IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v161y2022icp48-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of COVID-19 on paratransit operators and riders: A case study of central Alabama

Author

Listed:
  • Nie, Qifan
  • Qian, Xinwu
  • Guo, Shuocheng
  • Jones, Steven
  • Doustmohammadi, Mehrnaz
  • Anderson, Michael D.

Abstract

Paratransit plays an important role in offering mobility and accessibility in local communities, especially for mobility disadvantaged group such as seniors, persons with disabilities, and persons with medical conditions. This study comprehensively evaluates the impacts of COVID-19 on paratransit services from paratransit operator and individual rider perspectives. In particular, we mine a paratransit dataset that covers trip logs of more than 800 unique riders over a seven-month period in order to understand how the pandemic impacted service and influenced trip purposes of individual riders. For service providers, our analyses show that a significant loss in paratransit ridership was accompanied by drastic changes in travel behavior among paratransit riders. Results indicate that the operator was able to deliver safe and efficient mobility services during COVID-19, but at a 60% higher cost per rider than under pre-pandemic conditions. The results also reveal a varying level of impacts for individual riders given heterogeneity among trip purposes and demographic profiles. Moreover, similarities are identified across a range of individual riders, depending on specific trip purposes and the availability of alternative travel options. This study is among the first to investigate paratransit operations during COVID-19 in terms of impacts to both operators and individual riders. The lessons learned and policy insights should be useful to other paratransit operators and policymakers in preparing for current and future pandemics.

Suggested Citation

  • Nie, Qifan & Qian, Xinwu & Guo, Shuocheng & Jones, Steven & Doustmohammadi, Mehrnaz & Anderson, Michael D., 2022. "Impact of COVID-19 on paratransit operators and riders: A case study of central Alabama," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 48-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:161:y:2022:i:c:p:48-67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2022.04.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856422001148
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2022.04.016?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Figliozzi, Miguel & Unnikrishnan, Avinash, 2021. "Exploring the impact of socio-demographic characteristics, health concerns, and product type on home delivery rates and expenditures during a strict COVID-19 lockdown period: A case study from Portlan," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1-19.
    2. Wang, Ding & Tayarani, Mohammad & Yueshuai He, Brian & Gao, Jingqin & Chow, Joseph Y.J. & Oliver Gao, H. & Ozbay, Kaan, 2021. "Mobility in post-pandemic economic reopening under social distancing guidelines: Congestion, emissions, and contact exposure in public transit," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 151-170.
    3. Schaefer, Kerstin J. & Tuitjer, Leonie & Levin-Keitel, Meike, 2021. "Transport disrupted – Substituting public transport by bike or car under Covid 19," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 202-217.
    4. Shaheen, Susan PhD & Wong, Stephen PhD, 2020. "Public Transit and Shared Mobility COVID-19 Recovery: Policy Options and Research Needs," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt9nh6w2gq, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    5. Parker, Madeleine E.G. & Li, Meiqing & Bouzaghrane, Mohamed Amine & Obeid, Hassan & Hayes, Drake & Frick, Karen Trapenberg & Rodríguez, Daniel A. & Sengupta, Raja & Walker, Joan & Chatman, Daniel G., 2021. "Public transit use in the United States in the era of COVID-19: Transit riders’ travel behavior in the COVID-19 impact and recovery period," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 53-62.
    6. Matthew Palm & Jeff Allen & Bochu Liu & Yixue Zhang & Michael Widener & Steven Farber, 2021. "Riders Who Avoided Public Transit During COVID-19," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(4), pages 455-469, October.
    7. Zheng, Hongyu & Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2021. "Plunge and rebound of a taxi market through COVID-19 lockdown: Lessons learned from Shenzhen, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 349-366.
    8. Currie, Graham & Jain, Taru & Aston, Laura, 2021. "Evidence of a post-COVID change in travel behaviour – Self-reported expectations of commuting in Melbourne," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 218-234.
    9. Rebecca Brough & Matthew Freedman & David C. Phillips, 2021. "Understanding socioeconomic disparities in travel behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 753-774, September.
    10. Tri Basuki Joewono & Ariel Matthew & Muhamad Rizki, 2021. "Loyalty of Paratransit Users in the Era of Competition with Ride Sourcing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Oum, Tae Hoon & Wang, Kun, 2020. "Socially optimal lockdown and travel restrictions for fighting communicable virus including COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 94-100.
    12. Kar, Armita & Carrel, Andre L. & Miller, Harvey J. & Le, Huyen T. K., 2021. "Reducing public transit compounds social vulnerabilities during COVID-19," OSF Preprints 5xerm, Center for Open Science.
    13. Wang, Jueyu & McDonald, Noreen, 2021. "Health Care Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Mobile Device Data," SocArXiv ghptz, Center for Open Science.
    14. Luyu Liu & Harvey J Miller & Jonathan Scheff, 2020. "The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on public transit demand in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    15. Qian, Xinwu & Ukkusuri, Satish V., 2021. "Connecting urban transportation systems with the spread of infectious diseases: A Trans-SEIR modeling approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 185-211.
    16. Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Duan, Hongyu (Anna) & Smith, Tony E. & Hu, Haoyu, 2021. "Time-varying accessibility to senior centers by public transit in Philadelphia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 245-258.
    17. Hensher, David A. & Beck, Matthew J. & Wei, Edward, 2021. "Working from home and its implications for strategic transport modelling based on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 64-78.
    18. Sharma, Deepa & Pandit, Debapratim, 2021. "Determining the level of service measures to evaluate service quality of fixed-route shared motorized para-transit services," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 176-186.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thembani Moyo & Siphiwe Mbatha & Oluwayemi-Oniya Aderibigbe & Trynos Gumbo & Innocent Musonda, 2022. "Assessing Spatial Variations of Traffic Congestion Using Traffic Index Data in a Developing City: Lessons from Johannesburg, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.

