The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has impacted numerous areas of people’s work and free-time activities. This article aims to present the main impacts of the COVID-19 movement restrictions on the road traffic in the Czech Republic, measured during the first epidemic wave, i.e., from 12 March to 17 May 20...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advanced Transportation |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6622028 |
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| author | Milan Simunek Zdenek Smutny Michal Dolezel |
| author_facet | Milan Simunek Zdenek Smutny Michal Dolezel |
| author_sort | Milan Simunek |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has impacted numerous areas of people’s work and free-time activities. This article aims to present the main impacts of the COVID-19 movement restrictions on the road traffic in the Czech Republic, measured during the first epidemic wave, i.e., from 12 March to 17 May 2020. The state of emergency was imposed by the Czech government as a de jure measure for coping with the perceived crisis, although the measure eventually resulted only in a quite liberal de facto form of stay-at-home instruction. Unique country-scale traffic data of the first six months of 2020 from 37,002 km of roads, constituting 66% of all roads in the Czech Republic, were collected and analyzed. For the prediction of the prepandemic traffic conditions and their comparison with the measured values in the period of the state of emergency, a long-term traffic speed prediction ensemble model consisting of case-based reasoning, linear regression, and fallback submodels was used. The authors found out that the COVID-19 movement restrictions had a significant impact on the country-wide traffic. Traffic density was reduced considerably in the first three weeks, and the weekly average traffic speed in all road types increased by up to 21%, expectedly due to less crowded roads. The exception was motorways, where a different trend in traffic was found. In sum, during the first three weeks of the state of emergency, people followed government regulations and restrictions and changed their travel behavior accordingly. However, following this period, the traffic gradually returned to the prepandemic state. This occurred three weeks before the state of emergency was terminated. From a behavioral perspective, this article briefly discusses the possible causes of such discrepancies between de jure and de facto pandemic measures, i.e., the governmental communication strategy related to loosening of movement restrictions, media reality, and certain culture-related traits. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c63e314026d2488199bb2abe1ddd4ea1 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0197-6729 2042-3195 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Advanced Transportation |
| spelling | doaj-art-c63e314026d2488199bb2abe1ddd4ea12025-08-20T03:23:19ZengWileyJournal of Advanced Transportation0197-67292042-31952021-01-01202110.1155/2021/66220286622028The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of EmergencyMilan Simunek0Zdenek Smutny1Michal Dolezel2Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prague University of Economics and Business, W. Churchill Sq. 1938/4, Prague, Czech RepublicFaculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prague University of Economics and Business, W. Churchill Sq. 1938/4, Prague, Czech RepublicFaculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prague University of Economics and Business, W. Churchill Sq. 1938/4, Prague, Czech RepublicThe COVID-19 pandemic crisis has impacted numerous areas of people’s work and free-time activities. This article aims to present the main impacts of the COVID-19 movement restrictions on the road traffic in the Czech Republic, measured during the first epidemic wave, i.e., from 12 March to 17 May 2020. The state of emergency was imposed by the Czech government as a de jure measure for coping with the perceived crisis, although the measure eventually resulted only in a quite liberal de facto form of stay-at-home instruction. Unique country-scale traffic data of the first six months of 2020 from 37,002 km of roads, constituting 66% of all roads in the Czech Republic, were collected and analyzed. For the prediction of the prepandemic traffic conditions and their comparison with the measured values in the period of the state of emergency, a long-term traffic speed prediction ensemble model consisting of case-based reasoning, linear regression, and fallback submodels was used. The authors found out that the COVID-19 movement restrictions had a significant impact on the country-wide traffic. Traffic density was reduced considerably in the first three weeks, and the weekly average traffic speed in all road types increased by up to 21%, expectedly due to less crowded roads. The exception was motorways, where a different trend in traffic was found. In sum, during the first three weeks of the state of emergency, people followed government regulations and restrictions and changed their travel behavior accordingly. However, following this period, the traffic gradually returned to the prepandemic state. This occurred three weeks before the state of emergency was terminated. From a behavioral perspective, this article briefly discusses the possible causes of such discrepancies between de jure and de facto pandemic measures, i.e., the governmental communication strategy related to loosening of movement restrictions, media reality, and certain culture-related traits.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6622028 |
| spellingShingle | Milan Simunek Zdenek Smutny Michal Dolezel The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency Journal of Advanced Transportation |
| title | The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency |
| title_full | The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency |
| title_short | The Impact of the COVID-19 Movement Restrictions on the Road Traffic in the Czech Republic during the State of Emergency |
| title_sort | impact of the covid 19 movement restrictions on the road traffic in the czech republic during the state of emergency |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6622028 |
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