Watling, D. orcid.org/0000-0002-6193-9121, Lizana, M. and Choudhury, C. orcid.org/0000-0002-8886-8976 (2023) Analysing the impacts of individual-level factors on public transport usage during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis. Transport Reviews. ISSN 0144-1647
Abstract
Public transport (PT) usage was severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in up to a 90% reduction in many cities in 2020. Numerous studies have been conducted since then to determine the relationship between individual-level factors (such as gender, attitudes, etc.) and the decrease in PT usage during the pandemic. Despite the evidence provided, findings are dispersed, and for several factors contradictory, making it challenging to reach any generalised conclusion. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison of the effect sizes among travellers’ factors affecting PT use during this period is yet to be compiled. This paper aims to address these gaps by systematically reviewing the existing evidence and synthesising the effect sizes of travellers’ factors through a meta-analysis. We first identified 36 studies that statistically assessed the contribution of 15 individual-level factors on PT usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. By merging the empirical evidence of those studies, the direction of the association between those factors and PT usage was analysed. Then, after selecting comparable studies, meta-analyses were conducted for each factor to estimate the corresponding pooled effect sizes. The meta-analysis established that car availability, teleworking opportunities and high educational level contributed the most to reducing PT use during the pandemic. These factors increased the odds of reducing PT usage compared with the pre-pandemic by about three times. Factors such as COVID-19 risk perception, gender, high income and health had a moderate effect on the decision to stop using PT. PT habits, travel distance and physical accessibility also influenced PT use during the pandemic. Geographical location and the pandemic period explained part of the heterogeneity found. The findings provided in this study can help policy-makers understand the impacts of travellers’ factors on the decision to reduce PT usage during future pandemics/epidemics and guide public policies accordingly.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Public transport demand; COVID-19; transit; travel behaviour; meta-analysis; systematic literature review |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Spatial Modelling and Dynamics (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Choice Modelling |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number RCUK (Research Councils UK) MR/T020423/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Jan 2024 11:31 |
Last Modified: | 02 Jan 2024 11:31 |
Published Version: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441... |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/01441647.2023.2295967 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206892 |