Mapping travel behavior changes during the COVID-19 lock-down: a socioeconomic analysis in Greece

Abstract

Background COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge that the world had never encountered in the last 100 years. In order to mitigate its negative effects, governments worldwide took action by prohibiting at first certain activities and in some cases by a countrywide lockdown. Greece was among the countries that were struck by the pandemic. Governmental authorities took action in limiting the spread of the pandemic through a series of countermeasures, which built up to a countrywide lockdown that lasted 42 days. Methodology This research aims at identifying the effect of certain socioeconomic factors on the travel behaviour of Greek citizens and at investigating whether any social groups were comparatively less privileged or suffered more from the lockdown. To this end, a dynamic online questionnaire survey on mobility characteristics was designed and distributed to Greek citizens during the lockdown period, which resulted in 1,259 valid responses. Collected data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistical tests, in order to identify mobility patterns and correlations with certain socioeconomic characteristics. Additionally, a Generalised Linear Model (GLM) was developed in order to examine the potential influence of socioeconomic characteristics to trip frequency before and during the lockdown period. Results Outcomes indicate a decisive decrease in trip frequencies due to the lockdown. Furthermore, the model’s results indicate significant correlations between gender, income and trip frequencies during the lockdown, something that is not evident in the pre-pandemic era.

A region-wide survey on emotional and psychological impacts of COVID-19 on public transport choices in Sicily, Italy

“…The sample had a small percentage of respondents who were over 40 years old (1.43%). This probably happened because older people do generally have fewer digital competencies and they would be more reluctant to participate in an online survey (Politis et al, 2021). Moreover, people who are over 60 years old are already retired and/or rarely use public transport due to certain psy- cho-social barriers which have been identified both in Italy (Mariotti,et al,2021) and in other countries (Al-Rashid et al, 2021).…”

Travel Demand Prediction during COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational and Working Trips at the University of Padova

“…Countermeasures against the diffusion of COVID-19 had a significant impact on mobility [1,12,13,19] because of direct limitations or bans on transport services, forbidden trips, the closure of activities, as well as self-imposed individual restrictions [20]. Many authors reported significant changes in users' travel habits worldwide [7,8,21,22], with variations in the frequency of trips, travel purposes and modal split [12], which may have varied in accordance with country-specific factors [23,24] and socio-economic characteristics of citizens [25]. As regards European nations, comparing trip statistics before and after the pandemic: in Germany, about 60% of persons changed transport mode [14], in particular, the number of people performing monomodal trips rose from 68% to 83% [26]; in Greece, the average number of daily trips decreased by 50% [12]; in the Netherlands, about 80% of people reduced their out-of-home activities and the number of trips decreased by 55% compared to 2019 [9]; in Poland, 50% of people reduced their travel time by more than two thirds [20]; commuting trips dropped by 80% in Spain [13]; in Italy, the number of people reporting no daily trips increased by 27% [24] and the number of internal trips decreased by 50% [27,28], while commuting trips were reduced by 69% [8]; even in Sweden, where restrictions were voluntary, 86% of the population changed their commuting trips with 66% of people who commuted for 5 days a week prior to the pandemic deciding not to travel [29].…”

“…Irawan et al [46] developed a structural equation model to analyse variations in activity and travel behaviour after the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia. Politis et al [12,25] applied a generalized linear model and ordinary-least squares regressions to predict trip frequency and duration in Greece. Scorrano and Danielis [17] modelled mode choice before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using revealed-preferences and stated-preferences data from an Italian city.…”

Mobility Trends before and after the Pandemic Outbreak: Analyzing the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona through the Lens of Equality and Sustainability

“…Moreover, the pandemic outbreak has posed great challenges to society, triggering important changes in living and mobility patterns that are necessary to understand. The changes brought about by the pandemic worldwide have been addressed through different perspectives [12][13][14][15]. Indeed, transport and city planning need to address all these issues through a comprehensive perspective to assure a sustainable and inclusive recovery.…”