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COVID-19, community response, public policy, and travel patterns: A tale of Hong Kong

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  • Chan, Ho-Yin
  • Chen, Anthony
  • Ma, Wei
  • Sze, Nang-Ngai
  • Liu, Xintao

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has necessitated a critical review of urban transportation and its role in society against the backdrop of an exogenous shock. This article extends the transportation literature regarding community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and what lessons can be obtained from the case of Hong Kong in 2020. Individual behavior and collective responsibility are considered crucial to ensure both personal and community wellbeing in a pandemic context. Trends in government policies, the number of infectious cases, and community mobility are examined using multiple data sources. The mobility changes that occurred during the state of emergency are revealed by a time-series analysis of variables that measure both the epidemiological severity level and government stringency. The results demonstrate a high response capability of the local government, inhabitants, and communities. Communities in Hong Kong are found to have reacted faster than the implementation of health interventions, whereas the government policies effectively reduced the number of infection cases. The ways in which community action are vital to empower flexible and adaptive community responses are also explored. The results indicate that voluntary community involvement constitutes a necessary condition to help inform and reshape future transport policy and response strategies to mitigate the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Chan, Ho-Yin & Chen, Anthony & Ma, Wei & Sze, Nang-Ngai & Liu, Xintao, 2021. "COVID-19, community response, public policy, and travel patterns: A tale of Hong Kong," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 173-184.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:106:y:2021:i:c:p:173-184
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.04.002
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    2. Kira Matus & Naubahar Sharif & Alvin Li & Zhixin Cai & Wai Haang Lee & Max Song, 2023. "From SARS to COVID-19: the role of experience and experts in Hong Kong’s initial policy response to an emerging pandemic," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Niu, Zhipeng & Hu, Xiaowei & Fatmi, Mahmudur & Qi, Shouming & Wang, Siqing & Yang, Haihua & An, Shi, 2023. "Parking occupancy prediction under COVID-19 anti-pandemic policies: A model based on a policy-aware temporal convolutional network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    4. Ali, Maged & Gomes, Lucas Moreira & Azab, Nahed & de Moraes Souza, João Gabriel & Sorour, M. Karim & Kimura, Herbert, 2023. "Panic buying and fake news in urban vs. rural England: A case study of twitter during COVID-19," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    5. Natalia Klunko, 2021. "Resource support of adaptation capabilities of the pharmaceutical industry under COVID-19 pandemic," Technology audit and production reserves, Socionet;Technology audit and production reserves, vol. 2(4(58)), pages 6-11.
    6. Chan, Ho-Yin & Ma, Hanxi & Zhou, Jiangping, 2024. "Resilience of socio-technical transportation systems: A demand-driven community detection in human mobility structures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    7. Chan, Tommy H.Y., 2025. "How does bike-sharing enable (or not) resilient cities, communities, and individuals? Conceptualising transport resilience from the socio-ecological and multi-level perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 247-261.
    8. Cavalcante da Silva, Gabriela & Monteiro de Almeida, Fernanda & Oliveira, Sabrina & Wanner, Elizabeth F. & Bezerra, Leonardo C.T. & Takahashi, Ricardo H.C. & Lima, Luciana, 2021. "Comparing community mobility reduction between first and second COVID-19 waves," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 114-124.
    9. Kason Ka Ching Cheung & Ho-Yin Chan & Sibel Erduran, 2023. "Communicating science in the COVID-19 news in the UK during Omicron waves: exploring representations of nature of science with epistemic network analysis," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Büşra Buran & Mehmet Erçek, 2021. "Convergence or Divergence among Business Models of Public Bus Transport Authorities across the Globe: A Fuzzy Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Chen, Tiantian & Fu, Xiaowen & Hensher, David A. & Li, Zhi-Chun & Sze, N.N., 2022. "Air travel choice, online meeting and passenger heterogeneity – An international study on travellers’ preference during a pandemic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 439-453.
    12. Ricardo Muñoz-Cancino & Sebastian A. Rios & Marcel Goic & Manuel Graña, 2021. "Non-Intrusive Assessment of COVID-19 Lockdown Follow-Up and Impact Using Credit Card Information: Case Study in Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-16, May.
    13. Young Song, Annie & Lee, Seunghyeon & Wong, S.C., 2023. "A machine learning approach to analyzing spatiotemporal impacts of mobility restriction policies on infection rates," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. Zidong Yu & Xiaolin Zhu & Xintao Liu & Tao Wei & Hsiang-Yu Yuan & Yang Xu & Rui Zhu & Huan He & Hui Wang & Man Sing Wong & Peng Jia & Song Guo & Wenzhong Shi & Wu Chen, 2021. "Reopening International Borders without Quarantine: Contact Tracing Integrated Policy against COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-13, July.
    15. Hintermann, Beat & Schoeman, Beaumont & Molloy, Joseph & Schatzmann, Thomas & Tchervenkov, Christopher & Axhausen, Kay W., 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 on mobility choices in Switzerland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    16. Yun Cheng & Sha Fang & Jie Yin, 2022. "The effects of community safety support on COVID‐19 event strength perception, risk perception, and health tourism intention: The moderating role of risk communication," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 496-509, March.

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