Data: July 4 weekend drew many outdoors
Mobility data shows Humboldt County residents are easing up on staying at home and were out in full force over the Fourth of July weekend in particular.
Google mobility data shows Humboldt County residents increased their travel to retail and recreation spots, grocery stores and pharmacies, and parks between July 3 and July 5. Time spent at work and home also decreased while transit station use was up.
Compared to mid-June, when travel to retail and recreation was down by 31% of baseline, travel to these locations was down by only 15% to 17% during the holiday weekend. Travel to grocery stores and pharmacies has hovered around the baseline since the end of May, but climbed to 16% of baseline on July 3.
Travel to parks was 112% of baseline in mid-June and was up around 150% over the holiday weekend and transit station use went from 24% above baseline in mid-June to between 31% and 49% above baseline over the holiday weekend.
Time spent at home went from 10% on July 3 to 1% on July 5, Google data shows.
Apple mobility data shows its users were requesting directions, indicating they were driving, over 100% of baseline, which is how much they were requesting directions on Jan. 13, over the holiday weekend.
Facebook data shows 20% to 24% of people were staying home over the holiday weekend, while people were moving around 21% more on that Sunday.
Humboldt County residents were moving around least and staying at home most in early April, a couple weeks after the shelter-in-place order began. Since then, the number of people staying home has been cut in half, according to Facebook data.
Mobility around the county hit a nadir of 39% below baseline on April 4 and was 4% below baseline as of the past Thursday, according to Facebook data. The percentage of people staying put hit its zenith of 40% above baseline on April 5 and was 20% as of Thursday.
The data has limitations because it only applies to users of Google, Facebook and Apple, respectively, who have their location services turned on.
In addition to the local people increasingly moving around, shop owners in Old Town Eureka have reported an increasing number of tourists from out of the area visiting their stores since summer started.