Assessment of COVID-19 pandemic impact on daily trips in Salah al Din Governorate in Iraq

Assessment of COVID-19 pandemic impact on daily trips in Salah al Din Governorate in Iraq

Aslam A. AL-OMARI, Bara W. AL-MISTAREHI, Roaa J. ALAWADI, Taleb M. AL ROUSAN, Shareef S. SHAREEF

Abstract. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily trips in Salah al-Din Governorate in Iraq was evaluated. A survey of 14,886 individuals was conducted, covering different aspects, such as changes in the frequency of trips, mode of transportation, distance traveled, travel time, and electronic means of reducing trips. The results showed a strong relationship between electronic activities like e-shopping and e-learning and a reduction in the number of trips. COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable impact on changing daily trips, with educational trips being the most affected due to the use of e-learning as an alternative. The trip mode was affected by COVID-19 pandemic, where the trend toward using private vehicles, walking, and bicycle increased. The use of public transportation, however, has dramatically declined as a result of passenger anxiety over the spread of the disease. The movement restrictions caused a reduction in trip time and distance traveled, which may have a positive impact on lowering air pollution, traffic accidents, and congestion.

Keywords
Covid-19 Pandemic, Daily Trips, E-Learning, E-Shopping, Trip Mode, Trip Purpose

Published online 2/25/2025, 10 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Aslam A. AL-OMARI, Bara W. AL-MISTAREHI, Roaa J. ALAWADI, Taleb M. AL ROUSAN, Shareef S. SHAREEF, Assessment of COVID-19 pandemic impact on daily trips in Salah al Din Governorate in Iraq, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 48, pp 931-940, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903414-101

The article was published as article 101 of the book Civil and Environmental Engineering for Resilient, Smart and Sustainable Solutions

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

References
[1] Molloy, J., Tchervenkov, Ch., Hintermann, B., Axhausen, K.W., 2020. Tracing the Sars-CoV-2 Impact: The First Month in Switzerland–March to April 2020. Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, p. 1503. https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.12903
[2] Gezairy, H.A., 2003. Travel epidemiology: WHO perspective. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 21(2), pp. 86-88. DOI: 10.1016/s0924-8579(02)00365-5
[3] De Vos, J., 2020. The effect of COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing on travel behavior. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 5(2), p. 100121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100121
[4] Bhuiyan, A.K.M.I., Sakib, N., Pakpour, A.H., Griffiths, M.D., Mohammed M.A., 2021. COVID-19-related suicides in Bangladesh due to lockdown and economic factors: case study evidence from media reports. International journal of mental health addiction, 19(6), pp. 2110-2115. doi: 10.1007/s11469-020-00307-y
[5] Mamun, M.A., Griffiths, M.D., 2020. First COVID-19 suicide case in Bangladesh due to fear of COVID-19 and xenophobia: Possible suicide prevention strategies. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51(1), p. 102073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102073
[6] Fong, S.J., Li, G., Dey, N., Crespo, R.G., Herrera-Viedma, E., 2020. Composite Monte Carlo decision making under high uncertainty of novel coronavirus epidemic using hybridized deep learning and fuzzy rule induction. Applied soft computing, 93(1), p. 106282. doi: 10.1016/j.asoc.2020.106282
[7] Mahmud, S.F., 2014. Proposed Criteria for Selecting Cities of Urban System in Iraq, a Case Study of Salah al-Din Governorate. Journal of Advanced Social Research, 4(5), pp. 01-24. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:168735448
[8] Rasheed, M.J., Al-Ramahi, F.K.M., 2021. Detection of the impact of climate change on desertification and sand dunes formation East of the Tigris River in Salah Al-Din Governorate using remote sensing techniques. The Iraqi Geological Journal, 4(1), pp. 69-83. https://doi.org/10.46717/igj.54.1A.7Ms-2021-01-28
[9] Andersen, L. M., Harden, S. R., Sugg, M. M., Runkle, J. D. & Lundquist, T. E. 2021. Analyzing the spatial determinants of local Covid-19 transmission in the United States. Science of the Total Environment, 754(1), 142396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142396
[10] Aloi, A., Alonso, B., Benavente, J., Cordera, R., Echániz, E., González, F., Ladisa, C., Lezama-Romanelli, R., López-Parra, Á. & Mazzei, V. 2020. Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on urban mobility: Empirical evidence from the city of Santander (Spain). Sustainability, 12(9), 3870. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093870
[11] Shakibaei, S., De Jong, G. C., Alpkökin, P. & Rashidi, T. H. 2021. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior in Istanbul: A panel data analysis. Sustainable cities society, 65, 102619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102619
[12] Barbieri, D. M., Lou, B., Passavanti, M., et al. 2021. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mobility in ten countries and associated perceived risk for all transport modes. PLOS ONE, 16(2), e0245886. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245886
[13] Przybylowski, A., Stelmak, S. & Suchanek, M. 2021. Mobility behaviour in view of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic—Public transport users in Gdansk case study. Sustainability, 13(1), 364. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010364
[14] Li, J., Xu, P. & Li, W. 2021. Urban road congestion patterns under the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study in Shanghai. International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, 10(2), 212-222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2021.03.001
[15] Berman, J. D. & Ebisu, K. 2020. Changes in US air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Science of The Total Environment, 739: 139864. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139864
[16] Fu, F., Purvis-Roberts, K. L. & Williams, B. 2020. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on air pollution in 20 major cities around the world. MDPI Journals, 11(11), 1189. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111189
[17] Silva, J. de A., de Oña, J. & Gasparovic, S. 2017. The relation between travel behaviour, ICT usage and social networks. The design of a web based survey. Transportation research procedia, 24(1), 515-522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.482
[18] Moemen, Y.S., El-Sayed, I.ET., Darwish, A., Hassanien, A.E. 2021. The Correlation Between Human Lifestyle, Weather, Smart Technologies and Covid-19 Pandemic. In: Hassanien, A.E., Darwish, A., Gyampoh, B., Abdel-Monaim, A.T., Anter, A.M. (eds) The Global Environmental Effects During and Beyond COVID-19. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 369. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72933-2_9
[19] Shaer, A. & Haghshenas, H. 2021. Evaluating the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the older adults’ travel mode choices. Transport Policy, 12. 162-172. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.08.016
[20] Abdullah, M., Ali, N., Aslam, A. B., Javid, M. A. & Hussain, S. A. 2022. Factors affecting the mode choice behavior before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. International Journal of transportation science technology, 11(1), 174-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2021.06.005
[21] WHO, 2020. Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): Situation Report – 11, Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200131-sitrep-11-ncov.pdf
[22] Beck, M.J., Hensher, D.A., 2020. Insights into the impact of COVID-19 on household travel and activities in Australia–The early days under restrictions. Transport policy, 96(1), pp. 76-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.07.001
[23] Shamshiripour, A., Rahimi, E., Shabanpour, R., Mohammadian, A.K., 2020. How is COVID-19 reshaping activity-travel behavior? Evidence from a comprehensive survey in Chicago. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 7(1), p. 100216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100216.
[24] Jassim Aljburi, A. I., & Shalal Fendi, A. T. (2023). The Spatial Analysis of the Average Household Size in Urban Salah AI- Din Governorate for the Year 2021 and Its Future Expectations. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, 30(10, 1), 88–111. https://doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.30.10.1.2023.06