Want to see how much each county in America is changing their habits? This crude Social Distancing Scoreboard measures the change in distance traveled to come up with a score for each county.
https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard
Of course, travel isn't the main driver except perhaps for transporting the virus to new places. It's the large crowds that really drive this stuff.
I think you are right about the crowds, and the fact that driving may disperse the pathogen along main highway corridors.
A few things to point out about the distance traveled metric.
In this end of ND, you have to go 120 miles (if you stay in state) to get to the next big town. The 'Quest for Charmin' could easily rack up 150 miles, if you live between the bigger towns.
While that holds, people who live that far from town and a big-ish box store tend to stock up and only make one trip a month or less, relying on local markets for things like milk and eggs, if they don't grow their own.
With the 'panic', I have little doubt those pantries were checked and the holes filled in, as best as people could, which would provide a surge in miles traveled above average, followed by a serious drop.
Some of the decrease in miles traveled will be due to the oil patch shutting down (because of prices), and some travel will be a result of that, and either is unlikely to do anything but expose those out of work to town, and remove those who still are working from that in-town environment. The work environment provides social distancing, and between the oil patch and farming, a lot of time is spent solo.
