Estimating inter-regional mobility during disruption: Comparing and combining different data sources

A quantitative understanding of people's mobility patterns is crucial for many applications. However, it is difficult to accurately estimate mobility, in particular during disruption such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we investigate the use of multiple sources of data from mobile phones, road traffic sensors, and companies such as Google and Facebook in modelling mobility patterns, with the aim of estimating mobility flows in Finland in early 2020, before and during the disruption induced by the pandemic. We find that the highest accuracy is provided by a model that combines a past baseline from mobile phone data with up-to-date road traffic data, followed by the radiation and gravity models similarly augmented with traffic data. Our results highlight the usefulness of publicly available road traffic data in mobility modelling and, in general, pave the way for a data fusion approach to estimating mobility flows. © 2022 The Author(s)

Mobility and economic activity around the world during the Covid-19 crisis

This paper traces the relationship between quarterly estimates of economic activity and people's mobility during the Covid-19 crisis in a sample of 53 economies. Over time, the estimates of elasticity of value added with respect to mobility have been declining, to below 0.2 at the start of 2021, attesting to the gradual adjustment of global economic activity to social distancing. Yet this adjustment appears to be modest, with economic recovery driven primarily by greater mobility. The study highlights the limit to the extent to which economic costs of restricted movement of people can be reduced, with implications for public policy. The estimated relationships can also be effectively applied to economic forecasting during periods of reduced mobility. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Limited tourism: travel bubbles for a sustainable future

The new global context has heightened the need for the sustainable mobility and recovery of the tourism industry. This study analyses how travel bubbles can contribute towards the sustainability and reconstruction of the tourism industry. Several examples have emerged worldwide, manifesting the strong need to create ‘safe' routes to transform tourism. Through a theoretical approach and by drawing from previous research, official reports, and news media, this study analyses the rationale for travel bubbles and examines how they can support short-term responses to the pandemic and enhance long-term planning pertaining to tourism mobility for a sustainable future. It discusses the political, economic, psychological, socioeconomic, environmental, and hygiene impacts of travel bubbles. The study shows that sustainability can be achieved through a cooperative regional approach. It examines the challenges and opportunities of travel bubbles towards redeveloping tourism in neighbouring destinations and offers strategies to support sustainable tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as backyard tourism. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

INTERNATIONAL. The dilemma: International recruitment of nurses and midwives amid a global workforce shortage

The article addresses the global shortage of nurses and midwives. Topics discussed include the COVID-19 pandemic, the early retirement of nurses, and the international recruitment of nurses and midwives. Also mentioned are the emigration rates for native-born nurses, investment in nursing education, and the need for governments to commit more resources for workforce planning.

Self-reported use of technology by orientation and mobility clients in Australia and Malaysia before the COVID-19 pandemic

Since the 1960s, many electronic travel aids have been developed for people with low vision or blindness to improve their independent travel skills, but uptake of these specialist devices has been limited. This study investigated what technologies orientation and mobility (O&M) clients in Australia and Malaysia have, use, like, and want to support their travel, to inform technology research and development. This two-phase mixed-methods study surveyed O&M clients face-to-face in Malaysia (n = 9), and online in Australia (n = 50). Participants managed safe walking using a human guide, long cane, or guide dog when their vision was insufficient to see hazards, but a smartphone is now a standard travel aid in both Australia and Malaysia. Participants relied on smartphone accessibility features and identified 108 apps they used for travel: for planning (e.g., public transport timetables), sourcing information in transit (e.g., GPS location and directions, finding a taxi), sensory conversion (e.g., camera-to-voice, voice-to-text, video-to-live description), social connections (e.g., phone, email, Facebook), food (e.g., finding eateries, ordering online), and entertainment (e.g., music, games). They wanted to ‘carry less junk', and sought better accessibility features, consistency across platforms, and fast, reliable, real-time information that supports confident, non-visual travel, especially into unfamiliar places. © The Author(s) 2021.

