IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v110y2023ics0966692323001126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Travel before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring factors in essential travel using empirical data

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Chao
  • Wan, Zhiyang
  • Yuan, Quan
  • Zhou, Yang
  • Sun, Maopeng

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on daily life, leading to quarantines and essential travel restrictions worldwide in an effort to curb the virus's spread. Despite the potential importance of essential travel, research on changes in travel patterns during the pandemic has been limited, and the concept of essential travel has not been fully explored. This paper aims to address this gap by using GPS data from taxis in Xi'an City between January and April 2020 to investigate differences in travel patterns across three periods pre, during, and post the pandemic. Spatial statistical models are used to examine the major supply and demand-oriented factors that affect spatial travel patterns in different periods, and essential and nonessential socioeconomic resources are defined based on types of services. Results indicate that the spatial distribution of travel demand was highly correlated with the location of socioeconomic resources and opportunities, regardless of the period. During the “Emergency Response” period, essential travel was found to be highly associated with facilities and businesses providing essential resources and opportunities, such as essential food provider, general hospital and daily grocery supplies. The findings suggest that local authorities may better identify essential travel destinations by referencing the empirical results, strengthening public transit connections to these locations, and ultimately promoting traffic fairness in the post-pandemic era.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Chao & Wan, Zhiyang & Yuan, Quan & Zhou, Yang & Sun, Maopeng, 2023. "Travel before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring factors in essential travel using empirical data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:110:y:2023:i:c:s0966692323001126
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2023.103640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692323001126
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2023.103640?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gutiérrez, Javier & Cardozo, Osvaldo Daniel & García-Palomares, Juan Carlos, 2011. "Transit ridership forecasting at station level: an approach based on distance-decay weighted regression," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1081-1092.
    2. Villas-Boas, Sofia B & Sears, James & Villas-Boas, Miguel & Villas-Boas, Vasco, 2020. "Are We #StayingHome to Flatten the Curve?," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt5h97n884, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    3. Aldila, Dipo & Khoshnaw, Sarbaz H.A. & Safitri, Egi & Anwar, Yusril Rais & Bakry, Aanisah R.Q. & Samiadji, Brenda M. & Anugerah, Demas A. & GH, M. Farhan Alfarizi & Ayulani, Indri D. & Salim, Sheryl N, 2020. "A mathematical study on the spread of COVID-19 considering social distancing and rapid assessment: The case of Jakarta, Indonesia," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    4. Kar, Armita & Le, Huyen T. K. & Miller, Harvey J., 2021. "What is essential travel? Socio-economic differences in travel demand during the COVID-19 lockdown," OSF Preprints qtkhb, Center for Open Science.
    5. Élise Labonté-LeMoyne & Shang-Lin Chen & Constantinos K. Coursaris & Sylvain Sénécal & Pierre-Majorique Léger, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Mitigation Measures on Mass Transit and Car Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Zhang, Yunchang & Fricker, Jon D., 2021. "Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on non-motorized transportation: A Bayesian structural time series model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 11-20.
    7. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Tangari, Luca, 2021. "Influencing factors for potential bike-sharing users: an empirical analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Tiziana Campisi & Socrates Basbas & Anastasios Skoufas & Nurten Akgün & Dario Ticali & Giovanni Tesoriere, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Resilience of Sustainable Mobility in Sicily," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-24, October.
    9. Beck, Matthew J. & Hensher, David A., 2020. "Insights into the impact of COVID-19 on household travel and activities in Australia – The early days of easing restrictions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 95-119.
    10. Krumdieck, Susan & Page, Shannon & Dantas, André, 2010. "Urban form and long-term fuel supply decline: A method to investigate the peak oil risks to essential activities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 306-322, June.
    11. Chen, Xiaohong & Guo, Yingjie & Yang, Chao & Ding, Fangyi & Yuan, Quan, 2021. "Exploring essential travel during COVID-19 quarantine: Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 90-97.
    12. Genevieve Giuliano & Sanggyun Kang & Quan Yuan, 2019. "Agglomeration economies and evolving urban form," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 63(3), pages 377-398, December.
    13. Zhou, Yang & Yuan, Quan & Ding, Fangyi & Chen, Mingyang & Yang, Chao & Guo, Tangyi, 2022. "Demand, mobility, and constraints: Exploring travel behaviors and mode choices of older adults using a facility-based framework," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Adam Przybylowski & Sandra Stelmak & Michal Suchanek, 2021. "Mobility Behaviour in View of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Public Transport Users in Gdansk Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    15. Taylor, Brian D. & Fink, Camille N.Y., 2003. "The Factors Influencing Transit Ridership: A Review and Analysis of the Ridership Literature," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3xk9j8m2, University of California Transportation Center.
