Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility in Spain

This report presents the results of an analysis on mobility related consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the applied restricting measures in Spain covering the period of March 1, 2020 – October 1, 2021. The analysis focuses on how the number of trips changed on national, autonomous community and provincial levels as well as on the potential causes behind the changes. Multiple open mobility data sources were used that describe the evolution of the number of trips published by the Spanish Ministry of Transport and tech companies. Results show that due to the unpredictable consequences of the coronavirus disease and strict governmental responses, the number of trips dropped drastically in all Spanish autonomous communities to 40-50 % compared pre-pandemic levels after the first state of alarm was introduced in March 2020. After hard lockdown was lifted, mobility levels gradually returned to 70-80% compared to the baseline level regardless of the number of coronavirus infections and deaths of the subsequent waves of infection that exceeded the first wave. The pandemic brought significant changes in the individual behaviour that also has an impact on trip demand and distribution. Although the second state of alarm ended in May 2021, and since then only minor restrictions influence mobility, after 1.5 years of pandemic public transport is still underperforming and teleworking levels are higher compared to the pre-pandemic situation in major Spanish cities.