The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on public transit use: Case study of Konya city

Since March 2019, Turkey has been enforcing various measures on the policies based on the trends in the COVID-19 cases. To restrain the spread of virus, policies limiting the mobility of people (i.e. lock downs, remote working and travel bans) were applied as in many other countries. Furthermore, social distancing calls for health concern directly caused a major reduction in public transit (PT) use. However, economic activities and new normal conditions required return of a part of the commute travels, which brought the issue of use of PT modes. This study focuses on the comparison of the PT mobility during the month of April in the 2019 (pre-pandemic), in 2020 during restrictions and in 2021 under new normal condition using the Smart Card (SC) data in Konya, Turkey. Monthly, daily and hourly distribution of ridership patterns are compared as well as usage patterns and characteristics of different bus lines are examined in detail. The results suggested that during the restrictions, the ridership was about one eight of the pre-pandemic periods, while it increased to 2.5 million ridership in 2021 which is still very low. Daily ridership in 2020 showed no PT mobility due to lockdowns, while during weekdays, hourly ridership distributions were changed parallel to changes in the work/education activity schedules. Evaluation of the bus lines having highest ridership in 2019 with 2020 and 2021 showed some of the bus lines were cancelled during the pandemic and routes/frequencies changed. The results showed the importance of PT management during pandemic which is very challenging due to economic loss and fear of infection by public. However, it should be emphasized the importance of continuation of public transportation in terms of accessibility and equity for all.