Well, that was fast. For plenty of Americans, last week began with the regular old commute to school or work and ended with canceled semesters, robust “work from home policies,” fears about making next month’s rent, and canceled events—everything from weddings to concerts to (it hurts!) baseball’s opening day. The coronavirus pandemic has reordered the lives of plenty worldwide. Airlines struggled. People wondered whether it was safe to go to the grocery store. Drivers for delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub pulled in some extra bucks, even as they grappled with fears of infection themselves.
This week, we’ll end with a plea: Have you, your company, or your family found a creative way around the Covid-19 outbreak? Are you inventing safe and science-approved ways to get around or discovering new ways to have fun? If so, drop us a line at @WIREDTransport.
In the meantime: It’s been a week. Let’s get you caught up.
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Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week
- Why coronavirus is the greatest test for the gig economy yet.
- The Covid-19 pandemic—and some flubs during President Trump’s evening address on Wednesday—led to disaster for airlines.
- The 2020 Census has gone digital. But the coronavirus will still complicate data collection, especially for minority communities.
- Should you go grocery shopping? Cancel your upcoming wedding? Science has answers—sort of.
It’s been a rough one, and automotive events haven’t been spared from the roughness. Car and Driver has kept a useful (and depressing!) tally of those that have been canceled or delayed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Check the list before you try to tune into anything. And maybe go driving instead?
In non-disease news: The number of cars per people in the US is still down slightly since 2006, according to the data-crunchers at Sivak Applied Research. The metric fell from 0.786 per person in 2006 to 0.745 in 2012, just after the recession, but recently rebounded to 0.767 in 2018. Lots of homes have two or more cars, and fewer have zero. Does the anemic gain speak to a broader trend in car buying and the slow death of the proverbial American driver? Maybe not.
News from elsewhere on the internet
- Chaos reigns at the airlines, which are grappling with an unprecedented drop in travel.
- Will the White House help bail out the airlines?
- Elon Musk says he’s hunting for a site for a US-based Cybertruck factory.
- Automakers are telling non-factory workers to work from home.
- The electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors says it has a plan to avoid the destruction wreaked on other small electric automakers.
- Coronavirus: bad for public transportation!
- Where have all the bus riders gone?
Essential stories from WIRED’s canon
From 2018: A race to find the next pandemic before it finds us.
