COVID-19 and Public Transportation: Current Assessment, Prospects, and Research Needs
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great challenge for contemporary public transportation worldwide, resulting from an unprecedented decline in demand and revenue. In this paper, we synthesize the state-of-the-art, up to early June 2020, on key developments regarding public transportation and the COVID-19 pandemic, including the different responses adopted by governments and public transportation agencies around the world, and the research needs pertaining to critical issues that minimize contagion risk in public transportation in the so-called post-lockdown phase. While attempts at adherence to physical distancing (which challenges the very concept of mass public transportation) are looming in several countries, the latest research shows that for closed environments such as public transportation vehicles, the proper use of face masks has significantly reduced the probability of contagion. The economic and social effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in public transportation extend beyond service performance and health risks to financial viability, social equity, and sustainable mobility. There is a risk that if the public transportation sector is perceived as poorly transitioning to post-pandemic conditions, that viewing public transportation as unhealthy will gain ground and might be sustained. To this end, this paper identifies the research needs and outlines a research agenda for the public health implications of alternative strategies and scenarios, specifically measures to reduce crowding in public transportation. The paper provides an overview and an outlook for transit policy makers, planners, and researchers to map the state-of-affairs and research needs related to the impacts of the pandemic crisis on public transportation. Some research needs require urgent attention given what is ultimately at stake in several countries: restoring the ability of public transportation systems to fulfill their societal role.
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During the acute phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, severe measures were adopted to reduce contagion risk, including back-door boarding, cashless operations, frequent sanitization, social distancing, capacity limits, and face masks.
“During the acute phase of the outbreak, severe anti-COVID-19 measures were adopted [48] to minimize the contagion risk, such as back-door boarding, cashless operations, frequent sanitization of vehicles and stations, enforcing social distances, limiting the service capacity, and requiring the passengers to wear face masks.”
From Sensing Technologies for Crowd Management, Adaptation, and Information Dissemination in Public Transportation Systems: A Review (2023) · cites this paper as [48]
The Financial Adversity section reports that rear-door boarding was implemented in several cities, and Hygiene, Sanitization, and Ventilation says vehicle and station sanitization was widely adopted. The Introduction describes capacity limits and compulsory masks in some countries, but also notes that distancing rules varied. The copy does not establish that cashless operations were adopted as an anti-COVID measure; its fare-payment discussion instead raises the need for alternative payment methods. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Tirachini, A., & Cats, O.
- Affiliations
- University of Chile (CL)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
- Venue
- Journal of Public Transportation
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-21
- ISSN
- 1077-291X (ISSN-L)
- 2375-0901
- PMC
- PMC9468467
- OpenAlex
- W3037342341
- Cited by
- 781
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 107 · 2023: 158 · 2022: 214 · 2021: 181 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 129.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Public Transportation (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
- Universidad de Chile (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Repository (Delft University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Universidad de Chile
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (PIA-BASAL AFB180003, AFB180003)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Transportation Planning and Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Transportation and Mobility Innovations
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, public transport, social distancing, face masks, risk contagion, transit revenue, post-lockdown recovery, sustainable transport, social equity, public transport policy, research agenda
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