COVID-19 impact on urban mobility

Abstract

This paper presents individuals' adjustment in daily out-of-home travel activities, in-home activities, and long-distance travel during the COVID – 19 travel restrictions. This study utilizes data from the COVID – 19 Survey for assessing Travel impact (COST) for the Kelowna region of British Columbia, Canada. The analysis suggests that individuals' participation in out-of-home activities were reduced by more than 50% during COVID – 19. The highest daily frequency of travel is found for routine shopping, followed by work-related travel. A comparative analysis of adjustment in out-of-home activities during COVID – 19 and the pre-pandemic period suggests that work-related travel increased for some occupations such as health, community, government, and sales and services. For recreational/social activities, travel increased for a higher share of older adults, and decreased for a higher share of younger adults. In the case of in-home activities, higher income households were found to be predominant in tele-working for a longer duration; whereas, lower and middle income groups were more involved in leisure and discretionary activities, and sleep. In the case of long-distance travel, the majority of the completed long-distance travel was made regionally using private car. Among the altered (i.e. cancelled, rescheduled, and unchanged) long-distance trips, international air-travel was predominant. The findings of this study provide insights towards people's immediate response to COVID – 19 travel restrictions, which will help in developing transportation plans and policies during COVID – 19, as well as for future pandemic and any other unprecedented scenarios.

COVID-19: Are you satisfied with traveling during the pandemic?

“…A similar trend was noticed during the outbreak of SARS and there was a significant reduction in leisure-based travel demand due to internal motivations (e.g., risk perception) and external enforced measures (e.g., travel restrictions, imposing of stay-at-home) ( Wen et al, 2005 ). On contrary, a higher frequency of travel related to routine shopping was noticed during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak ( Fatmi, 2020 ). However, ( Friman et al, 2017 ) found that critical or unexpected incidences during travel can change mood immediately, indirectly impacting travel satisfaction.…”

“…The validated sample size is 202, however, due to multiple engagements in out-of-home travel activity in a day total response of 226 was retained for travel satisfaction. Detailed survey information can be found elsewhere ( Fatmi, 2020 ). Table 1 shows the variables used in this model and descriptive statistics for each.…”

“…For example, an increase in work from home ( Leger, 2020 ), e-learning, and a reduction in public activities and events significantly reduced the travel demand ( De Vos, 2020 ). However, a sudden surge in online shopping was noticed, avoiding physical interaction during in-store purchases and travel ( Fatmi, 2020 ). The unique scenarios introduced by the novel coronavirus pandemic have caused significant changes in the way people perform their everyday tasks.…”

Investigation of the urbanization contribution to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran and the MECA countries

“…During the last year of 2020, many studies were carried out regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, several studies have focused on the influences of COVID-19 outbreak on the urban activities, systems, processes, and health (e.g., Chapman & Tsuji, 2020 ; Fatmi, 2020 ; Feng et al, 2020 ; Girdhar et al, 2020 ). In the vice versa, some scholars have addressed the possible links between urban air pollution and illness outbreaks in the different regions and countries (e.g., Conticini et al, 2020 ; Magazzino et al, 2020 ; Ogen, 2020 ; Travaglio et al, 2020 ; Yongjian et al, 2020 ).…”

The Correlation of Mobility Trend and Situation of COVID-19 by Country, Territory, and Area

“…19 Overall, individuals made about 1.62 trips/day/person during COVID-19 compared to about 3.33 trips/day/person in the pre-pandemic period, which is down more than 50%. 20 For residential, we found negative correlation to cumulative case of COVID-19. Residential indicates how long an individual stay within nonpublic places such as home,etc.…”