Planning cities for pandemics: A review of urban and transport planning lessons from COVID-19

For the past years, the world has been facing one of the worst pandemics of modern times. The COVID-19 outbreak joined a long list of infectious diseases that turned pandemic, and it will most likely leave scars and change how we live, plan, and manage the urban space and its infrastructures. Many fields of science were called into action to mitigate the impacts of this pandemic, including spatial and transport planning. Given the large number of articles recently published in these research areas, it is time to carry out an overview of the knowledge produced, synthesising, systematising, and critically analysing it. This article aims to review how the urban layout, accessibility and mobility influence the spread of a virus in an urban environment and what solutions exist or have been proposed to create a more effective and less intrusive response to pandemics. This review is split into two avenues of research: spatial planning and transport planning, including the direct and indirect impact on the environment and sustainability. © 2023 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Comparing COVID spread to mask-wearing rates in public transportation using AI detection

The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in several changes worldwide. In particular, border closures and economic stagnation have significantly affected societies. Although the implementation of preventive measures has improved the pandemic scenario in several countries, the effectiveness of vaccines has decreased with the emergence of mutant viruses. With this background, the use of masks is considered the best method for preventing the spread of the virus. Notably, public transportation is closely related to socioeconomic activities, and the spread of infectious diseases is more likely in closed, dense, and congested areas. Moreover, the probability of infection during public transportation also depends on the proportion of commuters wearing masks. Based on the closed-circuit television footage of various public transportation spaces, the number of mask wearers can be analysed using artificial intelligence deep learning, and the probability of COVID-19 spread can be predicted by determining the proportion of mask wearers among the commuters. With this background, in this study, the importance of masks in controlling the spread of the virus is confirmed. In conclusion, appropriate measures can be implemented by determining the probability of infection according to the mask-wearing rate in public transportation spaces. © 2023 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Relational analysis between economic activities and mobility during the COVID

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has significantly affected daily lives since its declaration as a Pandemic in March 2020 by the WHO. Studies in Korea to interpret the relationship between COVID-19 and transportation show that there has been a decrease in public transportation use, and a significant decrease when a widespread infection occurs. In addition, COVID-19 has affected the commercial environment, particularly the number of people using commercial districts where the use of retail outlets decreased significantly. This study analyses the disease-vectors (spread factors) of COVID-19 in terms of transportation demand, the revitalisation of commercial districts, living populations, and socioeconomic indicators. It attempts to identify different infection factors for each district in Seoul using a causal analysis methodology PLS-SEM (Partial Least-Squares Structural Equation Modelling) such that COVID-19 can be managed continuously with the aim to provide a foundation for pre-emptive actions by adjusting or controlling specific influencing factors pertaining to infectious diseases. © 2023 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Travel Plans

Travel Plans are a mechanism for delivering a package of transport measures targeted at a specific site by an organization, such as an employer, school, shopping, or sports center, intended to deliver transport and wider goals to the organization and society as a whole. Introduced from the 1980s to 1990s in the United States, Netherlands, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan, when consistently applied, Travel Plans can usefully reduce car use. The best employer Travel Plans in the United Kingdom secured a reduction in car use of between 10% and 20% and in the United States mandatory Travel Plans have in several cases cut car use by 30%. Despite the potential promised by the concept, Travel Plans never really established themselves as a mainstream part of transport policy. They became marginalized within the traditional transport planning structures as they do not map onto the existing practices and skill sets of engineering-led transport planning approaches. By 2010, they had largely fallen into disuse. However, in recent years the growth of data generating and analytics companies led to travel becoming part of organization management. Although not labeled as "Travel Plans,” the purpose of travel planning is returning in a form that matches institutional structures. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Does traffic really disappear when roads are closed?

This paper describes two studies that aimed to explore the impacts of pedestrianisation or road closures on traffic displacement, travel behaviour and the phenomenon of ‘disappearing traffic'. The first study surveyed residents whose travel routes were affected by a small-scale localised pedestrianisation scheme in the centre of a town. The second measured the traffic impacts of a temporary closure of a strategic bridge in a city centre. In the first case, the pedestrianisation produced no change in the modal shares of travel of residents. Drivers continued to drive to the same locations by longer routes. In the second case, the closure caused some traffic displacement and increased journey times but also reduced traffic volumes in both the immediate area and across the city. This paper concludes by discussing the remaining knowledge gaps on disappearing traffic, made more pressing by the decisions of authorities to reallocate road space during the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis.

