Americans cut driving by 45 percent in early stage of COVID-19 crisis: AAA

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions in the spring of 2020 led to a drastic drop in U.S. road travel with personal car trips plunging 45 percent in April 2020, according to research released by AAA. The dip in travel moderated later in the year but remained below 2019 levels.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our commute habits and patterns in the United States,” said David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Findings based on our survey data provided some contextual information to understand better how this unfortunate event has affected the way we travel.”

After abruptly decreasing in April 2020, daily trips by U.S. residents rebounded somewhat in May and June and then remained at approximately 20 to 25 percent below their 2019 levels during the second half of 2020. Specifically, daily car trips as a driver or passenger fell from 3.2 pre-pandemic to 1.8 in April 2020, before rebounding slightly to 2.6 trips for the rest of the time period.

Mean Daily Number of Trips Made by U.S. Residents Aged 16+, by Month, July 2019–December 2020

The survey results show that early in the pandemic, reductions in travel were most substantial among teens and young adults (ages 16 to 24) and among those ages 65 and older. But later in 2020, reductions in travel were more uniform across various age groups.

Daily trips in April 2020 by people living in urban areas dropped 42 percent versus 25 percent for their rural counterparts, before leveling off to a 20 percent to 30 percent reduction in both groups for the rest of the survey period.

The proportion of people who reported making any trips by transit, taxi, or rideshare plummeted from 5.5 percent pre-pandemic to 1.7 percent in April of 2020, before leveling off at approximately 2.4 percent for the remainder of the year.

Work-related travel by all transportation modes dropped by 40 percent in April 2020, likely reflecting a mix of layoffs, job losses, and telecommuting, according to the AAA research.