Road congestion after the pandemic: underlying factors and future outlook

Road congestion in urban areas has long been a major challenge for transport policy and traffic management (Christodoulou et al. 2020). One of the ‘silver linings’ of the Covid-19 pandemic was a decrease in transport demand and visibly lower congestion levels in most European cities. Transport activity is already showing a gradual return to year 2019 levels, with the lifestyles and work patterns adopted during the pandemic returning to normality. Some of the behavioural changes –such as remote work- may still partially continue, probably at a lower degree than in the height of the pandemic, but still more commonplace than before (Lopez Soler et al. 2021). The new patterns may- however- also to increased levels of car ownership and use, resulting in a rebound in the levels of congestion (Christidis et al. 2022). The aim of this chapter is to explore the relationship between the changes in lifestyles due to the pandemic and the impacts on urban congestion levels.

CHRISTIDIS Panayotis;  VEGA GONZALO Maria; 

2025-02-21

Edward Elgar Publishing

JRC133816

978-1-0353-2195-7 (online),    978-1-03532194-0 (print),   

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/transport-in-a-moving-world-9781035321940.html,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC133816,   

10.4337/9781035321957 (print),