IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v52y2025i4p823-840.html

Intentional travel group and social network: Identification and dynamics during a pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Mingzhi Zhou
  • Shuyu Lei
  • Jiangyue Wu
  • Hanxi Ma
  • David M Levinson
  • Jiangping Zhou

Abstract

Using multiday continuous smartcard data in 2020, we investigate group-based travel in Hong Kong metro system by identifying metro riders intentionally traveling in groups (ITGs). ITGs serve as our proxies for citywide physical social interactions. Considering ITG members are interrelated through group-based trips, we construct a social network (an ITG network) formed by ITGs to explore the network properties and structures of ITG activities. Examining ITGs both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we measure the spatial patterns of ITGs and their dynamics across locales and over time. We find that the degree of the ITG network follows a heavy-tailed distribution. The network size and interconnections vary across time. Some ITG members are more influential vertices than others in maintaining the networks’ topological properties. We illustrate how new data and methods can be used to explore in-person interactions and social activity patterns in transit-reliant cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Mingzhi Zhou & Shuyu Lei & Jiangyue Wu & Hanxi Ma & David M Levinson & Jiangping Zhou, 2025. "Intentional travel group and social network: Identification and dynamics during a pandemic," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 52(4), pages 823-840, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:4:p:823-840
    DOI: 10.1177/23998083241271453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083241271453
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23998083241271453?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. Jinhee Kim & Soora Rasouli & Harry J. P. Timmermans, 2018. "Social networks, social influence and activity-travel behaviour: a review of models and empirical evidence," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 499-523, July.
    2. Banita Lal & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Markus Haag, 2023. "Working from Home During Covid-19: Doing and Managing Technology-enabled Social Interaction With Colleagues at a Distance," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1333-1350, August.
    3. Anna Petherick & Rafael Goldszmidt & Eduardo B. Andrade & Rodrigo Furst & Thomas Hale & Annalena Pott & Andrew Wood, 2021. "A worldwide assessment of changes in adherence to COVID-19 protective behaviours and hypothesized pandemic fatigue," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 1145-1160, September.
    4. Xiao, Yu & Lo, Hong K., 2016. "Day-to-day departure time modeling under social network influence," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 92(PA), pages 54-72.
    5. Tilahun, Nebiyou & Levinson, David, 2011. "Work and home location: Possible role of social networks," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 323-331, May.
    6. Jie Huang & David Levinson & Jiaoe Wang & Haitao Jin, 2019. "Job-worker spatial dynamics in Beijing: Insights from Smart Card Data," Working Papers 2019-01, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    7. Dou, Bing-Lin & Wang, Xue-Guang & Zhang, Shi-Yong, 2010. "Robustness of networks against cascading failures," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(11), pages 2310-2317.
    8. Somwrita Sarkar & Hao Wu & David M Levinson, 2020. "Measuring polycentricity via network flows, spatial interaction and percolation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2402-2422, September.
    9. Zhou, Mingzhi & Zhou, Jiali & Zhou, Jiangping & Lei, Shuyu & Zhao, Zhan, 2023. "Introducing social contacts into the node-place model: A case study of Hong Kong," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Wei-Po Chou & Peng-Wei Wang & Shiou-Lan Chen & Yu-Ping Chang & Chia-Fen Wu & Wei-Hsin Lu & Cheng-Fang Yen, 2020. "Voluntary Reduction of Social Interaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Related Factors and Association with Perceived Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-12, October.
    11. Réka Albert & Hawoong Jeong & Albert-László Barabási, 2000. "Error and attack tolerance of complex networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 406(6794), pages 378-382, July.
    12. Per Block & Marion Hoffman & Isabel J. Raabe & Jennifer Beam Dowd & Charles Rahal & Ridhi Kashyap & Melinda C. Mills, 2020. "Social network-based distancing strategies to flatten the COVID-19 curve in a post-lockdown world," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 588-596, June.
    13. Giancarlos Troncoso Parady & Genki Katayama & Hiromu Yamazaki & Tatsuki Yamanami & Kiyoshi Takami & Noboru Harata, 2019. "Analysis of social networks, social interactions, and out-of-home leisure activity generation: Evidence from Japan," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 537-562, June.
