Factors Influencing Public Transport Demand in Sicily During COVID-19 Era: A Study of Commuters’ Travel and Mode Choice Behaviors

Since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the transport system has suffered a profound reduction in demand worldwide. In order to understand which factors played a crucial role in reducing transport demand, an online questionnaire survey was conducted exploring one of the regions of Italy, i.e. Sicily, which was severely affected by the pandemic and was characterized by the greatest transport disruption among the other Italian regions. The survey was answered by 700 respondents who were frequent PT commuters before the outbreak of the pandemic. It collected sociodemographic information, highlighted the public transport demand figures before and after the lockdown period in Sicily and assessed the acceptance rates of the national recommendations which aimed to prevent contagion and encourage the use of PT. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive and cluster analysis techniques. During the examined periods, the results demonstrated three (3) clusters of PT commuters in Sicily and associated them with certain sociodemographic characteristics and acceptance rates of the national PT recommendations. Our findings lay the basis for public transport service improvements which could help local authorities to cope with such extreme conditions and perform a successful restart of operations.