Mobility Analysis during the 2020 Pandemic in a Touristic city: the Case of Cagliari

The impact of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has been significant on every aspect of life and has drastically changed our habits. Here we analyze an extensive set of traffic traces in Cagliari, one of the most touristic cities in the Mediterranean, to quantify how the different phases of the pandemic have affected not only traffic volumes but also their patterns. We put traffic in relation to different restriction levels, finding a non-linear relation. Following a 76% traffic reduction on the first lockdown, subsequent restrictions have lead to less sudden changes. We then use the official tourist-presence figures to pinpoint the traffic stations that are influenced by tourists’ mobility the most. All in all, our analysis shows that although the absolute traffic volumes roughly followed the pandemic evolution, the weekly traffic patterns changed drastically over the time, whereas the daily ones maintained more consistency.