Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Public Transport Differs According to Social Class: a Case Study of Donostia-San Sebastian City Bus System

Abstract

Almost three years into the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to have an impact on mobility around the world. Public transport was particularly hindered, since people may perceive it as unsafe and decide to avoid it. Many studies have been conducted on the decline in the use of public transport, but there is no research in the literature related to the use of public transport during the pandemic, according to family income. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the case of the city of Donostia- San Sebastian. An exploratory study has been carried out using data on the number of monthly passengers throughout 2019, 2020 and 2021. The data have been provided by DBUS, the company in charge of managing urban public transport in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián. On the other hand, the income data have been collected from the city council website. In order to carry out the statistical analysis, descriptive statistics and non-parametric Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests have been used. The calculations have been performed using the SPSS 25.0 package. There is income inequality between the three main areas of Donostia-San Sebastián. The results show significant statistical differences in the use of public transport according to income. Thus, the pandemic has brought to light the socioeconomic inequalities that exist in the city.