    14. Sui Tao & Sylvia Y. He, 2021. "Job accessibility and joint household travel: a study of Hong Kong with a particular focus on new town residents," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1379-1407, June.
    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. Parady, Giancarlos & Frei, Andreas & Kowald, Matthias & Guidon, Sergio & Wicki, Michael & van den Berg, Pauline & Carrasco, Juan-Antonio & Arentze, Theo & Timmermans, Harry & Wellman, Barry & Takami, , 2021. "A comparative study of social interaction frequencies among social network members in five countries," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Cumelles, Joel & Lordan, Oriol & Sallan, Jose M., 2021. "Cascading failures in airport networks," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Xu, Sheng & Xia, Yongxiang & Ouyang, Min, 2020. "Effect of resource allocation to the recovery of scale-free networks during cascading failures," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 540(C).
    4. Shen, Yi & Song, Guohao & Xu, Huangliang & Xie, Yuancheng, 2020. "Model of node traffic recovery behavior and cascading congestion analysis in networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 545(C).
    5. Gramsch-Calvo, Benjamin & Okamura, Koki & Takami, Kiyoshi & Oyama, Yuki & Chikaraishi, Makoto & Axhausen, Kay W. & Parady, Giancarlos, 2025. "Going the extra mile: Estimating the willingness to travel to meet with friends using a joint destination choice model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Wang, Kai & Zhang, Bu-han & Zhang, Zhe & Yin, Xiang-gen & Wang, Bo, 2011. "An electrical betweenness approach for vulnerability assessment of power grids considering the capacity of generators and load," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(23), pages 4692-4701.
    7. Saniee Monfared, Momhammad Ali & Jalili, Mahdi & Alipour, Zohreh, 2014. "Topology and vulnerability of the Iranian power grid," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 406(C), pages 24-33.
    8. Peng, Xingzhao & Yao, Hong & Du, Jun & Wang, Zhe & Ding, Chao, 2015. "Invulnerability of scale-free network against critical node failures based on a renewed cascading failure model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 421(C), pages 69-77.
    9. Zhu, Qian & Nie, Jianlong & Zhu, Zhiliang & Yu, Hai & Xue, Yang, 2018. "Modeling and analyzing cascading dynamics of the Internet based on local congestion information," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 499(C), pages 298-309.
    10. repec:plo:pone00:0008001 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Sanjeev Goyal & Fernando Vega-Redondo, 2000. "Learning, Network Formation and Coordination," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0113, Econometric Society.
    12. Quayle, A.P. & Siddiqui, A.S. & Jones, S.J.M., 2006. "Preferential network perturbation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 371(2), pages 823-840.
    13. Chen, Lei & Yue, Dong & Dou, Chunxia, 2019. "Optimization on vulnerability analysis and redundancy protection in interdependent networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 523(C), pages 1216-1226.
    14. Bálint Mészáros & István Simon & Zsuzsanna Dosztányi, 2009. "Prediction of Protein Binding Regions in Disordered Proteins," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(5), pages 1-18, May.
    15. Somwrita Sarkar & Clémentine Cottineau-Mugadza & Levi J Wolf, 2024. "Spatial inequalities and cities: A review," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(7), pages 1391-1407, September.
    16. Irina Rish & Guillermo Cecchi & Benjamin Thyreau & Bertrand Thirion & Marion Plaze & Marie Laure Paillere-Martinot & Catherine Martelli & Jean-Luc Martinot & Jean-Baptiste Poline, 2013. "Schizophrenia as a Network Disease: Disruption of Emergent Brain Function in Patients with Auditory Hallucinations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Ixandra Achitouv, 2025. "Dynamical analysis of financial stocks network: Improving forecasting using network properties," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(5), pages 1-23, May.
    18. Humaira Kamal Pasha, 2024. "Smart access and smart protection for welfare gain in Europe during COVID‐19: An empirical investigation using real‐time data," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 41-66, January.
    19. Wang, Zhuoyang & Chen, Guo & Hill, David J. & Dong, Zhao Yang, 2016. "A power flow based model for the analysis of vulnerability in power networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 460(C), pages 105-115.
    20. Bellingeri, Michele & Cassi, Davide & Vincenzi, Simone, 2014. "Efficiency of attack strategies on complex model and real-world networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 414(C), pages 174-180.
    21. Bech, Morten L. & Atalay, Enghin, 2010. "The topology of the federal funds market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(22), pages 5223-5246.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:4:p:823-840. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.