TRB Webinar: How Much Will COVID-19 Affect Travel Behavior?

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused upheaval around the world, and has caused our daily routines to change quickly. Instead of commuting to work, employees are telecommuting. Schools are shuttered and students are taking classes online. Even shopping occurs online, often with a stranger choosing one’s groceries. While many of these systems were already established, we are depending on them more than ever before. How will these changes impact our future? TRB hosted a webinar on Monday, June 1, 2020, from 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern that determined to what extent American travel will return to the pre-COVID-19 way of life.

Which travel behavioral changes will be long-lasting, and for whom? How, if at all, are the attitudes that underpinned our American lifestyle shifting in this crisis, and will these shifts be long-term? The webinar examined potential answers to these questions by presenting the results of a recently completed University of Illinois at Chicago survey. Presenters discussed an ongoing longitudinal and multi-wave national survey focused on social dynamics, attitudes, and the travel behaviors of American households before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.


 
Webinar outline and presenters

1. How our transportation behaviors are affected during the COVID-19 pandemic: Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian, University of Illinois at Chicago
2. Results of the Chicago COVID-19 survey: Ali Shamshiripour, Ehsan Rahimi, and Ramin Shabanpour, University of Illinois at Chicago
3. How travel behavior in America may look after the pandemic: Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian, University of Illinois at Chicago
4. Summary and further research: Rebekah Anderson, Ohio Department of Transportation
5. Questions and answers: Moderated by Monique Stinson, Argonne National Laboratory

There will be no credits awarded for this webinar.

Resources about travel behavior from TRB:
TRB Blog: Telework transportation research in light of the COVID-19 pandemic
NCHRP Research Report 934: Traffic Forecasting Accuracy Assessment Research

Learning Objectives
At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify how different socio-economic segments of the population have changed their transportation attitudes and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Discuss the extent to which current behaviors are likely to persist after the pandemic
• Discuss the extent to which our travel behaviors are likely to return to before pandemic patterns

Registration is available until just before the webinar starts. Once the webinar starts, you will be unable to submit your registration. Registration questions? Contact Reggie Gillum.