2024 Volume 15 Pages 418-434
In this study, we examined the possibility that the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected the use of public transportation among regions within a country, and among countries. The analysis included three to six regions in each of five countries; urban and rural areas were compared. The results indicated that public transportation use was affected not only by the local infection rate, but also by changes in the number of infected people in other regions within a given country having significantly higher infection rates. The United Kingdom and Japan had the highest numbers of affected areas among the countries analyzed. Overall, our results showed that the spread of COVID-19 has had both local and more far-reaching effects on public transportation use.