Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global mobility into the spotlight, with well over 100 countries having instituted either a full or partial lockdown by April 2020. Reduced mobility, whilst causing social and economic impacts, can also be beneficial for the environment and future studies will surely quantify such environmental gains. However, accurate quantification is intimately linked to good quality data on transport modal shares, as passenger cars and public transport have significantly different emissions profiles. Herein, we compile a currently lacking dataset on global modal transport shares for 131 countries. Notably, these are the countries covered by the Google Community Mobility Reports (plus Russia and China for their global relevance), thus allowing for a smooth integration between our dataset and the rich information offered by the Google Community Mobility Reports, thus enabling analysis of global emissions reductions due to mobility restrictions. Beyond the current pandemic, this novel dataset will be helpful to practitioners and academics alike working in transport research.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has restated the importance of ‘one world, one health’ [1]
Given that studies are already appearing based on the Google Community Mobility Reports (GCMR) [4,5], and likely many more will follow, we intend to support such research by presenting an unprecedented dataset of modal transport shares for 131 countries
These are the countries covered by the GCMR, allowing for a smooth integration between our dataset and the rich information offered by Google
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has restated the importance of ‘one world, one health’ [1] This unity has been felt in other aspects of society, such as mobility restrictions caused by global lockdown measures, with well over 100 countries entering some form of lockdown [2]. Given that studies are already appearing based on the Google Community Mobility Reports (GCMR) [4,5], and likely many more will follow, we intend to support such research by presenting an unprecedented dataset of modal transport shares for 131 countries (see Figure 1) These are the countries covered by the GCMR (plus Russia and China for their global relevance), allowing for a smooth integration between our dataset and the rich information offered by Google. This novel data will support immediate research efforts linked to understanding the environmental implications of the COVID-19 pandemic but it represents a stepping-stone for creating and maintaining such global datasets for future research and analyses on global transport issues
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have