The COVID-19 has brought the well-established health mandate already associated with a shift away from private car-based travel to active and public modes to the fore, and provided an unprecedented opportunity to pursue a healthier, more sustainable transport system in car dependent cities. For example, policymakers and relevant departments in Greater Sydney and the Outer Metropolitan Area have implemented a range of strategies and infrastructures to encourage active and public transport during the pandemic. These actions provide an opportunity for this project to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the benefits and costs of active travel measures on behaviour change, public health and the environment, ultimately informing future investment strategies under post-pandemic context.

We collaborate with Transport for New South Wales to evaluate the wider impacts (costs and benefits) of active travel measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term active travel behaviour change, public health and the environment. This involves the development and test of a robust evaluation, monitoring and assessment framework to investigate the impacts of active travel measures using case studies, online surveys, focus group discussions and stakeholder consultations. It also includes policy analysis to recommend institutional reforms and guidelines for future evaluations of active travel measures, ensuring efficient partnership models between government bodies and industry for successful policy implementation. Recommendations will be provided to integrate non-communicable diseases and infectious disease prevention into urban transport planning.

Funded by Australian Research Council 

UC project team: Sotiris Vardoulakis, Jingyi Shao.

External team members: John Nelson, Jennifer Kent, Yuting Zhang, Sara Haider.

Zhang, Y., Kent, J., Harris, P., Nelson, J. D., Tong, M. & Vardoulakis, S. 2024. International experiences on active travel planning: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transportation

Zhang, Yuting, Jingyi Shao, John D. Nelson, Jennifer L. Kent, and Sotiris Vardoulakis. 2024. 鈥淕ender, Weather, and Time of Day: Active Travel Observations in Greater Sydney.鈥� Findings, December. .