Sensing Technologies for Crowd Management, Adaptation, and Information Dissemination in Public Transportation Systems: A Review

Management of crowd information in public transportation (PT) systems is crucial, both to foster sustainable mobility, by increasing the user's comfort and satisfaction during normal operation, as well as to cope with emergency situations, such as pandemic crises, as recently experienced with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) limitations. This article presents a taxonomy and review of sensing technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time crowd analysis, which can be adopted in the different segments of the PT system (buses/trams/trains, railway/metro stations, and bus/tram stops). To discuss such technologies in a clear systematic perspective, we introduce a reference architecture for crowd management, which employs modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to: 1) monitor and predict crowding events;2) implement crowd-aware policies for real-time and adaptive operation control in intelligent transportation systems (ITSs);and 3) inform in real time the users of the crowding status of the PT system, by means of electronic displays installed inside vehicles or at bus/tram stops/stations and/or by mobile transport applications. It is envisioned that the innovative crowd management functionalities enabled by ICT/IoT sensing technologies can be incrementally implemented as an add-on to state-of-the-art ITS platforms, which are already in use by major PT companies operating in urban areas. Moreover, it is argued that, in this new framework, additional services can be delivered to the passengers, such as online ticketing, vehicle access control and reservation in severely crowded situations, and evolved crowd-aware route planning. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

Changes in mobility patterns and the switching roles of second homes as a result of the first wave of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has already had significant impact on tourist flows worldwide. The requirements of safe models of tourism in the time of COVID-19, avoiding crowded localities and providing individual types of accommodation, can largely be met in second homes. This study aims to examine whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions impacted the usage patterns of second homes in terms of: (1) the number of visits and length of stay, (2) the purpose of the second-home utilisation. An integral part of the study was to recognise how these new and existing im/mobilities were determined by a range of personal, social, contextual, and relational factors. The data collected from direct interviews and online surveys was tested using sign and Wilcoxon tests, while the interactive classification tree (C&RT) model was used to explain the reasons for changing or maintaining an existing second-home usage pattern. The research results showed that for most second-home owners their home-usage pattern remained the same as in 2019. If it changed, it was more common to extend the stay by moving in, working at a distance, or commuting to work, rather than to shorten the stay at the second home. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Cycling in an ‘ordinary city': A practice theory approach to supporting a modal shift

There has long been evidence of the benefit of a modal shift toward cycling can bring to meeting several pressing urban challenges including ill-health, climate change, and poor air quality. In the wake of COVID-19, policy-makers have identified a modal shift toward cycling as part of the solution to mobility challenges introduced by social distancing measures. However, beyond exemplar areas, cycling has been largely characterized by a stubbornly-low modal share. In this paper, we use the ‘ordinary city'–in cycling terms–of Liverpool as a case study to understand this. We apply practice theory in doing so, finding the provision of materials for cycling is the key factor in supporting a modal shift. Not only do they provide the means to support the practice of cycling in the city, but they also have a key role in shaping individuals perceptions of, and the skills required to cycle. We then reflect upon the utility of practice theory in understanding the patterns of everyday life, finding it was particularly well suited in understanding the interactions between different factors which influence modal choice. We go on to identify practical challenges in its application within our analysis raising questions around an inconsistent analysis of influential factors including ‘driver behavior' and ‘political commitment'. We suggest how this might be overcome, through the isolation of such factors within a category of ‘action of others', this we argue means the findings in this paper have broad relevance to researchers and policy-makers alike. © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The Weight Women Carry: Research on the Visible and Invisible Baggage in Suitcase Trade between China and Africa

Grounded in ethnographic observations, this article offers a commentary on the visible and invisible dynamics of mobility between China and West and Central Africa. It follows the transnational trajectories of African trader women and takes stock of some of the weight that these women shoulder during trips where goods and money are set in motion. The materiality of the transported consumer items shapes traders' experiences of mobility and immobility. Trader women also must carry immaterial baggage relating to what their mobile, racialized female bodies represent to various people they encounter. Specifically, the Chinese state and general public view their bodies as threats to social order and, in the context of Ebola and COVID-19, as threats to public health. Our analysis also attends to the weight that female scholars metaphorically carry while conducting research. We devote space to addressing our presence as White researchers, thus attending to methodological opaqueness alongside issues of hidden geographies in transnational trade and migration. © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Systematic review of short-term study abroad outcomes and an agenda for future research

