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Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainable Mobility

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2024) | Viewed by 6578

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Group of Railways and Transportation Engineering, Departament of Civil Engineering, University of A Coruña, ES-15071 A Coruña, Spain
Interests: transport planning; urban and metropolitan mobility management; urban transport systems; transport demand models; railways

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Guest Editor
Group of Railways and Transportation Engineering, Departament of Civil Engineering, University of A Coruña, ES-15071 A Coruña, Spain
Interests: transit operation and demand; bus with high level of service; sustainable mobility; light rail; tram-train
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on inter-urban, urban, and metropolitan mobility. During the first phases of restrictions, it led to the significant reduction of transit use and traffic flow. The following phases, when activities were resumed gradually, showed an unequal recovery for the different transport modes, making apparent the lack of trust on transit modes and a shift to individual active modes, as well as the disproportionate use of cars for daily mobility. Over the long term, we are observing some permanent changes on mobility, partly based on the fact that remote work has altered mobility patterns and the ways in which citizens choose their residence. Different measures have been implemented to promote the use of sustainable transport modes after the pandemic.

Numerous papers have analyzed the effect of COVID in mobility from different points of view. Nevertheless, the subject is still relevant as public transport operators are still dealing with the consequences of the pandemic, and now, more than ever, there is a need to promote sustainable mobility, reducing the use of individual cars.

This Special Issue is dedicated to assessing the impact of the pandemic on the sustainability of mobility, both in urban and inter-urban trips and over all modes of transport. The contents are related to, but not limited to, the analysis of mobility patterns during lockdowns and the transition to the new normal; the long-term changes related to mobility derived from the pandemic; the strategies adopted by transit operators to make transit safer and to restore trust in their systems; the changes in pedestrian, cycling, and electrical personal vehicles mobility; or the impact of different measures applied.

Both original studies and review papers are encouraged.

Dr. Alfonso Orro
Dr. Margarita Novales
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • post-COVID mobility
  • interurban
  • urban and metropolitan mobility
  • sustainable mobility
  • demand
  • remote work
  • transit share
  • non-motorized transport

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2526 KiB  
Article
Spatial Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Mobility in Madrid Region
by Abid Al-Akioui and Andres Monzon
Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14259; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914259 - 27 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1541
Abstract
After three years of COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions, mobility seems to have returned to normality. However, the pandemic has left changes in the mobility patterns of the Madrid Region produced by new trends emerging from COVID-19. This paper analyzes these changes, focusing on [...] Read more.
After three years of COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions, mobility seems to have returned to normality. However, the pandemic has left changes in the mobility patterns of the Madrid Region produced by new trends emerging from COVID-19. This paper analyzes these changes, focusing on the impacts on public transport use, the effects of telematic activities and the influence of home relocation. The basis of the analysis is a survey conducted from November to December 2022, with more than 15,000 valid responses. The results show that public transport lost 6% of trips. These trips have different transfer rates depending on their geographic location. In the City Center, the majority transferred to active modes. However, the car attracted most of these trips in the Metropolitan Ring. These changes in mobility patterns are partly a consequence of the increase in telematic activities. Teleworking has increased by more than 20% in the Madrid Region and has caused changes in trips per week and trip purpose. In addition, teleworking has caused 18% of home relocations to peripheral zones of the region. This paper investigates through statistical analysis which sociodemographic and spatial factors explain the differences in mobility impacts throughout the zones of the Madrid Region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainable Mobility)
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20 pages, 17743 KiB  
Article
Pedestrian Safety in Road Traffic in the Era of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the Example of Szczecin
by Katarzyna Sosik-Filipiak, Piotr Ostrowski and Stanisław Iwan
Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11000; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411000 - 13 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1237
Abstract
Safety of road users is one of the priority tasks of state institutions and local government authorities. Compared to other EU member states, Poland is characterized by a low level of road safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than half [...] Read more.
Safety of road users is one of the priority tasks of state institutions and local government authorities. Compared to other EU member states, Poland is characterized by a low level of road safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than half of road fatalities affect vulnerable road users (VRU). Most interactions in the vehicle–VRU relationship occur in built-up areas. Limiting the public’s mobility related to the spread of the COVID-19 virus led to changes in road traffic, which was reflected in the level of safety of individual road users. As part of a clear emphasis on the issue of VRU protection, the aim of this article is to examine the level of pedestrian safety in urban space at the time of restrictions on the public’s mobility in Poland during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and after lifting the limitations, based on the example of Szczecin. The authors put forward two research hypotheses: (1) the level of road safety is influenced by the intensity and saturation of the transport network; (2) the intensity of road traffic determines the occurrence of a greater number of road accident consequences. This study analyses traffic accident data over three periods—2017–2018, 2019–2020, and 2021—to identify pedestrian safety trends. The research shows that the intensity of road traffic has a significant impact on the occurrence of road accidents. The reduced road traffic due to the movement restrictions has kept the severity of road accidents moderate. In the post-pandemic period and the gradual lifting of the mobility restrictions, the number of road accidents increased while their consequences decreased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainable Mobility)
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22 pages, 16217 KiB  
Article
Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Road Safety in Bangladesh
by Shahrin Islam, Armana Sabiha Huq, Sabah Hossain Iqra and Raas Sarker Tomal
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2675; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032675 - 2 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2984
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the trends of crashes, injuries, and fatalities under the effect of the lockdown and observe the deviation of these trends from the anticipated values that would have been seen without the impact of the lockdown. [...] Read more.
The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the trends of crashes, injuries, and fatalities under the effect of the lockdown and observe the deviation of these trends from the anticipated values that would have been seen without the impact of the lockdown. To that end, data on road collisions, injuries, and fatalities in Bangladesh were compiled over four years (from January 2016 to May 2020) using the dataset from the Accident Research Institute (ARI). The pre-pandemic and lockdown period during the pandemic were included in the selected study period. To compare the observed values of the number of crashes, injuries, and fatalities to the forecasted values, which were meant to show assumed conditions without the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, different Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time series models were developed for each first-level administrative divisions (Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Rangpur, and Mymensingh). Due to the mobility restrictions, the observed number of collisions, injuries, and deaths remained below the expected values, with a discernible high difference throughout the entire lockdown in Dhaka and Chattogram. In contrast, in the case of other divisions (Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Rangpur, and Mymensingh), it remained under the expected trend for most of the lockdown period but not entirely. The mobility was not eliminated, resulting in a non-zero crash, injury, and fatality records across all divisions. In multiple instances, we observed that actual collision, injury, and fatality rates were higher than expected. Additionally, various divisions exhibited varying patterns of crashes, injuries, and fatalities during stay-at-home orders. Poor performance has been noted in terms of overall road safety during the pandemic era. Given the possibility of future waves of COVID-19 cases and other pandemics, the results of the current study can be used by local authorities and policymakers to improve road safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainable Mobility)
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