Government-imposed business shutdowns to stem the spread of coronavirus helped erase nearly 597,000 jobs in the Bay Area during March and April — yet they also helped wipe out vehicle trips and traffic jams in a big way, according to a new economic report released Tuesday.
The economic fallout ushered in by state and local government mandates that shuttered untold numbers of businesses has been catastrophic: An estimated 555,100 jobs were lost in the Bay Area in April, on the heels of a loss of 41,800 jobs in March, the state’s Employment Development Department has reported.
Yet with a fast-rising number of people working from home — or out of work — people have been driving much less during a spring dominated by the personal and economic impact of the coronavirus, according to a report released Tuesday by the Institute for Regional Studies and Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
The report touts what it describes as a “silver lining” arising from the business shutdowns in Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and California.
“We certainly don’t intend to minimize the tragedy of the pandemic,” said Rachel Massaro, director of research for the Institute of Regional Studies.
During May, freeway vehicle miles traveled per capita, a way of measuring how far each person is driving, on average, were down dramatically in Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and California, compared with the trends from a year ago as well as the early part of 2020 before the Bay Area issued the nation’s first shelter-in-place orders.
However, the May travel totals on freeways in Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and California were up significantly from April, a potential indicator of a rebounding job market, according to the institute.
The report also found that travelers in Silicon Valley reduced their average freeway travel to a dramatically greater extent than their counterparts in the Bay Area and California compared to a year before.
However, Silicon Valley drivers also returned to their vehicles at a much faster pace in May compared with April than was the case in California and the Bay Area, according to the new study.
During May, Silicon Valley freeway vehicle miles traveled averaged 179.7 per person, up 22.2 percent from April but down 44.4 percent from the same month a year ago.
Bay Area freeway travel averaged 239.1 miles per capita in May, up 16.5 percent from April but down 32.4 percent from May 2019. And California freeway travel averaged 229.6 miles per person in May, up 16.5 percent from April and down 28.1 percent from May of a year ago, the report determined.
“Will the health crisis catalyze new approaches to transportation and a renewed emphasis on telecommuting? we hope this study will inform the thinking on important questions such as these,” said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
