Transportation and a Pandemic: A Case Study of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

People use various modes for travelling and interact with each other during their trips for business, shopping, education and tourism. The travel increases the risk of spreading communicable diseases and may escalate the spreading rate at a level that can make an endemic to become a pandemic. On the other hand, the measures, for example, lockdown, taken by governments to control the pandemic, negatively impact travels and, in the worst case, bring the transportation system to a standstill. Thus, it is important to understand this relationship between a pandemic and transportation to control the spread of a disease through transportation and to suppress the negative impacts of that disease on transportation. This book chapter explores this relationship using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study. Firstly, the chapter highlights the role of transportation in spreading any disease, including COVID-19. Secondly, it summarizes the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on transportation and puts forward ways to recover transport systems after a pandemic. Thirdly, the chapter provides insights into how policymakers can use the scenarios like lockdown to reshape transport systems. Finally, this chapter suggests some proactive approaches that transport agencies can adopt during and after a pandemic.