Disruption and Recovery: Initial Assessment of COVID-19 Traffic Impacts in North Carolina and Virginia
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 4
Abstract
The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected every aspect of peoples’ lives, including their mobility. In this study, the impact of closures related to the pandemic on traffic patterns is assessed for the state of North Carolina and the Commonwealth of Virginia. The results of the initial assessments indicated that the average reduction in traffic volume was 27% across North Carolina and Virginia. Findings suggest that a slight increase in traffic at the beginning of the stay-at-home orders was followed by at most a 40% reduction after closures. The changes in traffic volumes in terms of road and vehicle classification are most substantial in Interstate routes and for passenger cars and buses. The average recovery rate of traffic volume after the occurrence of the maximum reductions was between 2.3% and 3.4% per week.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Such data include the traffic counts and algorithms used during the analysis.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Stephen Piotrowski with the Traffic Survey unit of the North Carolina DOT and Mr. Hamlin Williams with the Traffic Engineering Division of the Virginia DOT for providing the data and bringing support for the development of this work. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Scott Ogletree at the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University for his valuable insights into the geospatial analysis of the data presented in this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147 • Issue 4 • April 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 23, 2020
Accepted: Dec 22, 2020
Published online: Feb 13, 2021
Published in print: Apr 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jul 13, 2021
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