Lockdowned: Everyday mobility changes in response to COVID-19

This paper looks into the impact of the recent COVID-19 epidemic on the daily mobility of people. Existing research into the epidemic travel patterns points at transport as a channel for disease spreading with especially long-distance travel in the centre of interest. The authors adopt a different approach looking into the effects that epidemic has on the transport system and specifically in relation to short-distance daily mobility activities. They go beyond simple travel avoidance behaviours and look into factors influencing change in travel times and in modal split under epidemic. This leads to the research problems the authors posit in this paper. They look into the overall reduction of daily travel and into the factors impacting peoples' decisions to refrain from daily traveling. This paper focuses on modes affected and explores differences between various societal groups. They use a CATI survey with a representative sample size of 1069 respondents from Poland. The survey was carried out between March, 24th and April, 6th2020, with a start date one week after the Polish government introduced administrative measures aimed at slowing down the COVID-19 epidemic. For data analysis, the authors propose using the GLM (general linear model), allowing them, to include all the qualitative and quantitative variables which depict their sample. They observe significant drops in travel times under epidemic conditions. Those drops are similar regardless of the age group and gender. The time decrease depended on the purpose of travels, means of transport, traveller's household size, fear of coronavirus, main occupation, and change in it caused by the epidemic. The more the respondent was afraid of coronavirus, the more she or he shortened the travel time.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102906
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692320309832
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09666923
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Borkowski, Przemysław
  • Jażdżewska-Gutta, Magdalena
  • Szmelter-Jarosz, Agnieszka
• Publication Date: 2021-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transport Geography
  • Volume: 90
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0966-6923
  • Serial URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communicable diseases; COVID-19; Mobility; Public transit; Travel patterns; Travel time
• Geographic Terms: Poland
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01760770
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 21 2020 1:48PM