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Factors Influencing Public Transport Demand in Sicily During COVID-19 Era: A Study of Commuters’ Travel and Mode Choice Behaviors

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (ICCSA 2021)

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Abstract

Since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the transport system has suffered a profound reduction in demand worldwide. In order to understand which factors played a crucial role in reducing transport demand, an online questionnaire survey was conducted exploring one of the regions of Italy, i.e. Sicily, which was severely affected by the pandemic and was characterized by the greatest transport disruption among the other Italian regions. The survey was answered by 700 respondents who were frequent PT commuters before the outbreak of the pandemic. It collected sociodemographic information, highlighted the public transport demand figures before and after the lockdown period in Sicily and assessed the acceptance rates of the national recommendations which aimed to prevent contagion and encourage the use of PT. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive and cluster analysis techniques. During the examined periods, the results demonstrated three (3) clusters of PT commuters in Sicily and associated them with certain sociodemographic characteristics and acceptance rates of the national PT recommendations. Our findings lay the basis for public transport service improvements which could help local authorities to cope with such extreme conditions and perform a successful restart of operations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research [Italy]) through a project entitled WEAKI TRANSIT: WEAK-demand areas Innovative TRANsport Shared services for Italian Towns (Project code: 20174ARRHT/CUP Code: J74I19000320008), financed with the PRIN 2017 (Research Projects of National Relevance) program. We authorize the MIUR to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes, notwithstanding any copyright notations thereon. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MIUR.

Funding

This research work was partially funded by the MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research [Italy]) through a project entitled WEAKI TRANSIT.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Socrates Basbas

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Georgios Georgiadis

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100, Enna, Italy

    Tiziana Campisi & Giovanni Tesoriere

Authors
  1. Socrates Basbas
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  2. Georgios Georgiadis
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  3. Tiziana Campisi
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  4. Giovanni Tesoriere
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Contributions

This paper is the result of the joint work of the authors. ‘Abstract’, ‘Introduction’, ‘Methodology’, and ‘Results’ were written jointly by the authors. T.C. and G.T. discussed on the state of the art. S.B. and G.G. designed the methodological approach and discussion. Supervision and research funding; T.C., S.B., and G.T.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Georgios Georgiadis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

  2. University of Basilicata, Potenza, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  3. Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

    Sanjay Misra

  4. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  5. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Ivan Blečić

  6. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  7. Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Bernady O. Apduhan

  8. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria A. C. Rocha

  9. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Eufemia Tarantino

  10. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Maria Torre

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Basbas, S., Georgiadis, G., Campisi, T., Tesoriere, G. (2021). Factors Influencing Public Transport Demand in Sicily During COVID-19 Era: A Study of Commuters’ Travel and Mode Choice Behaviors. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12954. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86979-3_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86979-3_25

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