Has the pandemic forever changed our walking habits?

Experts are trying to parse data that shows a dramatic decline in the number of trips Americans take on foot. Axios summarized findings from Streetlight Data, including a 36 percent drop in average daily walking trips in the contiguous U.S. between 2019 and 2022. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Emily Adler, director of content at Streetlight, explains the methodology for collecting the information. StreetLight measures travel behavior based on anonymized data from mobile devices, vehicle GPS systems and more.

Key points:

• "In every metro and state that StreetLight analyzed, walking trips declined over the three-year period by at least 20 percent," per the report.
• The rate of decline slowed from -16 percent between 2019 and 2020 and -19 percent between 2020 and 2021 to -6 percent between 2021 and 2022. But that's still a significant overall drop, from about 120 million trips in 2019 to fewer than 80 million in 2022.

Other theories about the decline suggest the rise in online deliveries is a factor, as people use Amazon and other services for deliveries of goods and food.

During and coming out of the pandemic, walking as part of a commute declined as more people work remotely. Even people walking their “pandemic pups” don’t really move the numbers compared to those who commuted by foot previously.