Pop-Up Cycleways: How a COVID-19 "Policy Window" Changed the Relationship Between Urban Planning, Transport, and Health in Sydney, Australia

Government agencies are increasingly interested in accelerating cycleway infrastructure to achieve co-benefits of increased physical activity, transport efficiencies, and reduced greenhouse emissions. Comprehensive evidence supports this policy direction, yet delivery of infrastructure in many cities remains slow, fragmented, and wrought with political struggle. Political forces, rather than a lack of evidence, appear to be the key challenge to implementing active transport policies. In this study we used Kingdon's multiple stream theory to examine the policy development process that led to the rapid installation of pop-up cycleways in Sydney (Australia) in response to COVID-19. Significant disruption to regular transport services induced by the COVID-19 pandemic created a policy window where political expediency resulted in rapid implementation of active transport–friendly policy and legislative changes. The policy realignment occurred due to increased government agency collaboration and the elevation of cycling to an unprecedented level of priority within government. This study shows the value of ongoing commitment to evidence-based policy solutions to clearly identified urban challenges despite institutional barriers, the need to develop political alliances for when opportunities for policy change arise, and the need to swiftly capitalize on these policy windows when they open. This case study provides insights for cycling policy development in jurisdictions traditionally burdened by skepticism and reluctance to implement bicycle infrastructure by revealing the multivalent nature of policy adoption. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of the American Planning Association is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Climate Change and Health, Related to Transport

Transport-related carbon emissions have a wide range of detrimental health effects for the global population. At the same time, they play a key role in the aggravation of climate change which, in itself, is a main threat to human livelihoods and wellbeing. Although the COVID-19 pandemic brought a temporary and unexpected decrease in emissions, maintaining these positive effects, and effectively and permanently decarbonising the sector, still constitutes a substantial challenge, as it requires a radical reconfiguration of lifestyles and cities, with a major reduction in car dependency, long-distance travel, carbon-intensive import-export markets, etc. This chapter explores the strong links between existing high-carbon transport-systems, climate change, and human health in a negative, self-reinforcing cycle, the risks we face if no action is taken and the possibilities we still have to break this negative cycle. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The microsimulation modeling as a tool for transport policies assessment: An application to a real case study

Nowadays, alongside the traditional statistical and semi-probabilistic methods, through which it is possible to obtain an estimate of the road network performances whatever its geometric-functional configuration, the use of microscopic traffic simulation techniques is widespread, allowing a "dynamic"approach to the problem (e.g. evaluation of infrastructural interventions, traffic management, etc.). The traffic micro-simulation models are able to analyze and process, instant by instant, the movement of single vehicles on the network, on the basis of laws related to the vehicle movement and the driving behavior. Based on this premise, this study proposes an overview of traffic simulation models, with a focus on the advantages of microsimulation. In this direction, the paper presents an application to a real case study in the city of Catania (Italy), in order to evaluate the impact of different traffic regulation strategies in terms of level of service (LoS), road emissions and fuel consuption through scenario evaluations. First results demonstrates that traffic modeling and the implementation of microsimulation tools represent a valid support for the transport policies assessment, providing a basis for future research steps that will address the simulation of larger areas, through before and after analysis and the evaluation of different key performance indicators. © 2022 Author(s).

