In this
week's Deep Dive, News 12's Kristie Reeter and Caleb Silver with Investopedia
take a look at the data to see where exactly people are heading with the
holiday season officially underway now. The roads will be busy this weekend
with people returning home from Thanksgiving celebrations.
In a poll
taken by News 12, viewers were asked: Are you planning a winter vacation? In
Connecticut, 38% said maybe just staying home.
What is Google
showing as people are getting their jump start on the holiday shopping and celebrating? Are they doing
it already?
"Yeah, we like to look at, Kristie we like to
look at the seven-day average of mobility, to and from retail and recreational
locations particularly important as we head into the holidays to see if people
did get that jump start on that shopping or traveling to recreational areas,
and in Connecticut, it is the strongest of the tri-state areas but still not
back to 2019 levels,” says Silver. “Richfield County the only major county that
we track that is seeing an increase. 4.8% compared to 2019 levels. But when you
look at the other counties, Hartford, New Haven and Fairfield still below 2019
levels."
When it comes to how people
are getting around, what do the numbers show there?
"Yeah, not that much
commuting on the rails in Connecticut, we know how important the Metro North is
to get in and out of the city but also to go to city to city, county to county
and across Connecticut, and those levels are still down 42% from pre pandemic
levels, more people are driving around Connecticut than are using the rails as we
head into the end of 2021,” says Silver.