COVID-19 Implications on Public Transportation: Understanding Post-Pandemic Travel Behavior Decision-Making Process among Downtown Minneapolis Commuters

The COVID-19 pandemic and widespread social distancing measures have dramatically reduced public transit ridership, leaving transit agencies with massive revenue shortfalls. It is unclear how long it will take for transit to recover and whether transit will emerge fundamentally transformed for better or worse after the pandemic. This research aims to collect first-hand data about travel behavior decision-making process among downtown Minneapolis commuters -- one of the largest groups of potential transit users in the Twin Cities metropolitan region -- after the pandemic is largely contained and the stay-at-home order is lifted in the region. The research team will recruit a diverse sample of downtown commuters (N=500) virtually through various forms of digital marketing tools such as website, social media, email, and online video. Interested participants will be asked to install a mobile app from the Google Play Store (for Android) or iOS App Store (for iPhone) that semi-automatically collects daily activity-travel behavior. The app will be customized to have built-in survey functions to trigger context-specific questions about how participants make various trip decisions, e.g., trip cancellation, trip generation, mode choice, route choice, and destination choice; and how their COVID-19 experiences play a role in shaping these trip decisions. Such context-specific and decision-level data will be used to develop statistical models to provide deep insights into how the mobility impacts of COVID-19 may differ by individual socio-demographics and trip environments. Results from the research will help transportation planners and engineers to identify innovative and sensible ways to effectively promote the use of public transportation in the post-pandemic era.

• Record URL:
  http://cts.umn.edu/Research/ProjectDetail.html?id=2020063

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $50000
• Contract Numbers:

  CTS #2020063

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota

  University Office Plaza, Suite 440
  2221 University Avenue SE
  Minneapolis, MN  United States  55414
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Minnesota, Humphrey School of Public Affairs

  301 19th Ave. South
  Minneapolis, MN  United States  55455
• Principal Investigators:

  Fan, Yingling

• Start Date: 20200617
• Expected Completion Date: 20210228
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communicable diseases; Commuters; COVID-19; Decision making; Demographics; Mobile applications; Public transit; Statistical analysis; Surveys; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Minneapolis (Minnesota)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01748039
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
• Contract Numbers: CTS #2020063
• Files: RIP
• Created Date: Aug 17 2020 11:55AM