Urban Mobility in Covid-19: How We Adapted to Change and How Should We Respond

Abstract

Starting with late 2019, we have been struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic. An unprecedented change in our mobility needs and behaviour forced us to reshape our thinking of transportation networks and urban mobility. From a disaster management perspective, transportation networks are crucial for providing mobility in response, recovery, and preparedness. In such disasters, the monitoring and use of transportation networks become a very complex problem as the needs and priorities of individuals change dramatically. With the COVID-19 pandemic, difficult circumstances created a shift to personal vehicles including automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters as well as increased walking. This study is carried out to understand the mobility changes and public behaviour during pandemic and normalization periods, and discussing strategic responses for policymakers and service providers. The focus of the study is four major cities in Turkey and nationwide trends. The data source includes walking and driving trends and accessibility of locations in certain categories. The mobility data shows that there is a significant increase in walking and driving personal vehicles as opposed to using public transportation. Additionally, a shift from shopping malls to open spaces and parks indicates that the public use precaution in response to pandemic conditions. Lastly, the flexible and remote working hours reduced the density of workplaces in urban centers. Considering the temporary demand increase in bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles, it is suggested that policymakers should focus on improving micromobility infrastructure in urban centers to make this temporary increase permanent. Additionally, planning and operational activities in public transportation should be managed accordingly to meet dynamically changing demand, and public needs and priorities including sanitary conditions and in-vehicle spacing to accommodate pandemic conditions.

Keywords

• Urban Mobility
• Covid-19
• Disaster Management
• Resiliency
• Transportation Policy

References

1. [1] Shaheen, S., Totte, H., & Stocker, A. (2018). Future of Mobility White Paper. UC Berkeley: Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley. http://dx.doi.org/10.7922/G2WH2N5D Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68g2h1qv
2. [2] Litman, T. (2006). Lessons from Katrina and Rita: What major disasters can teach transportation planners. Journal of transportation engineering, 132(1), 11-18.
3. [3] Holguín-Veras, J., Pérez, N., Ukkusuri, S., Wachtendorf, T., & Brown, B. (2007). Emergency Logistics Issues Affecting the Response to Katrina: A Synthesis and Preliminary Suggestions for Improvement. Transportation Research Record, 2022(1), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.3141/2022-09
4. [4] Yuan, F., & Han, L. D. (2009). Improving Evacuation Planning with Sensible Measure of Effectiveness Choices: Case Study. Transportation Research Record, 2137(1), 54–62. https://doi.org/10.3141/2137-07
5. [5] Freckleton, D., Heaslip, K., Louisell, W., & Collura, J. (2012). Evaluation of resiliency of transportation networks after disasters. Transportation research record, 2284(1), 109-116.
6. [6] Ta, C., Goodchild, A. V., & Pitera, K. (2009). Structuring a definition of resilience for the freight transportation system. Transportation Research Record, 2097(1), 19-25.
7. [7] Tirachini, Alejandro & Cats, Oded. 2020. COVID-19 and Public Transportation: Current Assessment, Prospects, and Research Needs. Journal of Public Transportation, 22 (1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5038/2375-0901.22.1.1
8. [8] Budd, L., & Ison, S. (2020). Responsible Transport: A post-COVID agenda for transport policy and practice. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 6, 100151.

9. [9] Wang, Q., & Taylor, J. E. (2014). Quantifying human mobility perturbation and resilience in Hurricane Sandy. PLoS one, 9(11), e112608.
10. [10] Wang, Q., & Taylor, J. E. (2016). Patterns and limitations of urban human mobility resilience under the influence of multiple types of natural disaster. PLoS one, 11(1), e0147299.
11. [11] Bañgate, J., Dugdale, J., Adam, C., & Beck, E. (2017, May). A Review on the Influence of Social Attachment on Human Mobility During Crises. In ISCRAM.
12. [12] Drury, J. and Tekin Guven, S. (2020). Emergencies and Disasters. In J. Jetten, S. D. Reicher, S. A. Haslam, & T. Cruwys. Together Apart: The Psychology of COVID-19. London: Sage.
13. [13] Apple (2020). COVID-19 Mobility Trends Reports. Available at: https://www.apple.com/covid19/mobility/
14. [14] Google (2020). COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. Available at: https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/
15. [15] Ministry of Health, Republic of Turkey. Covid-19 Statistical Information Page. Available at: https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/TR-66935/genel-koronavirus-tablosu.html
16. [16] Transurban (2020). Urban Mobility Trends from Covid-19. Industry Report. Available at: https://www.transurban.com/content/dam/transurban-pdfs/03/Urban-Mobility-Trends-from-COVID-19.pdf
17. [17] Ewoldsen, Beth. (2020, August 17). COVID-19 Trends Impacting the Future of Transportation Planning and Research. Available at: https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/blog/covid-19-trends-impacting-the-future-of-transportation-planning-and-research
18. [18] Ibold, S., Medimorec, N., Wagner, A. and Peruzzo, J. (2020). The COVID-19 outbreak and implications to sustainable urban mobility – some observations. Available at: https://www.transformative-mobility.org/news/the-covid-19-outbreak-and-implications-to-public-transport-some-observations
19. [19] Richert, J., Martín, I. C., Schrader, S. (2020) Beyond the immediate crisis: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and public transport strategy A Guideline for Action, Mobility Institute Berlin. Available at: https://mobilityinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Beyond-the-immediate-crisis-The-SARS-CoV-2-pandemic-and-public-transport-strategy_mib_v1.02.pdf
20. [20] Google (2020). COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. Available at: https://www.gstatic.com/covid19/mobility/2020-10-23_TR_Mobility_Report_en.pdf
21. [21] Van Audenhove, F., Pourbaix, J., Rominger, G., Dommergues, E., Eagar, R., Carlier, J. (2020) The Future of Mobility post-COVID. Arthur D. Little Future Lab. Available at: https://www.adlittle.com.tr/en/future-mobility-post-covid
22. [22] Larsen, J., Patterson, Z., & El-Geneidy, A. (2013). Build it. But where? The use of geographic information systems in identifying locations for new cycling infrastructure. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 7(4), 299-317.
23. [23] Ferenchak, N. N. and Marshall, W. (2019). Advancing Healthy Cities Through Safer Cycling: An Examination of Shared Lane Markings. International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, 8(2): 136-145.
24. [24] Branion-Calles, M., Nelson, T., Fuller, D., Gauvin, L., & Winters, M. (2019). Associations between individual characteristics, availability of bicycle infrastructure, and city-wide safety perceptions of bicycling: A cross-sectional survey of bicyclists in 6 Canadian and US cities. Transportation research part A: policy and practice, 123, 229-239.
25. [25] Appleyard, B. (2012). Sustainable and healthy travel choices and the built environment: analyses of green and active access to rail transit stations along individual corridors. Transportation research record, 2303(1), 38-45.
26. [26] Muqueeth, S. (2020) Parks and health: During covid-19, parks are key to how we cope—and how we’ll recover. A Trust for the Public Land Special Report – Parks and the Pandemic. Available at: https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/Parks%20and%20Pandemic%20-%20TPL%20special%20report.pdf
27. [27] Yucel, A. (2020, September 14) Otomobilden sonra motorda da pandemi rallisi!.Dunya News Agency. Available at: https://www.dunya.com/ekonomi/otomobilden-sonra-motorda-da-pandemi-rallisi-haberi-481464