Optimal urban planning through the best–worst method: bicycle lanes in Palermo, Sicily

Since 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, planners and designers have proposed numerous changes for urban spaces and mobility concepts to comply with governments' anti-contamination restrictions. Several European cities have implemented strategies for developing cycling, favouring the design of temporary (pop-up) or permanent cycle lanes and state incentives to purchase bicycles and electric micro-mobility vehicles. However, existing research suggests that design optimisation must pursue specific geometric, functional and safety standards for cyclists and space sharers (pedestrians/cars). It is thus necessary to analyse the perceptions of citizens and commuters for optimisation of the planning and design of these infrastructures. A multi-criteria evaluation was used to determine optimal infrastructure schemes (temporary and permanent) for the metropolis of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. First, three groups of cyclists (citizens, technicians and commuters) were selected. Then, applying the best-worst method, a series of design alternatives were evaluated by the target groups. The results showed a correlation between different types of users in terms of those who live in the city compared with commuters in the city for the first time. The results of this work lay the foundation for improved planning and design strategies in sustainable urban mobility plans and the Italian Biciplan guidelines.

Is cycling infrastructure in London safe and equitable? Evidence from the cycling infrastructure database

Introduction: We describe and analyse a new, open dataset of surveyed cycling infrastructure in London UK. We demonstrate its potential to contribute to research and evidence-based policy development through a spatial analysis of infrastructure provision in London, before evaluating administrative boroughs on their infrastructure mix and compliance with UK Cycle Infrastructure Design Standards. Methods: We processed and cleaned the 233,596 records in the London Cycling Infrastructure Database (CID) that contains nine infrastructure types. To support comparison between London boroughs, infrastructure provision was normalised to borough area, population size and level of commuter cycling. We generated variables capturing cyclist separation from motor vehicles and estimated cycle lane compliance for such segregation against design standards. Results: Each CID record contains the infrastructure survey date, spatial location, infrastructure -specific variables and accompanying photographs. Traffic calming assets are numerous and distributed throughout London. Cyclist signals, crossings, Advanced Stop Lanes and cycle lanes and tracks are less numerous and more commonly seen in inner rather than outer London. Normalisation by area and population did not change these spatial patterns. Six percent of on -road cycle lane length is physically segregated from vehicles. Estimated compliance with UK design standards was notably higher for inner London boroughs with 66% exceeding mean compliance compared to just 24% of outer London boroughs. Conclusions: In this first systematic description and analysis of the CID we have demonstrated its potential to quantitively and qualitatively compare infrastructure and a method to estimate compliance against design standards. We found that cycling infrastructure is not distributed equally across London and may not be of the quality that provides safe space for cycling. Such datasets are critical assets to evaluate infrastructure and guide health and transport policies.

Changing transport planning objectives during the Covid-19 lockdowns: Actions taken and lessons learned for enhancing sustainable urban mobility planning.

Whilst there is research on how Covid-19 impacted travel demand and transport business, little attention has been paid on how Covid-19 has affected authorities' transport planning priorities and the actions taken to protect the public while travelling. This paper attempts to shed light on: a) how the transport planning priorities changed during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020/2021, and b) how the planning phases of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) framework can be strengthened to support a more resilient emergency planning environment. To address these questions, an online questionnaire was designed followed up by personal interviews from selected European cities. Data collection took place in November and December 2020, when most European countries were in lockdowns. Thirteen public authorities participated in the online questionnaire, while nine out of them were further interviewed. A mixed methods approach is used to analyse the quantitative and qualitative data and bring the results together to assess how SUMP priorities have changed. The results showed that the priority planning objectives were different in the period during the 2020/2021 lockdowns compared to the period before that. Public transport system planning was a priority in both periods, while planning for shared mobility and Mobility as a Service was further prioritised in the 2020/21 lockdowns. The main reasons for prioritising specific planning objectives were to secure public health, minimise environmental impact, support economic recovery and address social equity. The changes in the priority of planning objectives were also diverse between smaller and larger urban areas. Most of the actions adopted to accommodate the prioritised planning objectives were already defined before Covid-19, indicating that the lockdowns have acted as an accelerator of specific existing planning objectives.