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to serve as a comprehensive review of short-term study abroad (STSA) outcomes to help guide future STSA and study abroad (SA) scholars and practitioners in the further development of the field. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is the first comprehensive and systematic review of all outcomes of STSA programs within the SA body of research based on 156 papers. Findings: The study provides the first comprehensive classification of all previously studied STSA outcomes (85) into six categories: cross-cultural outcomes, STSA pedagogy outcomes, personal and professional outcomes;language outcomes;teacher and faculty outcomes;and other outcomes. Distinct sub-categories are identified that provide insights on the current landscape of STSA and related research. Research limitations/implications: This study makes a significant contribution to the theory and practice of SA, and among the key contributions are a systematic understanding of the scale and scope of STSA outcomes;insights on the most efficient design of future STSA programs;and an expanded understanding of the role and importance of STSA programs in international education. Furthermore, a comprehensive STSA outcomes map develops an extensive research agenda. Social implications: While the COVID-19 pandemic currently limits the opportunities for STSA, given its previous popularity, the authors envisage a strong return in the coming years of this form of affordable and valuable global learning. STSA programs have become an important component of higher education and which require considerable resources from participants and educational institutions alike. Therefore, further research is needed to understand the impacts of STSA programs and to further improve program design. Such research will serve to better inform both academic understanding of the phenomenon and educational practice. Originality/value: The study provides the first comprehensive classification of all studied STSA outcomes. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Hostel frictions: backpackers living under lockdown

This article focuses on the ‘frictions' felt by international backpackers who have been stuck and locked-down while they were living and working in regional Australian hostels. Backpackers play a central role as both tourists and migrant workers in Australia, where they undertake significant periods of required farm work in order to extend their visas. They are a highly visible and long-standing mobile population in Australia and are relatively under-studied given their significance to tourism cultures and economies. Based on forty semi-structured interviews with backpackers living and working in Bundaberg, Australia, we explore how experiences of immobilities prior to and during the pandemic restrictions manifest as experiences of escalating and alleviating frictions. Friction is understood as an embodied and relational feeling of tension produced by a shortage of space. Friction has always been a feature of hostel living but prolonged lockdowns and inconsistent health messaging escalated frictions into open conflict. We propose that the concept of friction sits between mobilities and immobilities, and that particular mobility contexts exacerbate such frictions. The article contributes to ongoing discussions on pandemic immobilities and the interwoven concerns of tourism, migration, and labour mobilities. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The mitigating effect of masks on the spread of Covid-19.

We use US state-level data from early in the pandemic -March 15, 2020 to November 15, 2020- to estimate the effects of mask mandates and compliance with mandates on Covid-19 cases and deaths, conditional on mobility. A one-standard-deviation increase in mobility is associated with a 6 to 20 percent increase in the cases growth rate; a mask mandate can offset about one third of this increase with our most conservative estimates. Also, mask mandates are more effective in states with higher compliance. Given realized mobility, our estimates imply that total infections in the US on November 15, 2020 would have been 23.7 to 30.4 percent lower if a national mask mandate had been enacted on May 15, 2020. This reduction in cases translates to a 25 to 35 percent smaller decline in aggregate hours worked over the same period relative to a 2019 baseline.

