The dark clouds of COVID-19 may still be there, but everyday things are beginning to return back to normal: Employers are preparing to welcome back employees, kids have returned to school, and et al. But with social distancing measures that continues to be applied on public transport, how do individuals get around safely?
Therefore, for individuals to get back to office spaces, this requires examining data about people’s transport behavior and thus provide safe alternatives, say experts at UNSW.
In this scenario, what is expected is a definite switch from existing modes of transport to emerging mobility options, says an expert in connection between travel behavior and time use at UNSW Engineering.
“Nonetheless, what is not desired is increase in number of cars on the road to prevent an absolute gridlock,” added the expert.
Need for Safe Travel to pave way for Technology Start-ups
Furthermore, mobility services such as ride sharing, car sharing, and carpooling if price is competitive will be considered by people, over options such as public transport.
To serve this, emergence of start-ups is expected that will develop technologies such as mobile apps. Such apps can plan commute of individuals, and simultaneously book everything for travel.
Using such technologies, it will serve to provide a uninterrupted door-to-door mobility options wherein multimodal alternatives are provided with flexible digital payment options.
Besides trip planning, these technologies will change the everyday functioning of individuals. It will change their travel diaries of individuals to enable them to save money and increase the efficiency of the overall system.
Even in the current situation of COVID-19, individuals tend to factor in cost and total duration when planning about their commute.