Impacts of COVID-19 on the Transportation Sector: A Report on China

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in the last quarter of 2019 seriously impacted the transportation industry. Countries around the world adopted various restrictions and policies to prevent the spread of the pandemic, which resulted in a sharp drop in the demand for transportation of goods. In order to analyze the impact of the pandemic on China’s current transportation sector and envision measures that may be taken while recovering from the impact of COVID-19, the current impacts and policy measures were analyzed. This research utilizes data derived from passenger counts, analysis of mobile phone data, discusses what long-term effects may alter future transportation behavior, and how transportation operators should respond to this problem. The government preparedness, recovery measures during/after pandemic, and their effects are analyzed. Results suggested that information transparency, traceability of infection source and hierarchical prevention system is essential for epidemic prevention and control. Moreover, changes in lifestyles and business operation styles due to the pandemic are also outlined and discussed. Finally, this article summarized the influence of COVID-19 to transportation system as well as the lifestyles and the whole society in the long-term, and stated that future research could delve more deeply into this area. The research findings provided solid policy implications and experiences for constructing sustainable transportation system and improve flexibility, reliability, and resilience of traffic governance in post-pandemic era.