Changes in Older Adults' Frequency of Going Outside between 2020 and 2021: Associations with Health Status and Environmental Factors.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the changes in the frequency of going outside among U.S. older adults between 2020 and 2021 (post-COVID vaccine) and correlates of those changes. METHODS: We used the 2019-2021 National Health and Aging Trend Study (NHATS) (N = 3,063, age 70+) and multinomial logistic regression to analyze associations of increased and decreased frequencies in going outside with physical, psychosocial, and cognitive health, environmental (COVID concerns and transportation) factors, and social media use as the independent variables. RESULTS: In 2021 compared to 2020, 13% and 16% of those age 70+ reported increased and decreased frequencies, respectively. Increased frequency was associated with social media use. Decreased frequency was associated with poor physical health, depression/anxiety, and perceived memory decline. COVID concerns and transportation problems, as well as female gender, age 90+, and being non-Hispanic Black, were also significant correlates of decreased frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Most U.S. adults age 70+ appear to have resumed their 2019 level of frequency of going outside in 2021 after the COVID vaccines became available; however, 16% reported decreased frequency of going outside in 2021 compared to 2020. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Older adults with physical, mental, and cognitive health challenges need help to increase their frequency of going outside.

Residential mobility predicts COVID-19 and seasonal flu vaccination behaviors in the United States.

Aim: Vaccination is one of the most effective strategies to contain the transmission of infectious diseases; however, people's intentions and behavior for vaccination vary across different regions and countries around the world. It is not clear how socioecological factors such as residential mobility influence people's vaccination behaviors for infectious diseases. Methods: We analyzed public data on residential mobility and vaccination rates for COVID-19 and seasonal flu in the United States and explored how residential mobility in the previous year influenced vaccination rates for COVID-19 and seasonal flu (2011-2018) across 50 states of the US. The data were accessed and analyzed in 2021. Results: Study 1 demonstrated that collective-level residential mobility predicted COVID-19 vaccination rates across the United States (B = -168.162, 95% CI [-307.097, -29.227], adjusted R 2 = 0.091, p = 0.019). Study 2 corroborated this finding by documenting that collective-level residential mobility predicted vaccination rates for seasonal flu from 2011 to 2018 across the United States (B = -0.789, 95% CI = [-1.018, -0.56], adjusted R 2 = 0.222, p < 0.001). The link between residential mobility and vaccination behavior was robust after controlling relevant variables, including collectivism, cultural tightness-looseness, and sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: Our research demonstrated that residential mobility is an important socioecological factor that influences people's vaccination behaviors for COVID-19 and seasonal flu. The results enrich our understanding of the socioecological factors that influence vaccination behaviors and have implications for developing tailored interventions to promote vaccination during pandemics of infectious diseases.

Opening of hotels and ski facilities: Impact on mobility, spending, and Covid-19 outcomes.

This paper investigates how reopening hotels and ski facilities in Poland impacted tourism spending, mobility, and COVID-19 outcomes. We used administrative data from a government program that subsidizes travel to show that the policy increased the consumption of tourism services in ski resorts. By leveraging geolocation data from Facebook, we showed that ski resorts experienced a significant influx of tourists, increasing the number of local users by up to 50%. Furthermore, we confirmed an increase in the probability of meetings between pairs of users from distanced locations and users from tourist and non-tourist areas. As the policy impacted travel and gatherings, we then analyzed its effect on the diffusion of COVID-19. We found that counties with ski facilities experienced more infections after the reopening. Moreover, counties strongly connected to the ski resorts during the reopening had more subsequent cases than weakly connected counties.

Street Experiments and COVID-19: Challenges, Responses and Systemic Change.

Cities have introduced street experiments, among others, in order to cope with the urgent health challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are primarily intended to allow people to move safely in urban spaces according to physical distancing requirements. It has been suggested that street experiments have the potential to not only respond to pressing needs, but to also trigger systemic change in mobility. This paper explores urban case studies and demonstrates how pandemic-induced street experiments provide a solution to specific challenges to mobility and public space. There are, however, issues concerning equity and citizen participation. Finally, we find that pandemic-induced street experiments have a higher acceptance among the public and authorities, a more permanent character and a greater embeddedness in long-term planning agendas. The paper concludes that the pandemic stimulated the introduction of street experiments and fostered their potential to enable systemic change in urban mobility.

Mobility and the spatial spread of sars-cov-2 in Belgium.

