Impacts of COVID-19 Induced Active Transportation Demand on the Built Environment and Public Health

Dadashova, Bahar; Lee, Chanam; Li, Xiao; Zhang, Zhe; Farukh, Minaal; Sarda, Soham; Hu, Nanzhou; Khreis, Haneen; Galicia, David; Aldrete, Rafael · 2024 · ROSA P / Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH) Tier-1 University Transportation Center (UTC)

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Summary

This study investigates the secondary health outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic on active transportation users, specifically addressing how pandemic-induced shifts in travel behavior affected public health through pathways of physical activity, air quality, traffic safety, and mental well-being. The research was motivated by the significant surge in walking and bicycling during lockdowns, driven by perceptions of public transit as unsafe and a need for physical activity amidst restricted indoor options. However, this shift exposed users to potential risks from motorized traffic, including crashes and pollution, creating a complex interplay between health benefits and environmental hazards. The authors aimed to synthesize rapidly accumulating evidence on these impacts to guide future urban planning and public health strategies. The methodology comprised a scoping literature review and a sentiment analysis of social media data. The literature review, conducted in March 2021, screened 2,967 publications from five databases, ultimately including 46 articles published in 2020–2021 that addressed impacts on active transport demand, air quality, or built environment modifications. The sentiment analysis utilized Twitter data from the Texas area across four periods: pre-COVID (2019), early COVID (2020), early prevention (2021), and post-COVID (2022). Researchers employed TextBlob for polarity scoring and DistilBERT-Base-Uncased for emotion analysis, alongside association rule mining to identify patterns in public discourse regarding active transport infrastructure and usage. The literature review revealed mixed trends in active transport demand. Bike-sharing usage generally declined, particularly among infrequent cyclists, while walking and cycling for recreational purposes increased, especially among low-income households and for exercise rather than commuting. Air quality improved significantly during lockdowns, with moderate to significant decreases in pollutants such as NO2, PM2.5, and CO2, though ozone levels increased in some areas due to reduced nitrogen oxide concentrations. Built environment responses included temporary bike lanes, street closures, and reallocated curb spaces to accommodate active users. Despite these infrastructure improvements and better air quality, traffic crash fatalities remained stable, potentially due to aggressive driving behaviors and reduced congestion. Sentiment analysis indicated that while environmental improvements offered positive health impacts, public sentiment toward active transport remained largely negative due to perceived risks from the built environment and traffic interactions. The study concludes that while the pandemic spurred positive changes in air quality and temporary infrastructure adaptations that benefited active transport users, persistent traffic risks and negative public sentiment highlight the need for sustained safety measures. The findings suggest that short-term recommendations should focus on maintaining temporary design measures, while long-term strategies must prioritize permanent improvements to walkability and bikeability to retain increased active transport users and mitigate traffic-related health risks. This research provides an evidence base for integrating pandemic-responsive public health strategies into urban planning to create safer, healthier built environments.

Key finding

The pandemic induced negative sentiments toward active transport due to traffic risks, although improvements in air quality and temporary built environment modifications provided potential health benefits for active transport users.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• cyclist safety