The pandemic is pushing us into private transportation

Travel restrictions left cities for the first time empty of motor vehicles, people and any other non-essential means of transport while lockdown lasted.

Spain’s National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística) has long published Spanish transport statistics and now the data was truly striking. In July, passenger transportation grew by 32.1 percent compared to June (206.6 million trips compared to 156.5 million in June).

In fact, in the first seven months of 2020, the number of passengers fell by almost half compared to the same period in 2019, across virtually all modes.

But what about the rest of the world? Broadly speaking, the numbers have been uneven. For example, France experienced the biggest drop in public transportation use, including falls of 92 percent in Lyon and 85 percent in Nice respectively.

The numbers were significant in the United States too, including an 18.65 percent drop in New York City’s subway system on March 11 compared to the previous year.

The number of bus passengers in New York City fell by 15 percent, Long Island rail passengers by 31 percent and Metro-North passengers by 48 percent.

In general, the nature of public transportation (spaces shared by multiple passengers unknown to one another) is not particularly attractive during a pandemic, even though mask use has generally been mandatory in most countries.

Public transportation recovers, but used cars gain more ground

Public transportation is currently continuing to gain passengers gradually, even with restrictions on passenger numbers (capacity).

Despite this, it will be very difficult for us to return to 2019 numbers anytime soon. In the meantime, used cars are the vehicle type gaining the most ground. This has several implications but, initially, it means falling back into the environmental risks that we seemed to be controlling before the pandemic.

In short, many very old used vehicles are being sold as an alternative to group transportation for daily commutes. A report by the Instituto de Estudios de Automoción (automotive studies institute) reveals that more than 43,000 cars over 20 years old were sold in Spain between July and August.

This was a 31 percent growth in sales for the period, which is in essence good news for the used car industry. However, it put cars on the roads that do not meet the new environmental standards, due to their age. They are still allowed on the road except in certain areas.

One reason for this increase in the used car market is financial: the price of these cars starts at 500 euros and averages 1,400 euros. Another is the matter of perceived safety: we see travel in a private vehicle as safer than on public services where we have no control over who we travel with.