We analyse and mutually compare time series of covid-19 -related data and mobility data across Belgium's 43 arrondissements (NUTS 3). In this way, we reach three conclusions. First, we could detect a decrease in mobility during high-incidence stages of the pandemic. This is expressed as a sizeable change in the average amount of time spent outside one's home arrondissement, investigated over five distinct periods, and in more detail using an inter-arrondissement "connectivity index" (CI). Second, we analyse spatio-temporal covid-19-related hospitalisation time series, after smoothing them using a generalise additive mixed model (GAMM). We confirm that some arrondissements are ahead of others and morphologically dissimilar to others, in terms of epidemiological progression. The tools used to quantify this are time-lagged cross-correlation (TLCC) and dynamic time warping (DTW), respectively. Third, we demonstrate that an arrondissement's CI with one of the three identified first-outbreak arrondissements is correlated to a substantial local excess mortality some five to six weeks after the first outbreak. More generally, we couple results leading to the first and second conclusion, in order to demonstrate an overall correlation between CI values on the one hand, and TLCC and DTW values on the other. We conclude that there is a strong correlation between physical movement of people and viral spread in the early stage of the sars-cov-2 epidemic in Belgium, though its strength weakens as the virus spreads.

Role of vehicular emissions in urban air quality: The COVID-19 lockdown experiment.

While the decrease in air pollutant concentration during the COVID-19 lockdown is well documented, neighborhood-scale and multi-city data have not yet been explored systematically to derive a generalizable quantitative link to the drop in vehicular traffic. To bridge this gap, high spatial resolution air quality and georeferenced traffic datasets were compiled for the city of London during three weeks with significant differences in traffic. The London analysis was then augmented with a meta-analysis of lower-resolution studies from 12 other cities. The results confirm that the improvement in air quality can be partially attributed to the drop of traffic density, and more importantly quantifies the elasticity (0.71 for NO2 & 0.56 for PM2.5) of their linkages. The findings can also inform on the future impacts of the ongoing shift to electric vehicles and micro-mobility on urban air quality.

Investigating impacts of COVID-19 on urban mobility and emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted human activities in a way never documented in modern history. The prevention policies and measures have abruptly changed well-established urban mobility patterns. In this context, we exploit different sources of urban mobility data to gain insights into the effects of restrictive policies on the daily mobility and exhaust emissions in pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Manhattan, the most densely populated borough in New York City, is chosen as the study area. We collect data generated by taxis, sharing bikes, and road detectors between 2019 and 2021, and estimate exhaust emissions using the COPERT (Computer Programme to calculate Emissions from Road Transport) model. A comparative analysis is conducted to identify important changes in urban mobility and emission patterns, with a particular focus on the lockdown period in 2020 and its counterparts in 2019 and 2021. The results of the paper fuel the discussion on urban resilience and policy-making in a post pandemic world.

How Can Music Engagement Address Loneliness? A Qualitative Study and Thematic Framework in the Context of Australia's COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns.

Social isolation and loneliness are serious public health concerns. Music engagement can strengthen social connections and reduce loneliness in some contexts, although how this occurs is not well understood; research suggests that music's capacity to manipulate perceptions of time and space is relevant. This study adopted a qualitative perspective to examine how music engagement shaped the experiences of residents of Victoria, Australia, during conditions of restricted social contact during the lockdowns of 2020. Semi-structured interviews explored participants' lived musical experiences while giving focus to perceptions of time and space (e.g., how music helped restructure home and workspaces in response to lockdown regulations, or punctuate time where older routines were no longer viable). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the interview transcripts identified five themes representing the key findings: (1) a super-ordinate theme of perceived control, which comprises four themes: (2) dynamic connection; (3) identity; (4) mobility; (5) presence. Each theme describes one generalised aspect of the way music engagement shaped participants' perceptions of time and space during lockdown and supported their processes of adaptation to and coping with increased social isolation. The authors argue that these findings may inform the way music can be used to address loneliness in everyday life.