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Title: Analyzing the Effects of COVID-19 on Human Mobility and Transit Ridership in the Pacific Northwest Region
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2021
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Abstract: As of April 15, 2021, almost 3 million people have died globally from COVID-19, and over half a million people have died in the United States (Dong et al., 2020). The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has caused an unprecedented disruption for American transportation systems, and important infrastructure such as public transportation has faced even more challenges because of public concerns regarding infection in crowded spaces (Hamidi & Hamidi, 2021). With an emphasis on changes in human mobility and public transit ridership, the purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of the pandemic on travel behaviors in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region, which consists of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. The region is of particular interest because several cities in the PNW region (e.g., Seattle, Wash.) were the earliest to report COVID-19 cases and adopted severe measures to curtail community transmission (Brough et al. 2020). Our work drew upon both open-data sources such as the Google Community Mobility Report and conventional data sets from governmental agencies, such as the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). We employed panel regression analysis techniques to quantify the effects of stay-at-home orders and sociodemographic characteristics on travel behaviors. We also built a dashboard to assist in the data collection and COVID-19 visualization in a real-time manner. The report is organized into the following sections: the second chapter comprehensively reviews the literature on human mobility and public transit ridership amid the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the third chapter in which the data and methods are described in detail. The fourth and the fifth chapters present results, and the report concludes with a brief discussion on policy implications and future directions.
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Authors: Haifeng, Liao; Swoboda-Colberg, Skye; Huang, Li
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Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization
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