Residents in NW Indiana have been driving far less than they did before the COVID-19 Pandemic struck, but data show that they are just starting to rebound in their driving habits slightly, while still far below their pre-Pandemic levels. StreetLight Data, Inc. has generously released County-level Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) data to the public at this website, and the chart below shows the trends in NW Indiana.
Residents have scaled back their travel mostly on weekends, but even weekday travel is far down from Pre-Pandemic levels. Overall, VMT as of the week of May 8th were less than half the VMT from the week ending March 6th. But it appears that starting the week of April 20, VMT started to rebound slightly, showing signs that residents may have begun returning to work or have otherwise grown more comfortable navigating their “new normal.”
A closer look at the data reveals that Porter County residents scaled back their travel by the highest percentage, followed by Lake County, with LaPorte County residents reducing their travel least. The above graph depicts the average percent reduction in VMT for both weekdays and weekends compared to the reference week of March 2 - March 8.