Changes in mobility choices during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison between Italy and Sweden

TL;DR

This study compares how COVID-19 first wave containment strategies in Italy and Sweden influenced people's travel behaviors, revealing significant differences in mobility reduction and modal preferences, with implications for sustainable transportation planning.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of mobility changes during COVID-19 in Italy and Sweden, highlighting factors influencing modal choice variations and the impact of containment policies.

Findings

Greater mobility reduction in Italy, especially for public transit

Swedes favored walking and biking more than Italians

Perceived safety on public transit did not significantly affect modal choice changes

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 disease affected people's lives worldwide, particularly their travel behaviours and how they performed daily activities. During the first wave of the pandemic, spring 2020, countries adopted different strategies to contain the spread of the virus. The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes in mobility behaviours, focusing on the sustainability level of modal choices caused by the pandemic in two countries with different containment policies in place: Italy and Sweden. Survey data uncovered which transport means was the most used for three different trip purposes (grocery shopping, non-grocery shopping and commuting) both before and during the first wave of the pandemic. The variation in the sustainability level of modal choices was then observed through descriptive statistics and significance tests. By estimating three multinomial logistic regression models, one for each trip purpose, we tried to identify which factors, beyond the country, affected the variation in the sustainability level of the modal choice with the beginning of the pandemic. Results show a greater reduction in mobility among the Italian sample compared to the Swedish one, especially for public transit, and a major inclination by Swedes in travelling by foot and by bike compared to Italians, also due to the greater possibility of making trips during the first wave of the pandemic. Finally, perceived safety on public transit seems to have no significant effects on the variation in the sustainability level of the modal choice with the beginning of restrictions. Our results can be used as a starting point for a discussion on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected attitudes and preferences towards the different travel alternatives. Also, in this work we highlighted how people reacted in different ways to an unprecedented situation in two Countries with opposite containment strategies in place.