Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been spending nearly an hour less each day on activities outside their homes, a change researchers believe is a lasting consequence of the pandemic.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association found that since 2019, the daily time spent on out-of-home activities has decreased by approximately 51 minutes. Additionally, the study indicates that time spent on daily travel, including driving and using public transportation, has been reduced by nearly 12 minutes.
A recent analysis based on a survey of 34,000 Americans is the first to examine the differences between out-of-home and in-home activities following the pandemic. Researchers from Clemson University and UCLA have noted a trend of decreasing out-of-home time that has been ongoing since at least 2003. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have significantly accelerated this shift towards staying at home.
The trend of “going nowhere fast” is set to impact individuals and society on various levels, including psychology, sociology, and economics. The authors of this paper, who are urban planners, suggest that the decrease in people leaving their homes necessitates reevaluating numerous planning and transportation policies.
Their recommendations include repurposing office and retail real estate, given the increase in working and shopping from home. Restrictions on converting commercial buildings to housing should also be relaxed, and curb space for delivery vehicles should be increased, given the rise in online shopping.
“In a world where cities cannot rely on captive office workers and must work to attract residents, workers, and customers, local officials might seek to invest more heavily in their remaining strengths,” says lead author Eric A. Morris, Professor of City and Regional Planning at Clemson University.
“These include recreation, entertainment, culture, arts, and more opportunities. Central cities might shift toward becoming centres of consumption more than production.”
For example, city centres might capitalize on their strengths by creating the dense, multiunit housing often favoured by younger residents and others who prefer more urban lifestyles. Such changes might also generally benefit lower-income households and society by lowering housing and transportation costs.
In terms of transportation, “policy might focus less on expensive and invasive investments and policies to accommodate waxing peak period travel demand…and more on increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety and serving the basic mobility needs of disadvantaged travelers.”
Although it may involve change and some dislocation, going nowhere faster may also have significant benefits, such as less time spent travelling, which may reduce fuel use and emissions and save people valuable time and money. On the other hand, more cocooning in the home might have downsides, such as social isolation.
The authors found that advancements in information technology and how individuals adapted to using this technology during the pandemic were key drivers behind this trend.
The researchers analyzed work and leisure habits by utilizing data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). This survey, conducted annually since 2003 by the United States Census Bureau with sponsorship from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides insights into how Americans spend their time. The data were compiled from the ATUS-X website, which is managed by the Universities of Minnesota and Maryland.
The authors—who also include Professor Brian D. Taylor and Samuel Speroni from UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies—assessed the years before, during, and after the pandemic, namely 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023. The year 2020 was excluded because it was not completely affected by the pandemic and because data gathering was halted at the height of the outbreak. The study examined the behaviour of adults aged 17 and over.
The authors grouped time use into 16 activities in the home, such as sleep, exercise, work, and using information technology, plus 12 out-of-home activities, including arts and sporting events, shopping, work, and religious observance. Separately, they analyzed travel by car, walking, and public transport (though they excluded air travel).
Results showed that the time spent on 8 of the 12 out-of-home activities fell from 2019 to 2021, while 11 of the 16 in-home activities rose. The average time for out-of-home activities fell from 334 minutes per day in 2019 to 271 in 2021—roughly from 5.5 hours per day out-of-home to 4.5 hours. The authors note that work from home explains part of this trend, but there were large diminutions in other out-of-home time uses as well.
A similar trend was observed for travel, with participants spending an estimated 13 fewer minutes a day in cars and other forms of transport. The authors say this downward trend could not be attributed solely to the reductions in the daily commute during Covid.
Further, time spent away from home time has only modestly recovered post-pandemic, rebounding by just 11 minutes from 2021 to 2023, from 270 minutes to 281. This has been reduced by 53 minutes in time away from home since 2019. All out-of-home time, all forms of travel, and seven out-of-home activities remained notably lower in 2023 than in 2019, while eight in-home activities remained higher.
Also, the trend toward staying home seems to be holding post-pandemic, as 2023 out-of-home time was virtually unchanged from 2022.
Other results of note include the fact more shopping was carried out online but this did not amount to a large increase in in-home shopping time, a finding the authors propose is due to online shopping not taking nearly as long as in-person shopping. Perhaps surprisingly, television watching did not increase apart from in the early peaks of the pandemic. More sports and exercise activities are now being done at home, most likely because people bought in-home gym equipment.