    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. Soria, Jason & Edward, Deirdre & Stathopoulos, Amanda, 2023. "Requiem for transit ridership? An examination of who abandoned, who will return, and who will ride more with mobility as a service," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 139-154.
    2. Chen, Ruoyu & Zhang, Min & Zhou, Jiangping, 2023. "Jobs-housing relationships before and amid COVID-19: An excess-commuting approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Xi, Haoning & Li, Qin & Hensher, David A. & Nelson, John D. & Ho, Chinh, 2023. "Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on travel behavior in different socio-economic segments," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 98-112.
    4. Long, Alfie & Carney, Ffion & Kandt, Jens, 2023. "Who is returning to public transport for non-work trips after COVID-19? Evidence from older citizens' smart cards in the UK's second largest city region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Elif Bozkaya & Levent Eriskin & Mumtaz Karatas, 2023. "Data analytics during pandemics: a transportation and location planning perspective," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 328(1), pages 193-244, September.
    6. Kim, Suji & Lee, Sujin & Ko, Eunjeong & Jang, Kitae & Yeo, Jiho, 2021. "Changes in car and bus usage amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Relationship with land use and land price," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    7. Sangwan Lee & Liming Wang, 2022. "Intermediate Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Prices of Housing near Light Rail Transit: A Case Study of the Portland Metropolitan Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-17, July.
    8. Jiang, Jiehui & Ma, Jie, 2023. "Dynamic analysis of pandemic cross-regional transmission considering quarantine strategies in the context of limited medical resources," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 450(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Fan, Huiying & Lu, Hongyu & Guin, Angshuman & Watkins, Kari E & Guensler, Randall, 2022. "Combined Effect of Changes in Transit Service and Changes in Occupancy on Per-Passenger Energy Consumption," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt2x1320p5, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    11. Stefaniec, Agnieszka & Brazil, William & Whitney, Warren & Caulfield, Brian, 2022. "Desire to work from home: Results of an Irish study," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    12. Kogus, Ayelet & Brůhová Foltýnová, Hana & Gal-Tzur, Ayelet & Shiftan, Yuval & Vejchodská, Eliška & Shiftan, Yoram, 2022. "Will COVID-19 accelerate telecommuting? A cross-country evaluation for Israel and Czechia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 291-309.
    13. Patni, Sagar & Srinivasan, Sivaramakrishnan & Suarez, Juan, 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 on route-level changes in transit demand an analysis of five transit agencies in Florida, USA," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    14. Zheng, Hongyu & Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2021. "Plunge and rebound of a taxi market through COVID-19 lockdown: Lessons learned from Shenzhen, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 349-366.
    15. Kurzhanskiy, Alex PhD & Lapardhaja, Servet, 2021. "Bus Operations of Three San Francisco Bay Area Transit Agencies during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt5cf8s117, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    16. Tianxing Dai & Brian D. Taylor, 2023. "Three’s a crowd? Examining evolving public transit crowding standards amidst the COVID-19 pandemic," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 321-341, June.
    17. Lou, Jiehong & Shen, Xingchi & Niemeier, Deb, 2020. "Are stay-at-home orders more difficult to follow for low-income groups?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Park, Keunhyun & Chamberlain, Brent & Song, Ziqi & Nasr Esfahani, Hossein & Sheen, Jeff & Larsen, Teresa & Long Novack, Valerie & Licon, Carlos & Christensen, Keith, 2022. "A double jeopardy: COVID-19 impacts on the travel behavior and community living of people with disabilities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 24-35.
    19. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan, 2021. "My home is my castle – The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    20. Daniel Albalate & Xavier Fageda, 2022. ""Have Low Emission Zones slowed urban traffic recovery after Covid-19?"," IREA Working Papers 202222, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Dec 2022.

    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:transa:v:161:y:2022:i:c:p:48-67. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.