Analysis Of College Students’ Public Travel Mode Choice Behavior During COVID-19

The emergence of COVID-19 has a certain impact on the original travel mode of college students.Since the outbreak of COVID-19,the urban public transport industry has received a huge impact.College students are one of the main users of urban public transportation systems.However,due to the impact of social environment,local governments,epidemic prevention and control policies in universities,the frequency of public travel for college students has significantly decreased,their choice of travel methods has also been affected to some extent.Studying the mechanism of the impact of the epidemic on the choice of public travel modes for college students is of great significance for understanding the public travel modes of college students during the COVID-19,and formulating more effective travel prevention and control policies by the government when new viruses or infectious diseases appear in the future,and restoring urban public transportation operations thereafter.This study focuses on the theme of " College Students’ Public Travel Mode Choice Behavior during COVID-19".First,three variables namely environmental perception,travel epidemic-prevention perception and the anxiety of COVID-19,were established,and they were combined with the original Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB)to form an expanded TPB theory.Based on this and the Big Five personality theory,questionnaires were designed respectively,and the basic information questionnaire was combined to form a total questionnaire,and the survey was conducted at the same time.Afterwards,correlation analysis and model analysis were conducted based on survey data to investigate the impact mechanisms of basic information factors,expanded TPB psychological factors,and personality factors on college students’ choice of public transportation modes,including subway and bus,ride hailing and taxi,and shared bicycles and shared electric bicycles.The research results show that variables in each questionnaire have a significant impact on college students’ public transportation choice behavior.Among the basic information variables,overall,variables such as gender,stage of study,monthly living outlay,and epidemic prevention evaluation have a significant effect on the three major types of college students’ public travel mode choice behavior differently.Among the extended TPB psychological variables,according to the analysis of structural equation models,the results show that environmental perception has a significant impact on college students’ various travel mode choices intention and behavior.Travel epidemicprevention perception and the anxiety of COVID-19 only have a significant impact on college students’ behavior intention to choose subway and bus travel.At the same time,this study also verifies the applicability of the original TPB in this research field.In the personality variables,according to the analysis of multiple indicators multiple causes,it can be seen that only extraversion has a significant impact on college students’ travel mode choice behaviors of online-hailed and taxi,as well as shared bicycles and shared electric bicycles.This study and conclusions can provide feasible suggestions for the government,enterprises,major universities,and transportation management departments to formulate relevant policies and measures when new viruses or infectious diseases appear in the future.