abstract: 'Mobility interventions in communities play a critical role in containing

  a pandemic at an early stage. The real-world practice of social

  distancing can enlighten policymakers and help them implement more

  efficient and effective control measures. A lack of such research using

  real-world observations initiates this article. We analyzed the social

  distancing performance of 66,149 census tracts from 3,142 counties in

  the United States with a specific focus on income profile. Six daily

  mobility metrics, including a social distancing index, stay-at-home

  percentage, miles traveled per person, trip rate, work trip rate, and

  non-work trip rate, were produced for each census tract using the

  location data from over 100 million anonymous devices on a monthly

  basis. Each mobility metric was further tabulated by three perspectives

  of social distancing performance: ``best performance,{''''} ``effort,{''''}

  and ``consistency.{''''} We found that for all 18 indicators, high-income

  communities demonstrated better social distancing performance. Such

  disparities between communities of different income levels are presented

  in detail in this article. The comparisons across scenarios also raise

  other concerns for low-income communities, such as employment status,

  working conditions, and accessibility to basic needs. This article lays

  out a series of facts extracted from real-world data and offers

  compelling perspectives for future discussions.'
affiliation: 'Sun, QQ (Corresponding Author), Univ Maryland, Maryland Transportat
  Inst MTI, Dept Civil \& Environm Engn, 8228 Paint Branch Dr, College Pk, MD 20742
  USA.

  Sun, Qianqian; Zhou, Weiyi; Kabiri, Aliakbar; Darzi, Aref; Hu, Songhua; Younes,
  Hannah; Zhang, Lei, Univ Maryland, Maryland Transportat Inst MTI, Dept Civil \&
  Environm Engn, 8228 Paint Branch Dr, College Pk, MD 20742 USA.'
author: Sun, Qianqian and Zhou, Weiyi and Kabiri, Aliakbar and Darzi, Aref and Hu,
  Songhua and Younes, Hannah and Zhang, Lei
author-email: qsun12@umd.edu
author_list:
- family: Sun
  given: Qianqian
- family: Zhou
  given: Weiyi
- family: Kabiri
  given: Aliakbar
- family: Darzi
  given: Aref
- family: Hu
  given: Songhua
- family: Younes
  given: Hannah
- family: Zhang
  given: Lei
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1111/rsp3.12598
earlyaccessdate: DEC 2022
files: []
issn: 1757-7802
journal: REGIONAL SCIENCE POLICY AND PRACTICE
keywords: 'causal impact analysis of income; community differences; COVID-19

  pandemic; Mobile location data; social distancing behavior'
keywords-plus: PROPENSITY; BEHAVIOR
language: English
month: APR
number: '3'
number-of-cited-references: '38'
orcid-numbers: 'HU, SONGHUA/0000-0002-0731-3080

  Kabiri, Aliakbar/0000-0003-2119-007X'
pages: 541-558
papis_id: 53e327c1364340af1b1e9703a483eaeb
ref: Sun2023covid19income
researcherid-numbers: 'HU, SONGHUA/ABF-2415-2021

  '
times-cited: '1'
title: 'COVID-19 and income profile: How communities in the United States responded
  to mobility restrictions in the pandemic''s early stages'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000896574300001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '1'
volume: '15'
web-of-science-categories: Geography
year: '2023'