    16. He, Qian & Rowangould, Dana & Karner, Alex & Palm, Matthew & LaRue, Seth, 2021. "Covid-19 Pandemic Impacts on Essential Transit Riders: Findings from a U.S. Survey," SocArXiv 3km9y, Center for Open Science.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luan, Siliang & Yang, Qingfang & Jiang, Zhongtai & Wang, Wei, 2021. "Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on individual's travel mode choice in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 271-280.
    2. Shuai Yu & Bin Li & Dongmei Liu, 2023. "Exploring the Public Health of Travel Behaviors in High-Speed Railway Environment during the COVID-19 Pandemic from the Perspective of Trip Chain: A Case Study of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomera," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Anwar, Muhammad Azfar & Dhir, Amandeep & Jabeen, Fauzia & Zhang, Qingyu & Siddiquei, Ahmad Nabeel, 2023. "Unconventional green transport innovations in the post-COVID-19 era. A trade-off between green actions and personal health protection," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    4. Hector Monterde-i-Bort & Matus Sucha & Ralf Risser & Kristyna Honzickova, 2022. "A European-Wide Study on the Effects of the COVID-19 Threat on Active Transport Modes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Tu, Wei & Cao, Rui & Yue, Yang & Zhou, Baoding & Li, Qiuping & Li, Qingquan, 2018. "Spatial variations in urban public ridership derived from GPS trajectories and smart card data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 45-57.
    6. Sreten Simović & Tijana Ivanišević & Bojana Bradić & Svetlana Čičević & Aleksandar Trifunović, 2021. "What Causes Changes in Passenger Behavior in South-East Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-11, July.
    7. Adam Przybylowski & Sandra Stelmak & Michal Suchanek, 2021. "Mobility Behaviour in View of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Public Transport Users in Gdansk Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    8. Wang, Jueyu & Kaza, Nikhil & McDonald, Noreen C. & Khanal, Kshitiz, 2022. "Socio-economic disparities in activity-travel behavior adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-78.
    9. Gao, Fan & Yang, Linchuan & Han, Chunyang & Tang, Jinjun & Li, Zhitao, 2022. "A network-distance-based geographically weighted regression model to examine spatiotemporal effects of station-level built environments on metro ridership," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    10. Hafiz Suliman Munawar & Sara Imran Khan & Zakria Qadir & Abbas Z. Kouzani & M A Parvez Mahmud, 2021. "Insight into the Impact of COVID-19 on Australian Transportation Sector: An Economic and Community-Based Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, January.
    11. Joao T. Aparicio & Elisabete Arsenio & Rui Henriques, 2021. "Understanding the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Public Transportation Travel Patterns in the City of Lisbon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    12. Tom Storme & Corneel Casier & Hossein Azadi & Frank Witlox, 2021. "Impact Assessments of New Mobility Services: A Critical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Witold Torbacki, 2021. "Achieving Sustainable Mobility in the Szczecin Metropolitan Area in the Post-COVID-19 Era: The DEMATEL and PROMETHEE II Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-25, November.
    14. Sławomir Dorocki & Dorota Wantuch-Matla, 2021. "Power Two-Wheelers as an Element of Sustainable Urban Mobility in Europe," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-25, June.
    15. Guadalupe González-Sánchez & María Isabel Olmo-Sánchez & Elvira Maeso-González, 2021. "Challenges and Strategies for Post-COVID-19 Gender Equity and Sustainable Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Rothengatter, Werner & Zhang, Junyi & Hayashi, Yoshitsugu & Nosach, Anastasiia & Wang, Kun & Oum, Tae Hoon, 2021. "Pandemic waves and the time after Covid-19 – Consequences for the transport sector," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 225-237.
    17. Haiyan Liu & Jaeyoung Lee, 2023. "Contributing Factors to the Changes in Public and Private Transportation Mode Choice after the COVID-19 Outbreak in Urban Areas of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Möllers, Alessa & Specht, Sebastian & Wessel, Jan, 2022. "The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and government intervention on active mobility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 356-375.
    19. Yang, Chao & Yu, Chengcheng & Dong, Wentao & Yuan, Quan, 2023. "Substitutes or complements? Examining effects of urban rail transit on bus ridership using longitudinal city-level data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    20. Shirgaokar, Manish & Reynard, Darcy & Collins, Damian, 2021. "Using twitter to investigate responses to street reallocation during COVID-19: Findings from the U.S. and Canada," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 300-312.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:110:y:2023:i:c:s0966692323001126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.