Use of smartphone mobility data to analyze city park visits during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on city parks as important public resources. However, monitoring park use over time poses practical challenges. Thus, pandemic-related trends are unknown. METHODS: We analyzed monthly mobility data from a large panel of smartphone devices, to ass...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jay, Jonathan, Heykoop, Felicia, Hwang, Linda, Courtepatte, Alexa, de Jong, Jorrit, Kondo, Michelle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. 2022
Materias:
Research Note
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9444487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36091471
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104554
Descripción
Sumario:INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on city parks as important public resources. However, monitoring park use over time poses practical challenges. Thus, pandemic-related trends are unknown. METHODS: We analyzed monthly mobility data from a large panel of smartphone devices, to assess park visits from January 2018 to November 2020 in the 50 largest U.S. cities. RESULTS: In our sample of 11,890 city parks, visits declined by 36.0 % (95 % CI [27.3, 43.6], p < 0.001) from March through November 2020, compared to prior levels and trends. When we segmented the COVID-19 period into widespread closures (March–April) and reopenings (May–November), we estimated a small rebound in visits during reopenings. In park service areas where a greater proportion of residents were White and highincome, this rebound effect was larger. CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone data can address an important gap for monitoring park visits. Park visits declined substantially in 2020 and disparities appeared to increase.

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