TRAVEL IN A NEW WORLD OF COVID-19

More Cars, More Pollution & More New Alternative Vehicles

Source:  Stock Image of Public Transit Being Cleaned

New Travel World from COVID-19

Americans and many others around the world in urban areas are getting behind the wheel to avoid mass transit. The difficulty of social distancing and feeling secure to avoid COVID-19 in crowded trains, buses and planes is driving the return to cars.  Polls indicate that American plan to avoid trains and buses as the stay-at-home orders lift.  The shift to cars could be a boom for the hard pressed automotive industry.  It could also lead to more pollution and traffic jams.

New Issues For Mass Transit

Ironically, the effort to avoid public transit and take your car in order to protect yourself from COVID-19 is creating new problems.  Urban experts believe it could lead to increased road congestion, additional carbon emissions and put a major strain on cash-strapped transit systems.  Transit ridership is down 95% in major US cities, leading to forecasts of massive deficits for transit systems into 2022.

Global Travel Patterns

Similar travel patterns to avoid crowded mass transit are happening in China, where public transit ridership in big cities is down 35%.  That's two months after the lockdowns lifted.  Ford and VW are seeing upticks in their car & SUV sales in China.  Just from April 20 through 25, car sales in China jumped 12.3%.

New, Alternative Forms of Transportation

All of this could bolster, during the 2020s,  the launch of new, urban air mobility vehicles such as EVTOL flying taxis and flying cars to fly over the traffic jams and mass transit. It also supports the need for non-polluting electric vehicles of all types to cut noxious, greenhouse gas emissions.  And as we travel in this new COVID-19 awareness world, other new alternative forms of transportation like electric bikes to solo-commute are expected to become hot means of smart, green personal transportation. 

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