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Use of smartphone mobility data to analyze city park visits during the COVID-19 pandemic
Jonathan Jay1, Felicia Heykoop1, Linda Hwang2
1Boston University, School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
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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