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OOH Metrics Firm's Data Shows More Outdoor Activity Across the U.S.

Billups is seeing a rise in walking and driving traffic compared to April

map of New York metro area showing walking and driving activity — Driving traffic increased 43% in May and walking increased 25% after bottoming out in early April.Billups

As the weather warms and coronavirus infection rates decline in some places, out-of-home metrics firm Billups has found hard data that people are beginning to return to the streets.

The company tapped the analytics it otherwise uses to measure billboard viewership—a combination of anonymized mobile location coordinates, screen activity and other data—to show that driving traffic increased an average of 43% this month and walking increased 25% after bottoming out in early April.

All told, the pool being analyzed constituted about a tenth of the country’s population, according to Billups chief scientist Shawn Spooner.

“We were really intrigued to understand how people’s movement patterns are changing,” Spooner said.