Social distancing and inequality in the United States amid COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Amid sweeping efforts to get Americans to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease, we geovisualized how foot traffic has increased or declined in relation to six types of trips across the United States: homes, workplaces, retail and recreation establishments, parks, grocery stores and pharmacies, and transit stations. The geovisualization shows that most West and East Coast cities have reduced extensive movements while many Middle American cities even increased their movements, such as trips to grocery stores and parks. We further found that the poorest communities reduced fewer movements than the wealthiest communities, except for the trips to parks.