Will the Effects of COVID-19 on Commuting and Daily Activities of the University Students Be Maintained? Evidence from a Small Town in Sicily

Tiziana Campisi, Kh Md Nahiduzzaman, Andreas Nikiforiadis, Nikiforos Stamatiadis and Socrates Basbas
Additional contact information
Tiziana Campisi: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna KORE, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy
Kh Md Nahiduzzaman: School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Andreas Nikiforiadis: Department of Transportation & Hydraulic Engineering, School of Rural & Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Nikiforos Stamatiadis: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, 265 Raymond Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506-0281, USA
Socrates Basbas: Department of Transportation & Hydraulic Engineering, School of Rural & Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: As many studies have already shown, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the daily routines of people all over the world. University students form one of the most affected groups of people, since they have had to interrupt many of the activities that they usually perform, and have also had to get used to a new way of learning (e-learning). An important question that now arises is whether the changes that were identified within the pandemic period are to be maintained when the risk of being infected is eliminated. To this end, 537 university students of the Kore University of Enna, Italy, were surveyed. Their responses are analyzed descriptively, and an ordinal regression model is being developed to shed more light on the likelihood of retaining changes related with to transport mode choice. The results show that the likelihood of retaining all the changes when commuting and during daily activities is very high, demonstrating such willingness from the participants. Moreover, it has been shown that public transport has increased the probability of people being negatively affected by the pandemic in the long-term, and opportunities appear for increasing the modal share of active modes.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; university students; modal shift (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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