DENVER (KDVR) — When COVID-19 first arrived in Colorado last spring, streets in Denver often looked deserted. Busy highways were nearly empty. Fast forward to the present, and the contrast is striking.
Colorado is being hit by a new wave of COVID cases. However, it appears more people are venturing inside stores, restaurants and businesses than they did during the first wave of the pandemic.
Pam Benison has lived in downtown Denver for 17 years and has watched as the city and restaurants have adapted to the pandemic.
“Because of the precautions, it’s much safer. I think all the restaurants are really making us feel safe, no matter which one you go to,” she said.
Andrew Friedson is also monitoring Colorado’s COVID evolution, but he’s doing it by studying traffic accidents. Friedson is an economist at the University of Colorado Denver who has been studying the effects of COVID-19 on consumer behavior.
“What you’ll notice over the past couple of months is traffic crashes increasing, which is indicative of more and more people out on the roads,” Friedson explained.
Traffic crashes in Denver have risen each month since April, when the first wave of the pandemic hit. Denver police reported 267 crashes that month compared to 956 in October.
“It looks very different from what we saw during the first wave of COVID,” Friedson explained.
Friedson says that traffic data also reflects economic activity. More crashes typically mean more people out on the roads, and more people out in the community spending money.
“It’s not a perfect measure of economic activity, but nothing is,” Friedson said.
Friedson is also monitoring other indicators like dinner reservations.
The online reservation company Open Table saw a 100% drop in reservations in several states during the month of April. The numbers are not nearly as dire during this new COVID wave. Reservations were down anywhere from 37% to 63% this week in Colorado.
What’s not clear is if people are taking fewer precautions during this wave of the pandemic, or if being out in public is simply safer than it was when coronavirus first hit Colorado.
Regardless, the state’s COVID-19 numbers have never been higher.