Analysing the impact of COVID-19 risk perceptions on route choice behaviour in train networks

how these findings canPublic transport: lessons learned by the sector through the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the operations and functionality of the public transport sector in the UK. This paper reflects on the experience of this sector through the pandemic period, and considers recommendations for any future mitigations required for either new COVID-19 waves or a different public health emergency.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with public transport experts, organisational leaders, workers and passengers in two phases: Phase 1 from January to May 2021, and Phase 2 from December 2021 to February 2022. Interviews were analysed thematically.

RESULTS

Using the 'What? So What? Now What?' reflective model, ideas are drawn out to describe (a) what changes occurred, (b) what effects these changes had on service provision as well as perceptions of risk and mitigation and (c) what lessons have been learned and how these findings can feed into pandemic preparedness for the future. Respondent reflections focussed on the importance of communication, leadership, and maintaining compliance.

CONCLUSIONS

The wealth of experience gained through the COVID-19 pandemic in the public transport sector is extremely valuable. Through reflection on this experience, specific recommendations are made relating to these factors, covering: maintaining links across industry, access to information and data, understanding of mitigation effectiveness, improving messaging, challenges of behavioural mitigations, and clear lines of accountability. The recommendations made on the basis of this reflective process will help to improve public health strategy within the public transport sector.

The Anticipated Use of Public Transport in the Post-Pandemic Era: Insights from an Academic Community in Thessaloniki, Greece

This paper investigates how the travel behavior relating to Public Transport (PT) changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which are the expectations about the extent of PT use post-pandemic. A revealed preferences questionnaire survey was distributed within an academic community in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. To understand the factors potentially determining the future PT use, hierarchical ordered probit and bivariate ordered probit models were estimated. Results showed that the frequent PT users reduced by almost 75% during the pandemic. More than 29% of the local academic community members are reluctant to resume PT use at pre-pandemic levels. Non-captive users, teleworkers and those being unsatisfied with cleanliness and safety are less willing to travelling by PT post-pandemic. Female and under-stress passengers were found to particularly appreciate the use of facemasks and the increased service frequencies as post-pandemic policy measures. The study findings can inform the recovery strategies of transport authorities in order to retain the PT ridership at levels that will not threat the long-term viability of service provision. Future research may complement these findings by examining other population segments, such as the commuters and the elderly, under more advanced modelling techniques to account for additional unobserved behavioral patterns.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the spatio-temporal characteristics of a bicycle-sharing system: A case study of Pun Pun, Bangkok, Thailand

The COVID-19 pandemic is found to be one of the external stimuli that greatly affects mobility of people, leading to a shift of transportation modes towards private individual ones. To properly explain the change in people's transport behavior, especially in pre- and post- pandemic periods, a tensor-based framework is herein proposed and applied to Pun Pun-the only public bicycle-sharing system in Bangkok, Thailand-where multidimensional trip data of Pun Pun are decomposed into four different modes related to their spatial and temporal dimensions by a non-negative Tucker decomposition approach. According to our computational results, the first pandemic wave has a sizable influence not only on Pun Pun but also on other modes of transportation. Nonetheless, Pun Pun is relatively more resilient, as it recovers more quickly than other public transportation modes. In terms of trip patterns, we find that, prior to the pandemic, trips made during weekdays are dominated by business trips with two peak periods (morning and evening peaks), while those made during weekends are more related to leisure activities as they involve stations nearby a public park. However, after the first pandemic wave ends, the patterns of weekday trips have been drastically changed, as the number of business trips sharply drops, while that of educational trips connecting metro/subway stations with a major educational institute in the region significantly rises. These findings may be regarded as a reflection of the ever-changing transport behavior of people seeking a sustainable mode of private transport, with a more positive outlook on the use of bicycle-sharing system in Bangkok, Thailand.