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

•Smartphone mobility data were used to estimate trends in monthly visits to 11,890 U.S. city parks from January 2018 through November 2020.•Park use dropped substantially during the initial months of COVID-19.•Park use rebounded slightly during months when restrictions were relaxed.•Rebounds in park...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Landscape and urban planning 2022-12, Vol.228, p.104554-104554, Article 104554
Main Authors: Jay, Jonathan, Heykoop, Felicia, Hwang, Linda, Courtepatte, Alexa, de Jong, Jorrit, Kondo, Michelle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Big data
Covid-19
COVID-19 infection
landscapes
mobile telephones
Parks
Racial equity
Research Note
Smartphones
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Summary:•Smartphone mobility data were used to estimate trends in monthly visits to 11,890 U.S. city parks from January 2018 through November 2020.•Park use dropped substantially during the initial months of COVID-19.•Park use rebounded slightly during months when restrictions were relaxed.•Rebounds in park use were larger in areas with mostly White and high-income residents. 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. 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. In our sample of 11,890 city parks, visits declined by 36.0 % (95 % CI [27.3, 43.6], p 
ISSN:0169-2046
1872-6062
0169-2046
DOI:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104554