Li Zihao, Wei Zihang, Zhang Yunlong, Kong Xiaoqiang, Ma Chaolun
Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3136 TAMU College Station, TX, USA.
Travel Behav Soc. 2023 Oct;33:100621. doi: 10.1016/j.tbs.2023.100621. Epub 2023 Jun 26.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that also fuels the pervasive social inequity in the United States. Existing studies have extensively analyzed the inequity issues on mobility across different demographic groups during the lockdown phase. However, it is unclear whether the mobility inequity is perennial and will continue into the mobility recovery phase. This study utilizes ride-hailing data from Jan 1st, 2019, to Mar 31st, 2022, in Chicago to analyze the impact of various factors, such as demographic, land use, and transit connectivity, on mobility inequity in the different recovery phases. Instead of commonly used statistical methods, this study leverages advanced time-series clustering and an interpretable machine learning algorithm. The result demonstrates that inequity still exists in the mobility recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the degree of mobility inequity in different recovery phases is varied. Furthermore, mobility inequity is more likely to exist in the census tract with more families without children, lower health insurance coverage, inflexible workstyle, more African Americans, higher poverty rate, fewer commercial land use, and higher Gini index. This study aims to further the understanding of the social inequity issue during the mobility recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and help governments propose proper policies to tackle the unequal impact of the pandemic.
新冠疫情是一场公共卫生危机，它也加剧了美国普遍存在的社会不平等现象。现有研究广泛分析了封锁阶段不同人口群体在出行方面的不平等问题。然而，出行不平等是否长期存在并会持续到出行恢复阶段尚不清楚。本研究利用2019年1月1日至2022年3月31日芝加哥的网约车数据，分析人口、土地利用和公共交通连通性等各种因素对不同恢复阶段出行不平等的影响。本研究未采用常用的统计方法，而是利用了先进的时间序列聚类和可解释的机器学习算法。结果表明，在新冠疫情的出行恢复阶段不平等现象仍然存在，且不同恢复阶段的出行不平等程度各不相同。此外，在没有孩子的家庭较多、医疗保险覆盖率较低、工作方式不灵活、非裔美国人较多、贫困率较高、商业用地较少且基尼系数较高的普查区，出行不平等更有可能存在。本研究旨在进一步了解新冠疫情出行恢复阶段的社会不平等问题，并帮助政府提出适当政策，以应对疫情的不平等影响。
