Walking through a pandemic: How did utilitarian walking change during COVID-19?

Walking for transportation has well-known environmental, social, and health-related benefits. However, its daily use may have been especially altered by restrictions to population activities and mobility during the post-lock-down phase of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In this study we aimed to explore how daily walking for transportation during a period of partial restrictions on mobility, and to evaluate whether its traditional individual and area-level determinants were modified during that period. We used an official travel survey in Southern Catalonia, which was deployed in two phases: right before (n = 9,065) and after the lock-down phase of the pandemic (n = 3,944). We observed not only that utilitarian walking frequency and time spent on daily walking trips had significantly decreased, but also did walking mode share. The positive association between age and walking not only remained unaltered during the study period but became stronger for those between 56 and 70 years old. During the pandemic, household income and area-level income inequality were no longer predictors of utilitarian walking. Policymakers will need to consider the possible mid and long-term behavioral changes derived from habits adopted during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially considering that restrictions on activities and mobility had a specific impact on sustainable and healthy forms of everyday mobility, and for specific groups of population.