"Going nowhere fast," consumers spending nearly one hour less outside the home
Since the pandemic, people are spending almost an hour less each day outside their homes, a new study has found. This means less time going to work, stores, or having fun outside.
Researchers say this change is here to stay and could have big impacts on how we live and work.
Here are some of the things they suggest:
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Change how we use buildings: Since people work from home more, we need to find new uses for empty offices and stores.
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Make it easier to live in city centers: Cities should focus on building more homes downtown, especially for young people who like to live and play in cities.
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Improve transportation: We should focus on making walking and biking safer, instead of just building more roads for cars.
This change could have some good things, like less traffic and cleaner air. But it could also lead to people feeling lonely and isolated.
The researchers think technology is a big reason for this change. During the pandemic, people got used to doing more things online, like shopping and working.
The pandemic sped up the trend
This study looked at how people spent their time from 2003 to 2023. They found that even before the pandemic, people were slowly starting to spend more time at home. But the pandemic made this change happen much faster.
The study published in the peer-reviewedJournal of the American Planning Associationreveals an overall drop since 2019 of about 51 minutes in the daily time spent on out-of-home activities, plus an almost 12-minute reduction in time spent on daily travel such as driving or taking public transportation.
The analysis, based on a survey of 34,000 Americans, is the first to include a look at out-of-home versus in-home time post-pandemic. The authors from Clemson University and UCLA have documented a trend toward less and less out-of-home time stretching back to at least 2003, but Covid and its aftermath have dramatically increased this shift into the home.
This shift towards going nowhere fast promises to affect people and society on many levels, from psychology to sociology to economics. The authors of this paper, who are urban planners, argue that less leaving home calls for a rethink of many planning and transport 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 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, in a news release.
These include opportunities for recreation, entertainment, culture, arts, and more. Central cities might shift toward becoming centers of consumption more than production.
Less time traveling, shopping
Although it may involve change and some dislocation, going nowhere faster may also have important benefits, such as less time spent traveling, 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 find that improvements in information technology, and the fact that individuals learned to use this technology in new ways during the pandemic, was one of the key drivers behind this trend.
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.
The authors say this retreat into the home had been ongoing for at least 16 years leading up to the pandemic. This is based on evidence from an earlier study they carried out which showed out-of-home activity among adults decreased by about 1.8 minutes a day per year from 2003 to 2019. Travel over the same period dropped by about 30 seconds a day per year.
Improving information and communications technology may explain part of the story, but other trends such as a rapid increase in the amount of time Americans are spending sleeping warrant further study as well, the authors conclude.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-10-31 19:48:02
