Does undirected travel compensate for reduced directed travel during lockdown?

Hannah Hook; Jonas De Vos; Veronique Van Acker; Frank Witlox

doi:10.1080/19427867.2021.1892935

Does undirected travel compensate for reduced directed travel during lockdown?

Hannah Hook, Jonas De Vos, Veronique Van Acker, Frank Witlox

Urban Development & Mobility

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown undeniably impacted travel behavior. It is assumed that directed (commute and non-work) trips reduced following reduced out-of-home activities. This study analyzing 764 respondents in Flanders, Belgium, explores whether undirected trips, or travel for the purpose of travel itself, increase as compensation or to ‘get out and about’. Additionally, change in commute and non-work trip mode and frequency is analyzed to assess whether a shift from public to private transport modes and from motorized to active modes occurred. The effect of urbanization on travel behavior change was also evaluated. Results did not indicate a shift from public to private transport modes, suggesting a general decrease in directed trips, but indicated compensation for decreased car use with both undirected and active trips. The built environment was not significantly related to changes in travel behavior, suggesting that respondents participated in compensatory behavior during the lockdown regardless of residential urbanization.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	414-420
Number of pages	7
Journal	Transportation Letters
Volume	13
Issue number	5-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/19427867.2021.1892935
Publication status	Published - 4 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) [grant number 12676895]. The funding source had no involvement in study design, in collection analysis, and interpretation of data, in writing the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [HH], upon reasonable request.

Keywords

built environment
lockdown
Travel behavior
travel compensation
travel pattern
undirected travel
COVID-19

Access to Document

10.1080/19427867.2021.1892935

Cite this

@article{d97f9a3f101b4f74aec88e191467418a,

title = "Does undirected travel compensate for reduced directed travel during lockdown?",

abstract = "The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown undeniably impacted travel behavior. It is assumed that directed (commute and non-work) trips reduced following reduced out-of-home activities. This study analyzing 764 respondents in Flanders, Belgium, explores whether undirected trips, or travel for the purpose of travel itself, increase as compensation or to {\textquoteleft}get out and about{\textquoteright}. Additionally, change in commute and non-work trip mode and frequency is analyzed to assess whether a shift from public to private transport modes and from motorized to active modes occurred. The effect of urbanization on travel behavior change was also evaluated. Results did not indicate a shift from public to private transport modes, suggesting a general decrease in directed trips, but indicated compensation for decreased car use with both undirected and active trips. The built environment was not significantly related to changes in travel behavior, suggesting that respondents participated in compensatory behavior during the lockdown regardless of residential urbanization.",

keywords = "built environment, lockdown, Travel behavior, travel compensation, travel pattern, undirected travel, COVID-19",

author = "Hannah Hook and {De Vos}, Jonas and {Van Acker}, Veronique and Frank Witlox",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) [grant number 12676895]. The funding source had no involvement in study design, in collection analysis, and interpretation of data, in writing the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [HH], upon reasonable request. ",

year = "2021",

month = mar,

day = "4",

doi = "10.1080/19427867.2021.1892935",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

pages = "414--420",

journal = "Transportation Letters",

issn = "1942-7867",