The post-pandemic landscape may favor cars

Early evidence suggests public transit will struggle to recover from the pandemic, according to Bloomberg's Nathaniel Bullard.

Driving the news: He looks at data in post-lockdown traffic in China and finds that by early March it was above the levels from a year earlier.

• "When we exit our however-long-it-will-be of weekdays that feel like Sundays, people will start moving again. China’s example suggests that personal car traffic will more than rebound — and that public transit will not," he writes.

Why it matters: It's an early data point in what will be a complicated question going forward, which is how the coronavirus crisis may affect long-term oil and electricity use — and what it means for carbon emissions.

But, but, but: Some analysts believe that what's now enforced behavior that cuts oil demand — notably working from home and avoiding flying — could stick around to some extent when the pandemic ends.

Go deeper:

• Public transit's death spiral
• Car-buying will never be the same after coronavirus