Transit use reduction following COVID-19: The effect of threat appraisal, proactive coping and institutional trust

The effect of quarantine policy on pollution emission and the usage of private transportation in urban areas

Governmental policies, regulations, and responses to the pandemic can benefit from a better understanding of people's resulting behaviours before, during, and after COVID-19. To avoid the inelasticity and subjectivity of survey datasets, several studies have already used some objective variables like air pollutants to estimate the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the urban transportation system. However, the usage of reactant gases and a narrow time scale might weaken the results somehow. Here, both the objective passenger volume of public transport and the concentration of private traffic emitted black carbon (BC) from 2018 to 2023 were collected/calculated to decipher the potential relationship between public and private traffic during the COVID-19 period. Our results indicated that the commuting patterns of citizens show significant (p < 0.01) different patterns before, during, and after the pandemic. To be specific, public transportation showed a significant (p < 0.01) positive correlation with private transportation before the pandemic. This public transportation was significantly (p < 0.01) affected by the outbreaks of COVID-19, showing a significant (p < 0.01) negative correlation with private transportation. Such impacts of the virus and governmental policy would affect the long-term behaviour of individuals and even affect public transportation usage after the pandemic. Our results also indicated that such behaviour was mainly linked to the governmental restriction policy and would soon be neglected after the cancellation of the restriction policy in China.

How do self-exempt beliefs affect intentions to quit smoking? An exploration of the mediating role of threat appraisal and coping appraisal

Introduction

Numerous smokers are cognizant of the detrimental effects associated with this habit yet exhibit a persistent reluctance to cease their tobacco consumption. Self-exempt beliefs serve as an obstacle to the cessation of this addictive behavior. This research explored the impact of self-exempt beliefs on the readiness to quit smoking based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) model and the mediating roles of threat appraisal and coping appraisal.

Methods

Self-exempt beliefs, PMT constructs, and the intention to quit smoking constituted the theoretical model. The questionnaires were collected from 488 Chinese adult male smokers based on snowball sampling. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the underlying factor structure of the pre-designed self-exempt beliefs scale. The reliability, validity, path coefficients, and explanatory power of the model were calculated using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

Results and discussion

The results showed that : (1) three common factors (skeptic beliefs, bulletproof beliefs, and "worth it" beliefs) with a total of 11 items were retained after EFA; (2) skeptic beliefs and "worth it" beliefs had a significantly negative effect on both threat appraisal and coping appraisal, while bulletproof beliefs did not; (3) bulletproof beliefs had a significantly positive direct impact on intention to quit, "worth it" beliefs had a significantly negative direct impact on intention, while skeptic beliefs had no significantly direct impact on intention; (4) threat appraisal and coping appraisal positively and significantly predicted cessation intention; and (5) threat appraisal and coping appraisal, as two main cognitive processes, acted as full mediations between skeptic beliefs and the intention to quit, as complementary partial mediations between "worth it" beliefs and the intention, and as non-mediation between bulletproof beliefs and the intention. Our findings suggest that efforts to undermine or "prevent" these self-exempt beliefs, particularly "worth it" and skeptic beliefs, may be an effective tactic for health communication interventions for quitting smoking.

Social and spatial heterogeneities in COVID-19 impacts on individual's metro use: A big-data driven causality inference

While mobility intervention policies implemented during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak had a significant impact on public transit use, few studies have investigated the individual-level responses in metro transit riding behaviors. Using long time-series cellphone big data from frequent metro users in Shenzhen, China, we developed a quasi-experimental interrupted time series (ITS) design to estimate the treatment effects of mobility intervention policies on people's daily shares of metro transit use (SMU). The results indicate that the first-level emergency response (FLR) and the public transit restriction (PTR) policy yielded abrupt drops in SMU of 8.0% and 17.6%, respectively, whereas the return-to-work (RTW) order had an immediate recovery effect of 14.5%. The effect of the FLR is time-decreasing while those effects of the PTR and the RTW are time-increasing. Females and elderly people living in neighborhoods near the city center with low population density and fewer transit stations are more adaptable to policy interventions for reducing SMUs, while the recovery effect of RTW is relatively low for the elderly living in less mixed-use neighborhoods with reduced transit service. These findings can help policymakers design more socially- and spatially-precise and equity mobility intervention policies during a pandemic.