Skip-Stop Strategy Patterns optimization to enhance mass transit operation under physical distancing policy due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

After the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, all public transport, including urban rail transit, inevitably adopted a vigorous physical-distancing policy to prevent the disease from spreading among passengers. Adoption of this measure resulted in a substantial reduction in train service capability and required control of the risk contact exposure duration. Thus, this paper proposes the Skip-Stop Strategy Patterns (3S-P) decision-support model to incorporate social distancing constraints in train operations. The 3S-P model is a two-stage, multi-objective optimization model for scheduling train skip-stop patterns to satisfy the study's two main objectives of minimizing the average passenger travel time and unserved passengers. In the proposed model, the first optimization identifies the optimal train skip-stop patterns, while the second assigns these patterns to establish an hourly train schedule. The paper's case study uses data from the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) SkyTrain Silom Line in Bangkok, Thailand and considers the 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 m social distancing schemes. The results reveal that the optimal train skip-stop patterns are superior to the all-stop alternative with, on average, a 13.4% faster travel time at the same level of unserved passengers. Furthermore, the non-dominated schedules from the second optimization decrease the numbers of unserved passengers given equal average passenger travel times.

Pop-Up Cycleways How a COVID-19 "Policy Window" Changed the Relationship Between Urban Planning, Transport, and Health in Sydney, Australia

Problem, research strategy, and findings Government agencies are increasingly interested in accelerating cycleway infrastructure to achieve co-benefits of increased physical activity, transport efficiencies, and reduced greenhouse emissions. Comprehensive evidence supports this policy direction, yet delivery of infrastructure in many cities remains slow, fragmented, and wrought with political struggle. Political forces, rather than a lack of evidence, appear to be the key challenge to implementing active transport policies. In this study we used Kingdon's multiple stream theory to examine the policy development process that led to the rapid installation of pop-up cycleways in Sydney (Australia) in response to COVID-19. Takeaway for practice Significant disruption to regular transport services induced by the COVID-19 pandemic created a policy window where political expediency resulted in rapid implementation of active transport-friendly policy and legislative changes. The policy realignment occurred due to increased government agency collaboration and the elevation of cycling to an unprecedented level of priority within government. This study shows the value of ongoing commitment to evidence-based policy solutions to clearly identified urban challenges despite institutional barriers, the need to develop political alliances for when opportunities for policy change arise, and the need to swiftly capitalize on these policy windows when they open. This case study provides insights for cycling policy development in jurisdictions traditionally burdened by skepticism and reluctance to implement bicycle infrastructure by revealing the multivalent nature of policy adoption.

Building Emergent Cycling Infrastructure During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Zapopan, México

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to strict measures intended to limit people's movement and slow viral spread. The subsequent need for social distancing when traveling has driven many cities to reduce public transport services, as urban residents simultaneously stay at home and avoid crowded spaces. As a result, cities are turning to cycling to meet the mobility needs of their inhabitants, particularly those who lack access to a private vehicle. Infrastructure plays a critical role in encouraging cycling by protecting cyclists and providing safe and comfortable conditions for users of various confidence levels. Due to the pandemic, this infrastructure has been rapidly constructed, in many cases, as pop-up or temporary installations. In this article, we present and examine the design methods and community response to an emergent bike lane along Avenida Guadalupe in Zapopan, México during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this examination, the paper distills and highlights the key features of a successful emergent bike lane in the urban Global South and identifies gaps in need of filling. The emergent intervention is 4.2 km and includes a number of traffic calming elements such as bollards and markings, connecting the peripheral part of the city to the existing cycle infrastructure. This case study shall contribute to a greater understanding of emergency mobility planning practices during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future directions for the expansion of cycling infrastructure and networks, especially in Latin America and the broader Global South. Copyright © 2022 Ohlund, El-Samra, Amezola, Soto Morfín, López Zaragoza and Aguilar Gónzalez.

Adapting Urban Transport Planning to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrated Fermatean Fuzzy Model.

The critical worldwide problem of adapting urban transport planning to COVID-19 is for the first time comprehensively addressed and solved in this study. It primarily aims to help transport planners increase the resilience of transport systems. Firstly, a multi-level decision-making hierarchy structure based on four main criteria and 17 sub-criteria is introduced for relevant stakeholders to provide a practical framework for assessing existing transport plans. Then, a three-stage integrated Fermatean fuzzy model for adapting urban transport planning to the pandemic is presented. The model hybridizes the method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) and combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) method into a unique methodological framework under the Fermatean fuzzy environment. A case study provides decision-making guidelines on how to adapt transport plans to COVID-19 in the real-world context of Belgrade, Serbia. The research findings show that the pandemic significantly changed the priorities of transport planning strategies and measures. "Non-motorized travel" is now the best alternative since its numerous short-term measures lead to better transport service. The major advantages of the introduced model are higher flexibility and a more precise fusion of experts' preference information. The integrated Fermatean fuzzy model could be used for adapting other emerging problems to COVID-19.

