Barriers to Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Transportation Part 2: Investigating Evolving Travel Behaviors in the Post-Pandemic Period in California

Basar Ozbilen, Siddhartha Gulhare, Keita Makino, Aurojeet Jena, Xiatian Iogansen, Patrick Loa, Yongsung Lee, Jai Malik and Giovanni Circella

Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis

Abstract: During the early months of the pandemic, stay-at-home orders and concerns about infection catalyzed a shift toward online activities, such as remote work and e-shopping, resulting in a significant decrease in conventional travel. However, as the effects of the pandemic diminished, the pandemic-induced online activities began to subside, and conventional travel started to rebound. The challenge among transportation planners and policymakers is to determine the lasting effects of the pandemic and adjust the policies accordingly. In the same efforts to understand the evolving travel-related activities and inform policymaking, the 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program at the University of California, Davis, conducted four waves of mobility surveys between Spring 2020 and Fall 2023. Key findings from the analysis of these data reveal that remote work and a combination of remote work and physical commuting (i.e., hybrid work) emerge as an enduring outcome of the pandemic. The pandemic accelerated the rise of e-shopping, both for grocery and non-grocery purchases, with findings demonstrating the critical influence of socio-demographic factors, including age, gender, and income, on e-shopping adoption and frequency. The findings show that socio-demographic factors such as work status, income level, and work arrangements are associated with household vehicle ownership changes and individual vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In particular, an increase in commute frequency reduces the likelihood of vehicle shedding, while amplifying the likelihood of vehicle acquisition. In the meantime, remote workers exhibit lower commuting VMT but higher non-commuting VMT compared to hybrid workers. The findings demonstrate a similarity between the percentage of respondents who used public transit, bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters for commuting and non-commuting trips to some degree between 2019 and 2023. These insights underscore that adapting to shifting activity and transportation patterns is crucial for policymakers and planners to build a sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic future.

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; Commuting; COVID-19; Demographics; Electronic commerce; Surveys; Telecommuting; Travel behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/59x3z9zb.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt59x3z9zb

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().