The objective of this paper is to present a detailed descriptive analysis of the influence of
the mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain on the
wellbeing of people. In this paper, we focus on the wellbeing of walkers and drivers during
that period.
The dataset used for this study was collected through a web-based survey during April of
2020, in which 1870 valid responses were obtained. In this study a subpart of the survey is
used, including data related to travel characteristics during the lockdown and information
collected regarding several wellbeing metrics.
The total mobility of people was reduced more than half during the lockdown, and modal
share was also altered substantially. Women increased walking by 44% and men by 48%.
The use of car was reduced by 24% in the case of men, and by 11% in the case of women.
Younger and older people are those who walked more during lockdown. Although walking
was the predominant travel mode during the lockdown, those who walked more are related
to lower values of wellbeing.
Implications for the development of transport policies to improve the wellbeing of people
are derived from the results of this study.
