City Mobility - Sydney vs Melbourne

This is an update of this post: Sydney vs Melbourne Mobility

Since we last checked, Sydney's mobility appears to have stayed more or less flat. While the officials insist that mobility data shows that Sydney's lockdown is as tight as Melbourne's last year, that doesn't appear to be the case based on the Apple dataset (the basis of these charts).

Above, we see the data for transit usage. Melbourne's trough during August of last year sits at under 13%. Contrast this with Sydney's current, point is 22.3%.

In driving, above, Sydney at 52% is higher than Melbourne's trough of 40%.

In walking, Sydney at nearly 43% is above Melbourne's low of a bit over 30%.

This suggests, on the face of it, that Sydney's lockdown is indeed less effective at reducing mobility than Melbourne's last year.

Sydney is now further disadvantaged by Delta's naturally higher rate of transmission. Pulling the other way is the fact that Sydney's population is partially vaccinated, perhaps compensating somewhat. The net result is that Sydney's cases are still rising. We look at the progress of the two outbreaks in the comparison post here: Sydney vs Melbourne Outbreaks

About These Images The chart is based on data from Apple's mobility dataset.