Impacts of COVID-19 on Means of Transport Choice: Cars and Cyclists Monitoring

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic caused vast changes in all areas of peoples' lives, especially in the transportation field. This study is mainly focused on Třebíč town and also the Czech Republic as a whole, with a goal to compare data and find correlation and causation. Data used in this comparison includes the number of active cases of COVID-19, number of cars and cyclists and also weather conditions. The focal point of the study is the contrast and comparison in the usage of certain types of transport based on varying aspects, mainly the impact of COVID-19. As the pandemic grew stronger or weaker, so did the volumes of cyclists, pedestrians and cars. Data was collected by automatic counters in Třebíč town and also some data was collected by national agencies, such as Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic. All of the data was gathered from the pre-covid time to the present with some minor gaps. The study shows distinctive rise of cycling in year 2020, as people were afraid of catching the disease. In the year 2021 people became less afraid as the vaccination rates increased and the numbers of people were quite similar to pre- times. We can see that the pandemic had an immediate impact on traffic distribution and human behavior. After the end of the pandemic, it can be assumed that human behavior will never return to its original state. © 2022 IEEE.