COVID-19, transport, and social exclusion: Melbourne as a case study

Janet Stanley

Chapter 19 in Research Handbook on Transport and COVID-19, 2025, pp 397-409 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The COVID pandemic had a considerable impact on travel globally. The State of Victoria in Australia mandated requirements to manage the spread of the virus, including extensive lockdowns that restricted personal movement. Research reveals that the pandemic had a range of adverse impacts on people, especially those experiencing social exclusion and poor wellbeing, the direct impact possibly lasting a number of years past the pandemic peak. This chapter argues that the extensive restrictions on movement risk further disadvantaging those with lower levels of wellbeing and at risk of social exclusion. Quantitative evidence is given of the value of mobility and its important role in facilitating social capital and attachments to community, important building blocks for inclusion and wellbeing. A further longer-term risk is that the lower use of public transport, resulting from the pandemic, may further reduce the already impoverished transport options in outer Melbourne, where there is lower-cost housing but also longer distances to travel for work. A positive outcome from COVID is that is reveals the importance of mobility for a good life.

Keywords: COVID; Mobility; Wellbeing; Social Exclusion; Lockdowns; Social Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781802208009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781802208016.00027 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:21311_19

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().