TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mobility in ten countries and associated perceived risk for all transport modes
AU - Barbieri, Diego Maria
AU - Lou, Baowen
AU - Passavanti, Marco
AU - Hui, Cang
AU - Hoff, Inge
AU - Lessa, Daniela Antunes
AU - Sikka, Gaurav
AU - Chang, Kevin
AU - Gupta, Akshay
AU - Fang, Kevin
AU - Banerjee, Arunabha
AU - Maharaj, Brij
AU - Lam, Louisa
AU - Ghasemi, Navid
AU - Naik, Bhaven
AU - Wang, Fusong
AU - Mirhosseini, Ali Foroutan
AU - Naseri, Sahra
AU - Liu, Zhuangzhuang
AU - Qiao, Yaning
AU - Tucker, Andrew
AU - Wijayaratna, Kasun
AU - Peprah, Prince
AU - Adomako, Solomon
AU - Yu, Lei
AU - Goswami, Shubham
AU - Chen, Hao
AU - Shu, Benan
AU - Hessami, Amir
AU - Abbas, Montasir
AU - Agarwal, Nithin
AU - Rashidi, Taha Hossein
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - The restrictive measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered sudden massive changes to travel behaviors of people all around the world. This study examines the individual mobility patterns for all transport modes (walk, bicycle, motorcycle, car driven alone, car driven in company, bus, subway, tram, train, airplane) before and during the restrictions adopted in ten countries on six continents: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the United States. This cross-country study also aims at understanding the predictors of protective behaviors related to the transport sector and COVID-19. Findings hinge upon an online survey conducted in May 2020 (N = 9,394). The empirical results quantify tremendous disruptions for both commuting and non-commuting travels, highlighting substantial reductions in the frequency of all types of trips and use of all modes. In terms of potential virus spread, airplanes and buses are perceived to be the riskiest transport modes, while avoidance of public transport is consistently found across the countries. According to the Protection Motivation Theory, the study sheds new light on the fact that two indicators, namely income inequality, expressed as Gini index, and the reported number of deaths due to COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, aggravate respondents’ perceptions. This research indicates that socio-economic inequality and morbidity are not only related to actual health risks, as well documented in the relevant literature, but also to the perceived risks. These findings document the global impact of the COVID-19 crisis as well as provide guidance for transportation practitioners in developing future strategies.
AB - The restrictive measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered sudden massive changes to travel behaviors of people all around the world. This study examines the individual mobility patterns for all transport modes (walk, bicycle, motorcycle, car driven alone, car driven in company, bus, subway, tram, train, airplane) before and during the restrictions adopted in ten countries on six continents: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the United States. This cross-country study also aims at understanding the predictors of protective behaviors related to the transport sector and COVID-19. Findings hinge upon an online survey conducted in May 2020 (N = 9,394). The empirical results quantify tremendous disruptions for both commuting and non-commuting travels, highlighting substantial reductions in the frequency of all types of trips and use of all modes. In terms of potential virus spread, airplanes and buses are perceived to be the riskiest transport modes, while avoidance of public transport is consistently found across the countries. According to the Protection Motivation Theory, the study sheds new light on the fact that two indicators, namely income inequality, expressed as Gini index, and the reported number of deaths due to COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, aggravate respondents’ perceptions. This research indicates that socio-economic inequality and morbidity are not only related to actual health risks, as well documented in the relevant literature, but also to the perceived risks. These findings document the global impact of the COVID-19 crisis as well as provide guidance for transportation practitioners in developing future strategies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100549136&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0245886
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0245886
M3 - Article
C2 - 33524042
AN - SCOPUS:85100549136
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 2
M1 - e0245886
ER -