Exploring the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in travel behaviour: A qualitative study.

During the COVID-19 crisis, a series of measures were taken to restrict travel and social activities outside the home in order to curb the pandemic and ameliorate its negative effects. These unprecedented measures have had a profound impact on the number and purposes of trips and modes of travel. In China, although the pandemic is now generally under control and transport availability has returned to nearly normal, the extent of the changes in travel behaviour wrought during and after the pandemic still remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the differences in individual travel behaviours during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, using Huzhou as an example. Semi-structured interviews were used to examine the influence of COVID-19 on the travel behaviour and perceptions of different groups. The results indicate that, initially, travel demand was greatly reduced. Second, decreased travel reduced participation in activities, which can have adverse effects on people's health as well as their subjective well-being. Third, the degree and duration of such impacts varied from person to person. Students, lower income cohorts, groups living in small communities with insufficient green spaces, and those working in tourism, catering, informal businesses and transport-related sectors were more vulnerable than others. Policymakers, urban and transport planners should therefore pay attention to the social inequities that arise from unequal access to transport and heterogeneity between individuals. Additionally, public transport systems require further development to promote social cohesion.

Will Covid-19 put the public back in public transport? A UK perspective.

Covid-19 has had a major impact on public transport systems across the world. Public financial support has been needed to maintain services in the face of drastically reduced ridership and adjustment to the need for social distancing. This paper explores the challenge this poses to current methods of delivery of public transport services and argues that a simple return to the status quo is unlikely as public transport adjusts to a new normal of more home working and fear of crowded spaces. In turn this impacts most on the transport disadvantaged. The paper argues that this may spell the end of the prevailing model of a deregulated competitive public transport that has prevailed in the United Kingdom and require a major rethinking of the way to provide an efficient and effective transport system. Such a rethink will depend on understanding the interplay of private and social norms and building public trust.

Route guidance ranking procedures with human perception consideration for personalized public transport service.

The use of smartphone applications (apps) to acquire real time and readily available journey planning information is becoming instinctive behavior by public transport (PT) users. Through the apps, a passenger not only seeks a path from origin to destination, but a satisfactory path that caters to the passenger's preferences at the desired time of travel. Essentially, apps attempt to provide a means of personalized PT service. As the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic take form and infiltrate human and environmental interactions, passenger preference personalization will likely include avoiding risks of infection or contagious contact. The personal preferences are enabled by multiple attributes associated with alternative PT routes. For instance, preferences can be connected to attributes of time, cost, and convenience. This work establishes a personalized PT service, as an adjustment to current design frameworks, by integrating user app experience with operators' data sources and operations modeling. The work proceeds to focus on its key component: the personalized route guidance methodology. In addition to using the existing shortest path or k-weighted shortest path method, this study develops a novel, lexicographical shortest path method, considering a just noticeable difference (JND). The method adopts lexicographical ordering to capture passenger preferences for different PT attributes following Ernst Weber's law of human perception threshold. However, a direct application of Weber's law violates the axiom of transitivity required for an implementable algorithm, and thus, a revised method is developed with proven algorithms for ranking different paths. The differences between the three route-guidance methods and the effects of the JND perception threshold on the order of the alternative PT routes are demonstrated with an example. The developments were examined in a case study by simulation on the Copenhagen PT network. The results show that using the JND method reduces the value/cost of the most important attributes. Identical robust results are attained when JND parameters are not specified and default values are used. The latter may apply for the future with a mixture of specified and default preference input values. Finally, the computation time indicates a favorable potential for real-life applications. It is believed that the consideration of human threshold perception will encourage decision makers to establish new criteria to comply with this.