An analysis from Streetlight Data shared by local law firm Mainetti & Mainetti P.C. found vehicle traffic fell in the Hudson Valley by over 70 percent for much of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Streetlight Data “aggregates anonymous location data from millions of smartphones and GPS devices to estimate how much traffic there is anywhere in the US, and then compares it against previous years.”
According to the analysis, traffic began to dip on March 15, a week before the NY PAUSE order was given, declining from around 20-40 percent in Mid-Hudson counties, then plummeting to between 74 and 84 percent the following week, where it stayed for most of April.
Chart showing the decline of vehicle traffic in March in Orange, Ulster and Dutchess counties
By May, traffic began to increase, but it was still down by around 40-50 percent. By last week, the most recent data found traffic down by 25-40 percent.
See more detailed info along with additional charts, as well as info on what less traffic means for vehicle accidents (hint: they don’t decrease proportionally), here at the law firm’s site.