Mobility Patterns before, During and after the COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore

Human mobility has been significantly affected by COVID-19 and associated travel restrictions imposed by government policies. This study examines changes in mobility patterns in Singapore during different stages of the pandemic using mobile phone data. Our results indicate that population mobility decreased over the COVID pandemic and is slowly increasing after the restrictions were lifted. However, there have been changes in the mobility patterns of the population. Despite the easing of COVID-19 measures, the population is making fewer trips and the trip distances are longer for some people. This change may be attributed to several factors. One of which is that the population has not quite come back to the pre-COVID working routine and has adopted a semi-work-from-home policy, where the staff is working in the office for a few days a week. The other factor is the habit of making more “purposeful” trips remains. Further, we investigate changes in mobility patterns among the classified explorers and returners. The results demonstrate that the change in mobility has a similar trend to the population as a whole. These observed changes in mobility patterns may become the new normal and should be taken into account for traffic management, business decision-making, policy-making, and urban or transport infrastructure planning.