Changes

The impact and importance of transport in European societies support the need for an analysis on mobility in this publication. The transport of people, goods and information has seen exponential growth in recent decades due to increasingly globalised trade flows and changes to the logistics that channel them.

The need to supply materials to the industries and services demanded by the population entails high levels of mobility in Spain. The robust tourist industry, family and professional relationships, trips related to culture and sport as well as freight are just some of the factors that cause these high levels of mobility.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the enactment of the state of alarm that led to a strict lockdown on 14 March 2020 caused a sudden interruption in the flow of people, and -to a lesser extent- goods. Only the very essential activities required to ensure critical supplies to the population were left out of the social and economic standstill in Spain in spring 2020. Hence, at the beginning of the so-called ‘temporary non-essential economic hibernation' from 30 March to 09 April 2020, nearly 60% of the population made no journeys at all, 5% made only one trip and 15% made two. Moreover, 43% of these journeys during lockdown were 0.5-2 km long trips whilst these short journeys accounted for just 35% of the total only one month earlier (Martos, 2020). It is remarkable how limitations on mobility increased social awareness of its importance and highlighted how difficult it is for citizens to give up mobility (Báguena, 2020).