It has been more than 18 months since the start of the pandemic, but Americans are still not back to normal. The chart below is Google mobility trends. It shows the percent change in mobility compared to winter 2020. Americans are still spending more leisure time in parks. But time on trains and commuting to work remains low and did not recover much this fall. The longer these trends continue, the more they may take hold. The data suggests work and commuting may not be the same for a very long time.

Source: Google Community Mobility Reports

Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow her on Twitter here.