Urban transportation problems because of lifestyle changes by COVID-19

Abstract

　The purpose of this paper is to organize the changes in urban transportation by COVID-19 from 2019 to 2021 and consider recent urban transportation issues related to new normal. In particular, we focus on topics of road traffic accident and increasing bicycle traffic. In each case, changes different from the conventional tendency of change have been observed in the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding changes in traffic accidents in the COVID-19 pandemic, we considered the mechanism of the change in the number of traffic fatalities in each prefecture. In the result, differences in traffic accident occurrence mechanisms between metropolitan areas and rural areas have been clarified. On the other hand, regarding bicycle traffic, we observed an increase in the number of traffic violations and bicycle accidents while a decline in the number of fatalities. Therefore, a correspondence such as thorough traffic rules are expected in Japan.