Analysis of road traffic pattern changes due to activity restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic in Chennai

ABSTRACT

In the absence of pharmaceutical interventions for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), countries have taken drastic steps like quarantine, prohibit large-scale gatherings, limited transport, social distancing, curfews, and lockdowns to curtail the spread of the virus. In light of these events, the current study attempts to understand the short-term changes in road traffic patterns, using data from two Wi-Fi MAC Scanners deployed at strategic locations in Chennai, India. The results indicate that the road traffic activities significantly reduced due to the restrictions in non-essential trips, workplace suspensions, and strict surveillance during lockdowns. However, as the lockdown rules eased, the road traffic activities began to recover. It is found that complete closedown is most effective in reducing road travel activity, but ad-hoc short duration complete closedowns may only yield temporary benefits. Also, extended lockdowns without proper enforcement may be ineffective since the public appeared to ignore the advisory after a while.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• road traffic patterns
• Wi-Fi scanners
• India lockdown
• pandemic restrictions

Acknowledgments

We thank Chennai Police for permitting us to install the sensors on the roadside. We also would like to acknowledge the support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India and Robert Bosch Center for Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras through projects.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

No Funding was used in the study.