Post covid mobility in cities: mobility of people in a shifting paradigm

Abstract

Companies and municipalities had to impose severe restrictions on people while reintroducing flexible work methods such as remote working/teleworking to prevent the spread of the virus during the pandemic and keep business flowing. Similarly, significant changes occurred in the transportation industry. Things have returned to normal three years later, in the year 2023, but the number of people working from home or shared spaces has increased. As a result, people's travel habits and patterns have shifted. The purpose of this research is to create regression models to determine whether WFH/teleworking influences transportation mode selection in this dynamic environment. Certain new factors are introduced in this work to see how they impact trip-related behavior and how the model responds to them. An initial survey demonstrates the correlation between variables by comparing people's travel behavior in the past and now, as well as the impact of teleworking on not only work trips but also other activities. Based on the results of the first survey, another survey with smaller sample size is used to build the regression models, focusing only on work-related trip behavior. According to the models' findings, private and public transportation were the most important modes during the pandemic. Relationship status, work situation (i.e., WFH, at office, or hybrid), number of days spent on work trips, and financial benefits from WFH all had a significant impact on private transportation usage. According to the ANOVA test, the only determinant for public transportation was a change in work situation. In the current situation, there is a shift toward public and active transportation. Age, work situation, and number of days spent on work trips all have a significant impact on public transportation utilization, whereas active modes of transportation have a weaker relationship with work situation, as highlighted by F-statistics and Tukey's HSD test.