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North American Transportation During COVID-19: What Really Changed?

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  • Palm, Matthew

Abstract

COVID-19 arrived in the United States and Canada at a time when the future of sustainable urban travel across the continent looked uncertain. A decade-long trend in transit ridership growth appeared to have stalled in many cities (Boisjoly et al., 2018), while automobile ownership grew. This chapter synthesizes unfolding evidence on how COVID-19 disrupted some of these existing trends in North American urban transportation while accelerating others. This synthesis is organized around three themes emerging from COVID-19 in the region: declining transit ridership, increased auto ownership or auto purchase plans, and a possible ‘new normal’ of increased telecommuting. I evaluate each theme in the context of prior trends and public policy choices feeding those trends. Untangling hype from data, the chapter concludes with recommendations on how to support travelers in the region while calling for clearer thinking from urban thought leaders and researchers on the likely long-term impact of the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Palm, Matthew, 2022. "North American Transportation During COVID-19: What Really Changed?," OSF Preprints dx258, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:dx258
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dx258
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sangho Choo & Patricia Mokhtarian & Ilan Salomon, 2005. "Does telecommuting reduce vehicle-miles traveled? An aggregate time series analysis for the U.S," Transportation, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 37-64, January.
    2. Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Michael N. Bagley & Ilan Salomon, 1998. "The impact of gender, occupation, and presence of children on telecommuting motivations and constraints," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 49(12), pages 1115-1134.
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