ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic changed various aspects of our daily lives, including the way in which we travel and commute. Working from home has become significantly more popular since the beginning of the pandemic and is expected to remain a reality for many people even when COVID-19 no longer poses a threat. Decreased commuting trips may also have environmental benefits as people will be able to reduce their overall travel. Working from home may present an opportunity to accelerate the Scottish Government's 'Mission Zero for transport', which aims to decarbonise the transport sector by 2045, however, meeting this target also depends on restoring faith in public transport, which saw significant decreases in usage during the pandemic, and increasing other forms of sustainable travel (e.g., walking and cycling). In this study we investigate various aspects of Scottish residents' climate change and COVID-19 perceptions using survey data (n=1,050) collected in Scotland during January 2022. Quota restraints were enforced for age and gender to ensure the survey sample was approximately representative of the Scottish population. The survey also included a discrete choice experiment to investigate mode preferences for commuting trips in different working from home and COVID-19 risk scenarios. Our findings show that some people still need to be convinced that their travel choices can have an effect on climate change and the spread of infectious diseases. The discrete choice experiment showed that the use of cars for commuting is relatively consistent regardless of the working from home situation, however, bicycles become more popular in high working from home scenarios. As expected, the attractiveness of public transport decreases with increased COVID-19 risk and private modes become more popular.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
In March 2020, the UK and Scottish Governments imposed a lockdown restricting everyday life activities to only the most essential. These Governmental measures together with individual choices to refrain from travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic have had a profound effect on transport related activity. In the current investigation an online questionnaire was distributed to 994 Scottish residents in order to identify travel habits, attitudes and preferences during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and anticipated travel habits after the pandemic. Quota constraints were enforced for age, gender and household income to ensure the sample was representative of the Scottish population as a whole. Perceptions of risk, trust in information sources and compliance with COVID-19 regulations were determined together with changes in levels of life satisfaction and modal choice following the onset of COVID-19. In addition, survey responses were used to identify anticipated travel mode use in the future. Consideration was also given to the effects of COVID-19 on transport related lifestyle issues such as working from home, online shopping and the expectations of moving residences in the future. As part of the analysis, statistical models were developed to provide an insight into both the relationships between the levels of non compliance with COVID-19 regulations and demographic variables and the respondent attributes which might affect future public transport usage. In general, the study confirmed significant reductions in traffic activity, among respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic associated with walking, driving a car and either using a bus or train. The respondents also indicated that they anticipated they would continue to make less use of buses and trains at the end of the pandemic.