Changes in Passengers’ Travel Behavior Due to COVID-19

Dong-Gyun Ku, Jung-Sik Um, Young-Ji Byon, Joo-Young Kim and Seung-Jae Lee
Additional contact information
Dong-Gyun Ku: Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea
Jung-Sik Um: Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea
Young-Ji Byon: Department of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Joo-Young Kim: Department of Transportation Planning & Management, Korea National University of Transportation, Gyeonggi 16106, Korea
Seung-Jae Lee: Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 has changed the way people travel due to its highly contagious nature. In this study, changes in the travel behavior of passengers due to COVID-19 in the first half of 2020 were examined. To determine whether COVID-19 has affected the use of transportation by passengers, paired t -tests were conducted between the passenger volume of private vehicles in Seoul prior to and after the pandemic. Additionally, the passenger occupancy rate of different modes of transportation during the similar time periods were compared and analyzed to identify the changes in monthly usage rate for each mode. In the case of private vehicles and public bicycles, the usage rates have recovered or increased when compared to those of before the pandemic. Conversely, bus and rail passenger service rates have decreased from the previous year before the pandemic. Furthermore, it is found that existing bus and rail users have switched to the private auto mode due to COVID-19. Based on the results, traffic patterns of travelers after the outbreak and implications responding to the pandemic are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; public transport; paired sample t -test; mode share rate; Seoul (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7974/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7974/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7974-:d:595770

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().