Exploring the public bus ridership loss and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic: a spatiotemporal analysis using smart card data

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the demand of public transport systems. Nevertheless, the global decrease and recovery of users has been uneven both in time and space. It is important to understand the extent of the unequal resilience of service areas with different characteristics. The objective of this study is to map the patterns of variations in the use of public bus at different scales, urban and regional. The data used were collected by an Automated Fare Collection system based on the use of smart travel cards in the Camp de Tarragona region (Southern Catalonia, Spain). Our approach has the potential to be applied in multiscale studies in other areas with similar data sources. This study also illustrates the potential that data generated by Automated Fare Collection systems have for a better understanding of uneven spatial and temporal patterns of public bus ridership during crises such as a pandemic. Data collected by Automated Fare Collection systems allow longitudinal analyses to be carried out at different scales and resolutions.Such analyses are key to understanding unequal territorial patterns and the evolution of the public bus system.Automated Fare Collection data can be used to measure the resilience of public bus to disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.The construction of data visualizations can provide new insights in mobility studies, making them useful tools in the decision-making process.