Comparison of travel pattern before and during COVID-19 restrictions (ease and strict restrictions) in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Previous studies have investigated the effect of COVID-19 on travel behaviour, particularly on changing trends of daily trips and weekly trips for various trip purposes (work, shopping, recreational and social). Very few studies have assessed the effect of various COVID-19 restrictions (i.e., Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) and Movement Control Order (MCO)) on the trip duration.This study aims to 1) examine the changes in travel patterns, the frequency of daily and weekly trips and trip duration; 2) evaluate the significant difference between trip duration before COVID-19, during CMCO and MCO; 3) analyse the effect of COVID-19 restrictions on the trip duration of different age groups; and 4) investigate the influence of household characteristics, daily, and weekly trips on trip duration in Greater Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.The research was based on the data collected in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during CMCO (December 2020) and MCO (January 2021). The visualisation techniques (Chord and Sankey diagrams), statistical tests (McNemar and Spearman correlation), and multinomial logistic regression modelling were applied in this study.The results revealed that daily trips were directly linked with car availability during CMCO, weekly trips were indirectly associated with age, and medium (3 to 8 h) duration trips were directly linked with car availability and household size during MCO. Moreover, the work, recreational and other trips of 1 to 2 h were decreased, while grocery and dine-out trips of 1 to 2 h were increased during CMCO. COVID-19 restrictions affected the trip duration of older people, asolder people had shorter trips before COVID-19 and during CMCO. On the other hand,no association was found between age and average trip duration during MCO, which meansyounger and older people had the same proportion of shorter (0 to 2 h) duration trips during MCO. The Malaysian Government can utilise the results to set the pandemic-related transport policy.