Public Transport and the Impact of COVID-19

21. oktober 2020 kl. 19:00 - 20:00

Onsdag 21. oktober er det internasjonal komité som er ansvarlig for programmet, og da får vi besøk av Sinziana Rasca fra UiA som vil fortelle om hvordan koronasituasjonen påvirker offentlig transport.

Sinziana er stipendiat ved institutt for ingeniørvitenskap ved UiA, og studerer aspekter av mobilitetsoptimalisering og bærekraftig utvikling i norske små og mellomstore byer. Hun har fra før en master i energieffektiv og miljømessig bygningsdesign og en i arkitektur.

3-minutter: Per Gunnar


Public Transport and the Impact of COVID-19

How can public transport ridership go back to its “pre-pandemic status-quo” in small cities and towns compared to a European metropolis? The cases of coastal cities in Agder, Norway and the city of Vienna, Austria.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed countries around the world towards imposing social distancing measures and nation-wide lockdown regulations, which strongly affected the public transport sector. Public transport providers in small cities and towns, who normally struggle with low patronage, have been one of the groups that suffered most.

The present research studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transport in a Norwegian network of small cities and towns, namely Agder, and compares the effects with those observed for the city of Vienna in Austria.

Using a comprehensive timeline of actions taken in both countries, data provided by the regional public transport companies in Agder and Vienna and a series of interviews, the research investigates the impact of measures due to the pandemic on the occupancy level, ticketing income for public transport and user perception while also studying the recovery trends that are starting to be visible due to the relaxation of some of the measures.

The findings suggest that the fear of contagion as well as the opportunity to work remotely from home or switch to a car are hindering factors in terms of market share recovery for public transport. At the same time, imposed measures such as compulsory mouth-nose protection, fewer passengers in busses and using different communication channels widely contribute to getting ridership back to its “pre-pandemic status-quo” more quickly. Moreover, it is important to collect mobility behavior related data to enable targeted decisions and feed forecasts.