The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has been uncharted waters for the entire global

community. Everyone, from governments and companies to individuals, has

had to deal with a new reality and with an inevitable negative impact on the
economy. While we have hit pause on most of our business-as-usual activities,
we quickly adapted to the new reality in all aspects.

We haved a disruptive impact on the way people, cities, the world itself lives
and moves, with mobility being one of the industries most affected by the
outbreak. We have learnt that we are not alone. We (well some of us) have
learnt how to work from home. We have learnt what the roads are like without
traffic, and found that this brings benefits. Some people have learnt that the
law still applies even though the roads are quiet and the car parks empty.

What this huge, tragic, experiment has taught us, is that habits and preferences
can change overnight, if the circumstances are right. No-one expects that
people will willingly return to shared transport, for example, although we
might see less resistance to taking a plane on holiday than to taking the bus to
work (even though, objectively, the risks are likely to be similar).

For instance, office workers, who have long explained that working from the
office is more productive, have mostly found that it is precisely the things
which make it less productive, (the chatting at the coffee machine, lunch in the
canteen with colleagues, stopping by someone’s desk to swap gossip or talk
about football) are the things they really miss. They have found that work can
often be done at least as well remotely, and the discipline of back-to-back
videocalls has many of us working harder, or at least more intensely. This is
not to say that going to the office is bad, just that the story needs to change.