Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Mobility: Empirical Evidence and Lesson Learnt

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility was significant due to the lockdowns imposed by governments around the world. During these periods, a (oblivious) decrease in travel was registered (no travels for school, travels for work limited to some specific worker categories) with a modal choice that has penalized the public transport. But the question is: after lockdowns, have users resumed their travel habits or not? This paper tries to answer this question by considering two aspects: the modal choice and travel for shopping. A survey was carried out to investigate whether any changes were made in the user habits. The main findings are: i) for mode choice, the users struggle to go back to their old habits, with a generalized distrust of public transport and an increase in the use of the private car; and ii) for shopping, the users changed habits, for example reducing the quantity purchased but making more frequent purchases.