What can bring transit ridership back: An econometric study on the potential of usage incentives and operational policies in the Greater Toronto Area

The COVID-19 virus has unimaginably disrupted the transit system and its overall functions. Users' vigilant safety concerns posed by the pandemic and the consequent transit avoidance behaviour for a prolonged period could have lasting impacts on their transit preferences, leaving transit agencies to search for effective post-pandemic transit resilience policies. This study examines potential post-pandemic interventions and pandemic-induced psychological attributes impacting the future transit choice behaviour of non-transit users of the pandemic. It utilised data from a transit demand and choice adaptation survey in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. A two-stage model was formulated to jointly capture the pre-pandemic transit usage choices of those who did not make transit trips during the pandemic and the respective post-pandemic transit choices for these user groups. The models depicted that the post-pandemic transit choices were inversely affected by one's pandemic concerns. In contrast, the choices were positively influenced by respondents' views on post-pandemic transit usage and keeping the adopted safety policies in place. Regarding the conventional level of service attributes, paid park and ride facilities enhanced the probability of post-pandemic transit choice almost by 15% for occasional users. In comparison, the changes due to reliable service ranged from 10 to 11% for pre-pandemic users. Analogous propensity was seen for fare schemes offering free transfers between cross borders and 25% or more off-peak discounts on base fares. Moreover, more direct transit routes and increased parking costs by vehicular modes post the pandemic encourage travellers to retake transit.

Nowhere to go? A study of marginalization, social connection, and mental health outcomes among young adults experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic onset necessitated large-scale closures of third places, potentially exacerbating social barriers experienced by young adults in the United States. To better understand the role of urban form in facilitating socialization, we examine the effects of pandemic-based third place closures on mental health outcomes as mediated by changes in social connection. Because identifying as a racial, gender, or sexual minority can compound baseline disadvantages rooted in systemic inequities, we investigate outcome differences for non-white, woman/nonbinary, and LGBTQ+ young adults to disentangle identity-based nuances of the pandemic experience.

Methods

In February 2021, we administered a web-based survey with retrospective name and place generators to 313 18-to-34-year-olds in California, Illinois, and Texas. A structural equation model is estimated showing the direct and indirect effects of physical and virtual mobility constraints on mental health.

Results

Both the closure of third places and dissatisfaction with alternative social spaces are associated with the deterioration of social connections and mental health. The strongest direct predictor of mental health decline is dissatisfaction with virtual socialization (more significant for women and nonbinary respondents). Surprisingly, two distinct categories of third places (i.e., 'civic' and 'commercial') reveal different relationships with social connections and mental health outcomes. Asian, other non-white, and non-heterosexual young adults experienced greater 'civic' visit reduction, while those with intersecting identities of low income and woman/nonbinary or Black experienced greater 'commercial' visit reduction.

Conclusions

Physical and virtual mobility reductions contributed to the inequitable mental health outcomes experienced by young adults during the pandemic. This highlights the potential for a careful redesign of physical and virtual social spaces to support feelings of belonging/safety and spontaneous 'weak tie' interactions, encourages further investigation of social infrastructure's role in facilitating the maintenance of social connections and mental health, and reveals the value of examining differences in mobility-related experiences across social identities.

Threat Appraisal, Resilience, and Health Behaviors in Recovered COVID-19 Patients: The Serial Mediation of Coping and Meaning-Making

Research indicates that both cognitive appraisal and personal resources can noticeably influence health behaviors, as individuals modify their health convictions and practices on the basis of threat appraisal, personality, and meaning. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether coping strategies and meaning-making can serially mediate the relationship of threat appraisal and resilience with health behaviors in recovered COVID-19 patients. Self-report measures of threat appraisal, resilience, coping, meaning-making, and health behaviors were completed by 266 participants (aged 17 to 78, 51.5% female) who had recovered from COVID-19. The serial mediation analysis showed that the relationship of threat appraisal and resilience with health behaviors was mediated by problem-focused coping, meaning-focused coping, and meaning-making, but not by emotion-focused coping. These results suggest that associations among threat perception, resilience, and health behavior depend to some extent on the interplay of coping and meaning-making, which reveals their unique role in the process of recovery from COVID-19, with potential implications for health interventions.