Abstract |
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to
how people live, work and travel. There has been a recent outburst of
research on the short-term impacts that the pandemic has had on travel
behaviour. However, the long-term impact of the pandemic on travel
behaviour is still uncertain and difficult to predict. In particular,
young adults are facing some of the most significant disruptions from
the pandemic; these disruptions are likely to have long-term impacts on
their lives. This study aims to unpack the direct and indirect effects
that COVID-19 may have on the travel behaviour of young adults. It does
this through in-depth interviews with 26 young adults living in
Melbourne and Victoria, Australia. Interviews suggest that while the
pandemic has had significant impacts on the short-term travel behaviour
of all young adults, the long-term impacts are more complex and mediated
by how they are moving through key life milestones. Many respondents
are relatively unimpacted by the pandemic. Others have faced a
significant disruption to their lives. Those who had planned to live or
work overseas have found their life plans ‘accelerated’, which may also
accelerate their dependence on the car. In contrast, those who have lost
work are facing a significant delay to their life plans. We propose a
framework for how COVID-19 may directly and indirectly impact travel
behaviour in the short- and long-term. The strongest impacts on
mobility, through changes to life stage transitions, are indirect and
unevenly spread across the population of young adults. |