Visualizing Hong Kong’s mass transit usage under COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world hard. It has induced many abrupt changes, including lockdowns and business closures. Using changes in local public transit usage as proxies of mobility patterns in a typical high-density city where public transit carries ≥ 90% of passenger trips, this featured graphic geovisualizes to what degree human mobility patterns in Hong Kong were affected by the pandemic and related local and remote events such as the Wuhan lockdown and the Hong Kong government’s ‘work from home’ policy, where the patterns are affected the most, and possibly by/after which event(s). The visuals show that trips to and from business and commercial districts, low- to middle-income new towns, and station areas near the checking point serving cross-border visitors/residents might be most affected.