Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior, work-from-home, and cycling
February 3, 2023
12 PM – 1 PM ET
This recording is pending due to study results.
COVID-19 pandemic not only disrupted the world, but also revolutionized the way mobility is perceived. Although in many cases the shift in travel behavior was not a result of free will, but rather external circumstances, many people worldwide switched to work–from-home, adopted new modes, and adjusted their travel to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic. Cycling has been particularly impacted and it was found that 14% of the respondents in the examined sample indicated their willingness to increase frequency of cycling (compared to only 4% that indicated the intent to decrease it). Furthermore, the study also establishes that age, race, employment status and type, gender, and household size impact intended cycling frequency. While there have been some positive consequences of the pandemic when it comes to the uptake of active travel modes and work–from-home, the presented studies will also address the unwanted results, particularly in the context of the historically overlooked groups.
Natalia Barbour, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Transportation and Smart Cities at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on travel behavior, shared mobility adoption and aims to study transportation from the environmental and equitable perspectives. She taught courses relating to climate change mitigation. Dr. Barbour specializes in digital education and recorded digital educational content for Delft University of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, she was honored to join the New York University cohort of Emerging Leaders in Transportation. Prior to joining UCF, she was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She holds a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of South Florida and completed her postdoctoral training at MIT.
