Abstract
In spring 2020 the whole world went through the “black swan”—COVID-19 pandemic. The healthcare systems of all countries and the world economy, in general, became very stressed. The extraordinary decline of activity in all spheres, except healthcare, led to a drop in the demand for transport services, including city public transport. It was important for city management to support the sustainability of the local transport system. The article presents fundamental approaches to assessing the sustainability of a transport service, particularly city passenger public transport (CPPT), for the example of the large Russian city Tyumen (size of population—nearly 807 thousand people). Methods of analysis of the sustainability of the transport process in conditions of negative environmental impact (COVID-19 pandemic) are considered. During the period from 30.03.2020 to 31.05.2020 (nine weeks—the acute phase of COVID-19 pandemic) structural sustainability of the CPPT system in Tyumen kept a high level. By changing the parameters of the planned characteristics of the CPPT system state, an attempt to adapt the transport service supply to a sharp decrease in transport demand was made. In the period of “self-isolation”, the demand for the CPPT transport service reduced more than the transport service supply. Sustainability of CPPT functioning was evaluated by calculating the elasticity of the transport supply (number of trips) in relation to the actual demand (actual volume of transportations). Calculation of the elasticity index of the CPPT system of Tyumen during nine weeks of April–May 2020 (duration of “self-isolation“) is provided. A conclusion was made from the results of the research. In particular, it was found that the foreground target function of city management was the maintenance of a high level of transportation processes to the detriment of the transportations’ effectiveness. Such a policy led to contradictory results—the additional financial expenses at the rate of 135–150 million rubles and quite a high level of contentment of the Tyumen population with the quality of the CPPT work (sociological research established that 80–85% of respondents were satisfied with the quality of the transport service in April–May 2020).
Highlights
In spring 2020 the whole world went through the “black swan”—COVID-19 pandemic
It was found that the foreground target function of city management was the maintenance of a high level of transportation processes to the detriment of the transportations’ effectiveness. Such a policy led to contradictory results—the additional financial expenses at the rate of 135–150 million rubles and quite a high level of contentment of the Tyumen population with the quality of the city passenger public transport (CPPT) work
The COVID-19 pandemic was a big surprise for the whole world
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic was a big surprise for the whole world. The danger of this infection was not recognized immediately. On the 30th of March, 2020 the regime of “self-isolation” was instituted in all large cities of Russia This regime is equivalent to the quarantine in other countries. The main reasons are weakly developed street-road networks that do not match the demands of actual automobilization [1] and quite a high level of property inequality in the Russian population [2]. This fact and the institution of the “self-isolation” regime led to changes in the CPPT system functioning. Mostly the choice between CPPT and individual transport is determined by a wide set of socioeconomic factors and the selfish aspiration for increasing personal comfort [11,12] that leads to the neglect of public transport
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
