Recovering Sustainable Mobility after COVID-19: The Case of Almeria (Spain)
Metadatos
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Garrido Jiménez, Francisco Javier; Rodríguez Rojas, María Isabel; Vallecillos Siles, Manuel RicardoEditorial
MDPI
Materia
Sustainable mobility Urban public transport COVID-19
Fecha
2024-02-02Referencia bibliográfica
Garrido-Jiménez, F.J.; Rodríguez-Rojas,M.I.; Vallecillos-Siles, M.R. Recovering Sustainable Mobility after COVID-19: The Case of Almeria (Spain). Appl. Sci. 2024, 14, 1258. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14031258
Resumen
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a significant change in mobility habits within
cities, leading to a significant decrease in the use of collective urban transport in many countries
that has been only partially and unevenly reversed. In this context, many cities are analyzing what
factors are hindering this recovery process to design actions to promote sustainable mobility. Thus,
this study, carried out in the city of Almeria (Spain), tried to analyze whether the main operating
variables of the municipal bus network (frequency, average vehicle occupancy, the length of the
lines, urban or suburban character, circularity, nodality, and intermodality) have an impact on the
annual number of users recovered in 2022 compared to 2019. Although a strong statistical correlation
between variables was not observed, the overall results show that the lines that have recovered
the most users on average are suburban lines, as well as the nodal lines that serve key centroids
such as the university, highlighting that the dependence of users on public transport might be the
most important determinant in the recovery process, more than other variables representative of
the service’s intrinsic quality such as frequency or average vehicle occupancy. This result shows the
importance of facilitating public transport to those who lack alternatives, as well as the convenience
of restrictions on less sustainable transportation alternatives for the prompt recovery of the space lost
by urban public transportation.