has doubled, but still remains 16% below pre-pandemic shopping levels. Residents' patronage of grocery stores is up 5% from spring 2022, but is 1% less than the pre-pandemic period.
Montgomery County residents this summer are spending 10% more time at home than they did in the January-February 2020 period, the new data show. The data collected by Google is limited to those users who have opted in to allowing the tech giant to track their phone's location. It measures both the frequency of visits, and the amount of time those users stay in the places categorized in the results, such as grocery stores, transit stations and parks.
Companies here have been lukewarm about encouraging employees to come back. Case rates are slowly going down and maybe when this BA5 Variant goes away workers will finally come back. But the companies have to take the lead in encouraging workers to return. They are probably going to have to dangle some major incentives out there to get most of their workers back in office. Companies are already paying for the office space so sooner or later they will put the word out to the employees that they are expected to return.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Apple, I think other employers are waiting until the end of summer to summon people back to the office. We may see a change in the next month.
ReplyDeleteAny white collar employer that requires returning to in-office will immediately lose a sizeable chunk of their employees. So long as the unemployment rate remains extremely low and millions of jobs are available, most employers aren't going to be dumb enough to self-inflict a wound like that.
ReplyDeleteWork-from-home is probably quite nice for most folks, if they are allowed to do so, but very bad for urban planning, transit, and the health and vitality of cities.
ReplyDeleteTell that to housing demand in cities/urban areas. If anything, coming out of the pandemic has made people value real human interaction more not less. The shift toward exurb over urban during the height of transmissibility fears was very short lived.
ReplyDeleteSO.. I got a good idea - Let's build say, a Purple Line Metro (and disguise it as light rail) at Massive cost and disruption to the citizens who live near it -don't forget to have cost overruns and a 2-year work stoppage - and then run the trains at enormous expense - which no one will use!
ReplyDeleteWhat POSSIBLY could go wrong?
Open floor plans with close seating was great for communication pre pandemic but doesn't seem safe now. You're always going to have someone sick coming into the office.
ReplyDeleteI recommend you disable anonymous posting -- or moderate the posts -- in order to restore civility to the discussions. (And yes, I am aware that I am posting anonymously as well, in light of the nature of the political posters on this site.)
ReplyDelete