Local travel behaviour under continuing COVID-19 waves– A proxy for pandemic fatigue?

Zhang，Nan1; Hu，Tingrui1; Shang，Shujia1; Zhang，Shiyao2; Jia，Wei3; Chen，Jinhang4; Zhang，Zixuan1; Su，Boni5; Wang，Zhenyu6; Cheng，Reynold7; Li，Yuguo3,8

2023-03-01

10.1016/j.trip.2023.100757

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives   影响因子和分区

2590-1982

2590-1982

COVID-19 continues to threaten the world. Relaxing local travel behaviours on preventing the spread of COVID-19, may increase the infection risk in subsequent waves of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In this study, we analysed changes in the travel behaviour of different population groups (adult, child, student, elderly) during four pandemic waves in Hong Kong before January 2021, by 4-billion second-by-second smartcard records of subway. A significant continuous relaxation in human travel behaviour was observed during the four waves of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Residents sharply reduced their local travel by 51.9%, 50.1%, 27.6%, and 20.5% from the first to fourth pandemic waves, respectively. The population flow in residential areas, workplaces, schools, shopping areas, amusement areas and border areas, decreased on average by 30.3%, 33.5%, 41.9%, 58.1%, 85.4% and 99.6%, respectively, during the pandemic weeks. We also found that many other cities around the world experienced a similar relaxation trend in local travel behaviour, by comparing traffic congestion data during the pandemic with data from the same period in 2019. The quantitative pandemic fatigue in local travel behaviour could help governments partially predicting personal protective behaviours, and thus to suggest more accurate interventions during subsequent waves, especially for highly infectious virus variants such as Omicron.

COVID-19 Local travel behaviour Public transport Subway Traffic congestion

ESCI

英语

其他

Natural Science Foundation of China[52108067] ; COVID-19 Action Seed Funding, HKU["176FRCKCHE","177DRCKCHE"] ; Innovation Wing Two Research Fund[000200000.000000.14200.100.01] ; Research Grants Council of Hong Kong[C7025-16G]

Transportation

Transportation

WOS:001089896300001

ELSEVIER

2-s2.0-85147565478

Scopus

1.Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Built Environment and Energy Efficient Technology,Beijing University of Technology,Beijing,China
2.The Sifakis Research Institute for Trustworthy Autonomous Systems,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
3.Department of Mechanical Engineering,The University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong
4.Faculty of Information Technology,Beijing University of Technology,Beijing,China
5.China Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute,Beijing,China
6.College of Economics and Management,Beijing University of Technology,Beijing,China
7.Department of Computer Science,The University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong
8.School of Public Health,Li Ka Shing,Faculty of Medicine,University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong

Zhang，Nan,Hu，Tingrui,Shang，Shujia,等. Local travel behaviour under continuing COVID-19 waves– A proxy for pandemic fatigue?[J]. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives,2023,18.

Zhang，Nan.,Hu，Tingrui.,Shang，Shujia.,Zhang，Shiyao.,Jia，Wei.,...&Li，Yuguo.(2023).Local travel behaviour under continuing COVID-19 waves– A proxy for pandemic fatigue?.Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives,18.

Zhang，Nan,et al."Local travel behaviour under continuing COVID-19 waves– A proxy for pandemic fatigue?".Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 18(2023).