Car Dependency During The Covid19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic, has had a dramatic impact on car usage, as nationwide lockdown restrictions first imposed in March 2020 unsurprisingly led to a marked decline in the level of motoring traffic around the world. Despite this some people became more reliant on their vehicles than in the past, largely due to concerns about the safety of public transport and a lack of adequate alternatives.
Car use dropped in wake of the pandemic, but only for some drivers, clearly the rise in the number of people who started working from home rather than commuting to an office or other workplace has played a significant role in the drop in car use.
But the figures suggest that the switch to home-working could, in a limited number of cases, become permanent: while 67% say they typically travelled to and from work by car pre-Covid-19, 64% expect to do so in the future. It’s currently unclear but expected that even after the pandemic more people will continue to work more frequently, some even permanently.
Nonetheless, for many motorists, working from home is not an option and for parents making school runs also, this could help explain why car use levels still remain high.
While the cost of fuel dropped to lows not seen since 2016, the majority of drivers weren’t able to take advantage of these low prices due to the coronavirus movement restrictions.
