During March 2020, many streets looked eerily empty because lockdowns shut down travel, shops, schools, and public gatherings. News coverage from that period describes deserted roads, shuttered storefronts, and only a few people or vehicles moving through normally busy city centers.

What people saw

  • Empty sidewalks and plazas, especially in downtown areas.
  • Closed or boarded-up businesses, with very little foot traffic.
  • Fewer cars, buses, and commuters, making major streets feel unusually quiet.
  • In many places, the atmosphere was described as surreal or haunting because of the sudden silence.

Why it looked that way

Lockdown rules told people to stay home except for essential reasons, and many governments also closed non-essential businesses and banned large gatherings. That quickly drained activity from streets that would normally be full of pedestrians, tourists, and traffic.

Typical street scene

A typical March 2020 street scene was:

  1. Open space where crowds used to be.
  2. Long stretches of quiet with very little movement.
  3. Occasional essential workers, delivery drivers, or isolated pedestrians.
  4. A general feeling that everyday city life had paused.

In one line

It was mostly a picture of silence, emptiness, and shutdown , with cities that usually felt crowded suddenly looking almost frozen in place.