Characterizing the shift from public transport to private car during the covid-۱۹ pandemic in a developing country conteXt

Although the onset of the Covid-۱۹ pandemic entailed a general decrease in the number of daily trips, different modes were affected to different extents. Public transportation which is the cornerstone of an environment-friendly urban mobility policy suffered the most. Admitting the importance of adopting proper measures in times of crisis this paper presents the results from two similar surveys, one conducted a year before the onset of the pandemic and the other during the pandemic, on the frequency of public transport and private car use, which represent the majority of the market share in most urban areas. The objective is to identify changes in public and private transport mode adoption caused by the previous pandemic in order to better plan for future occurrences of a similar crisis. Ordered-response logit models are estimated to examine how socio-demographic, economic and pandemic-related variables affected public and private modes adoption in Tehran. The results show that compared to the pre-pandemic conditions, socioeconomic characteristics influencing the frequency of use of public transport and private car have changed considerably. Infection and vaccination status, socioeconomic backgrounds, and teleworking level are found to be determinative factors in analyzing the mode choice behavior during the pandemic of Covid-۱۹.