Role of COVID-19 and motionless communication on expected trends of mobility: an evidence from Italian and Turin data

Abstract

The 2020 pandemic has been changing for months the everyday mobility of part of the world: we concentrate on one of the first areas hit by COVID-19, soon after China. One of the main elements of change is the consolidation of teleworking, which further prompted motionless communications. The emergency-induced reduction of the systematic travel demand has been counterbalanced by the increased volume of web traffic. As a result, communications which formerly required commuting or travel missions have been regularly performed motionless during the lockdown. All this is known, also by experience. The novelty is that this paper quantifies this phenomenon, with a focus on the city of Turin, Italy, and makes hypotheses on the post-COVID. Local mobility data, so as trends before and during the lockdown are presented, thereafter compared. Implications for the “new normal” ahead are fully elaborated, to reply to a pre-existing research question on the role of motionless communications in the future urban mobility management. Eventually, the paper provides directions to advance and create a reference for further transport policies, within the general research goal to contribute to advance scientific knowledge in this new transportation study topic.