ABSTRACT
Understanding different mechanisms in trip changes depending on transportation modes due to COVID-19 pandemic is the key to providing practical insights for healthy communities. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual-level travel behavior in Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea. Using smart card and private vehicle records, we explored different travel behaviors exhibited while using buses and private vehicles. An individual's travel behavior was represented in trip frequency, trip regularity, and trip distance and was compared weekly for about three months, including the initial period of pandemic. A significant decrease in trip frequency during non-peak hours on weekdays and during weekends indicates that people reduced non-mandatory trips more than commuter trips. This was also verified in that, as the number of infection cases increased, trip regularity with 24-hour intervals intensified. People maintained the size of their activity boundaries but reduced their daily trip distances. The interesting point is that private vehicle usage increased for shorter trip distances while bus usage dropped regardless of the ranges of trip distances under the pandemic. The findings provide evidence of possible inequality issues in transportation during the pandemic and can help make precautionary policies for future pandemics.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on car and bus usage and their relationships with land use and land price. Large-scale trip data of car and bus usage in Daejeon, South Korea, were tested. We made a trip-chain-level data set to analyze travel behavior based on activity-based travel volumes. Hexagonal cells were used to capture geographical explanatory variables, and a mixed-effect regression model was adopted to determine the impacts of COVID-19. The modeling outcomes demonstrated behavioral differences between associated with using cars and buses amid the pandemic. People responded to the pandemic by reducing their trips more intensively during the daytime and weekends. Moreover, they avoided crowded or shared spaces by reducing bus trips and trips toward commercial areas. In terms of social equity, trips of people living in wealthier areas decreased more than those of people living in lower-priced areas, especially trips by buses. The findings contribute to the previous literature by adding a fundamental reference for the different impacts of pandemics on two universal transportation modes.