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

European Transport Research Review

Eleni Verani¹  Ioannis Fyrogenis¹  Anastasia Nikolaidou¹  Aristomenis Kopsacheilis¹  Georgios Georgiadis¹  Alexandros Sdoukopoulos¹  Ioannis Politis¹  Efthymis Papadopoulos¹ 

[1] Transport Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece;

关键词: Coronavirus pandemic;    Lockdown;    Mobility patterns;    Greece;    Socioeconomic characteristics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12544-021-00481-7

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCOVID-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.MethodologyThis 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.ResultsOutcomes 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY