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We've seen some questions on our story about changing travel patterns across the U.S. during the coronavirus outbreak, questioning the comparison of cities with areas where people have to drive longer for necessities. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-social-distancing.html
We found that in all types of areas — rural, urban, Northern, Southern — once a stay-at-home order was issued, people cut travel by very large amounts. Experts said this suggests the policies are working — and may be enough to bend the curve of the epidemic in those places.
A map with the story shows the percent reduction in travel, which directly accounts for typical behavior. Those reductions were about as significant in Louisiana and West Virginia, where stay-at-home orders were enacted last week, as they were in the rest of the country.
In states that delayed issuing stay-at-home orders, many in the South, people changed their habits less. This was true both in cities, like Jacksonville, Fla., and Montgomery, Ala., and in rural areas.
People in both types of places — with local govts that enacted early stay-at-home orders and those that didn't — traveled about the same amount before the outbreak. It was only after local govts issued orders that patterns diverged. Our full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-social-distancing.html
