Adaptive Travel Behaviors to Cope with COVID-19: A Swedish Qualitative Study Focusing on Everyday Leisure Trips

Emma Strömblad, Lena Winslott Hiselius, Lena Smidfelt Rosqvist and Helena Svensson
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Emma Strömblad: Department of Technology and Society, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Lena Winslott Hiselius: Department of Technology and Society, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Lena Smidfelt Rosqvist: Trivector Traffic, Vävaregatan 21, SE-222 36 Lund, Sweden
Helena Svensson: Department of Technology and Society, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a rapid change in travel behavior for different types of trips, including everyday social and recreational leisure trips. People have used adaptive travel behaviors to cope with the new circumstances for activities and transport. Due to the Swedish strategy focusing on more voluntary restrictions, people have had reason to consider which trips and activities to skip and which to keep. The overall aim of the study is to explore and deepen the knowledge about adaptive behaviors used and seek to understand its possible implications for future travel behavior change towards sustainable mobility through the use of qualitative interviews focusing on everyday leisure trips. The results illustrate how people have used a range of adaptive behaviors to cope with the implications of the pandemic, with cancellation and change of transport mode being the ones most reflected upon by the interviewees. Further, the results reveal how the overall label “everyday leisure trips” in fact includes a variety of trip purposes that differ in terms of flexibility and importance and must thus be approached in different ways in transport policy measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; disruptive events; adaptive travel behavior; everyday leisure travel; social and recreational trips; sustainable transport (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 (1)

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