Post-COVID-19 campus commuting patterns and influential factors: evidence from a developing country

ABSTRACT

This research investigates factors influencing students’ commuting choices to university campuses, focusing on the post-COVID-19 era, attitudes, and socio-economic variables. The study includes original data collected from a total of 785 participants who were surveyed at Shiraz University, located in Iran. The study results indicate that while public transportation and university shuttle buses continue to be widely used for transportation, a considerable proportion of students prefer personal cars, mostly driven by favourable impressions. The closeness to the campus is a crucial factor in this regard, as the students residing within a distance of 3 km exhibit a preference for walking. Moreover, the significance of bio-security factors such as cleanliness and the effective control of crowds for modal choice in the post-COVID-19 era. The study's findings give valuable insights for service providers and university administrators in the development of sustainable commuting programmes that align with the university's environmental goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable transportation
• University students
• Campus commuting
• Modal choice
• Travel priorities
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Ali Soltani: Project management, Conceptualisation and methodology, Editing; Mohammad Azmoodeh: Data analysis, Draft manuscript, Editing; Milad Doostvandi: Data collection, Literature review, Discussion; Ahmad Sheikh Ahmadi: Data collection, Data analysis, Visualisation; Mohammad Rahimi: Data collection, Literature review.