Transport mode preferences of university students in post-COVID-19 pandemic

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The COVID-19 outbreak very quickly disrupted the order of human beings. While many sectors have been trying to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 process, they have also been trying to plan the new process for after the pandemic. Transport is one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic and it is necessary to produce the right political formulations for the post-pandemic period. For this reason, it is necessary to carefully examine the changing user demands in various segments of society due to COVID-19 and reveal effective post-pandemic transport policies. This study contributes to this requirement. Accordingly, this study investigated the transport mode preferences of university students in post-pandemic period in Istanbul, one of the important metropolises of the world, via the use of a survey. The reason for university students were focused on was that the mobility of university students is very high and in addition, they are more flexible than other age groups in using different transport modes. The main findings obtained from the study show that there will be a significant change in demand in transport modes after the pandemic. In particular, while a critical decrease may be observed in the travel demand for public buses, shared minibuses and LRT in public transport in post-pandemic period, a high increase in demand for private car use is highly probable. In addition, the research results indicate that COVID-19 can cause an increase in use of e-scooter/hoverboard and active travel modes. The results obtained through the statistical analysis and the discussions based on these results can make a significant contribution to the post-pandemic transport policies of cities with high university student populations and various transport modes, such as Istanbul.