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Abstract
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The COVID-19 pandemic was propagated globally via travel and lockdown policies which have aimed to stop infections by curtailing travel and social interaction. The pandemic has been a major social, economic and environmental disruptor. Lockdown has provided a glimpse of cities with little traffic and people walking and cycling for their permitted exercise and to access food and health services. The disruption may lead to permanent changes. There may be more homeworking, more home deliveries, more use of the urban environment for exercise, more fear of travelling in crowded public transport which lead to changes in the way people travel. If our cities are less congested, vehicles may also move more quickly leading to a rise in speed and potential consequences for injury severity for collisions involving vulnerable road users.
In the UK, when the pandemic was at its peak in 2020, car travel was around a third of what it was pre-pandemic, heavy good vehicles were used half as much, while cycling saw a growth of around 300% (UK Government, 2021). The use of trains, underground and buses was only a fifth of what it was before the virus took hold.
These changes in the way we travel are likely to have significant impacts on road casualties. In the UK, there were an estimated 1580 road deaths in the year ending June 2020 which included three months of the national lockdown. This represented a statically significant decrease of 14% compared to the previous year. For all casualties, there was a significant reduction of 16% compared to the previous year. These reductions are in line with the reductions in vehicle traffic. Exploratory analysis by the UK Department for Transport has shown that there were casualty reductions for vulnerable road users (with smaller reductions for pedal cyclists and larger reductions for pedestrians) and by severity (with smaller reductions for fatalities and seriously injured casualties than slightly injured casualties) (Department for Transport, 2021). Many EU countries have seen similar reductions in casualties related to reduced vehicle traffic.
Some of these changes in the way we travel may be permanent. Travel surveys conducted by the government in the UK during the peak of the pandemic showed that 39% of respondents reported to walk more and 38% reported to cycle more than before the outbreak. Of those that reported to walk or cycle more, 94% thought it is likely that they would continue to cycle and walk more once travel restrictions were removed (Department for Transport, 2020).
Mode shift because of the pandemic has implications for road safety...
Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic
Language: en |