Readapting Urban Transit Systems After Covid
The effects of the pandemic have taken a big toll on the travel industry, worldwide. It was amongst the first to be impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, and although we are all free to travel again, patterns have changed - not to mention the mounting costs of transport, exacerbated as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At this stage, a return to where travel and transport were at pre-pandemic level doesn’t seem plausible.
If we zoom in on urban transit systems, we see that cities like Auckland in New Zealand have taken measures that include halving public transport fares, in order to encourage its use. But with a population still reeling from the effects of the pandemic (though perhaps not for the reasons some may assume), we are seeing a strong favouritism towards private transport in some communities, while the biggest factor in the decline of public transport use is the fact that people are moving around less today than they were two and a half years ago.
By now, it has become clear that the old travel patterns are not coming back, so what’s the way forward?
After much research during this period, it has been largely concluded that the change in people’s behaviour is mostly impacted by new work habits, rather than the fear of getting infected. Rush-hour commuting has crashed particularly because of the new hybrid work system (where people spend part of their working week, if not most of it, working from home), and we can now understand that transit systems have gone from a radial direction to more of a spiderweb one. People take fewer, often shorter journeys along thinner routes; they move to the side, as well as in and out. And buses are just as empty as commuter trains.
What can we do to further encourage public transport and alternative mobility choices?
As passengers return to transit networks, it is important from a regulatory and operational perspective to respond to changing demand through upscaling and downscaling service provision as required.
With public transport systems in parts of the world at the risk of collapse, smart communities need to think of ways to work around the decline in demand, and use technological advances and available data to the best of their possibilities.
Due to widely implemented hybrid working systems, people now travel less predictably, so the time for innovation is now. Wiltshire in the UK is introducing on-demand buses, which means that users can pre book their trips via an app - and by eliminating fixed routes and timetables, this system offers added flexibility that works around where people go to and from, as well as being based on actual demand. We’ve seen these advances already working with the likes of taxis and electric scooters, so it only makes sense to implement them into wider transport systems.
Wider re-adaptations are not easy, but rapid changes in city mobility and lifestyle require that we think on our feet and act fast in order to keep systems running efficiently. Let’s see more of these initiatives leading the way forward.
