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New York has become one of the worst-affected COVID-19 hotspots and a pandemic epicenter due to the ongoing crisis. This paper identifies the impact of the pandemic and the effectiveness of government policies on human mobility by analyzing multiple datasets available at both macro and micro levels for New York City. Using data sources related to population density, aggregated population mobility, public rail transit use, vehicle use, hotspot and non-hotspot movement patterns, and human activity agglomeration, we analyzed the inter-borough and intra-borough movement for New York City by aggregating the data at the borough level. We also assessed the internodal population movement amongst hotspot and non-hotspot points of interest for the month of March and April 2020. Results indicate a drop of about 80% in people’s mobility in the city, beginning in mid-March. The movement to and from Manhattan showed the most disruption for both public transit and road traffic. The city saw its first case on March 1, 2020, but disruptions in mobility can be seen only after the second week of March when the shelter in place orders was put in effect. Owing to people working from home and adhering to stay-at-home orders, Manhattan saw the largest disruption to both inter- and intra-borough movement. But the risk of spread of infection in Manhattan turned out to be high because of higher hotspot-linked movements. The stay-at-home restrictions also led to an increased population density in Brooklyn and Queens as people were not commuting to Manhattan. Insights obtained from this study would help policymakers better understand human behavior and their response to the news and governmental policies.
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This content will become publicly available on July 23, 2026
Routes of Inequality and Enclaves of Exclusion: Understanding Public Transit’s Role in Race and Class Segregation and Mobility Disparities in San Antonio, Texas
Public transit systems are crucial to mobility and access in cities throughout the world. This article addresses the importance of these transit systems in San Antonio, Texas. We show how transit systems exacerbate race and class inequality and the accessibility of city spaces with a focus on San Antonio’s buses. Using mixed methods (surveys, interviews, ethnography, and document analysis) we illustrate that poor and working-class Latinx communities experience reduced access to resource rich areas of the city when they are dependent upon the city’s public transportation. To better describe this experience we use the concepts, enclaves of exclusion and enclaves of inaccessibility. Our findings show that mobility through San Antonio for poor and working class Latinxs is limited especially for people in these communities who rely on public transit. This experience with these public transit systems often renders them as individuals who do not belong in certain neighborhoods, and ultimately reinforces the longstanding histories of race and class segregation in San Antonio.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2131193
- PAR ID:
- 10621811
- Publisher / Repository:
- Sage
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Critical Sociology
- ISSN:
- 0896-9205
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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