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Transportation Letters
The International Journal of Transportation Research
Volume 16, 2024 - Issue 1
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Review

How COVID-19 transformed the landscape of transportation research: an integrative scoping review and roadmap for future research

Milad Haghania Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSWSydney, AustraliaCorrespondence[email protected]
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Rico Merkertb Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS), The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, AustraliaView further author information
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Ali Behnoodc Indiana Department of Transportation, Crawfordsville District, IN, USAView further author information
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Chris De Gruyterd Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, AustraliaView further author information
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Khashayar Kazemzadehe Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, SwedenView further author information
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Hadi Ghaderif Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, AustraliaView further author information
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Zahra Shahhoseinig Level Crossing Removal Projects, MTIA Major Transport Infrastructure Victoria, Melbourne, AustraliaView further author information
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Vinh Thaih School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain, RMIT University, Melbourne, AustraliaView further author information
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Elnaz Irannezhada Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSWSydney, AustraliaView further author information
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Behnam Fahimniab Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS), The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, AustraliaView further author information
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S Travis Wallera Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSWSydney, Australia;i Lighthouse Professor and Chair of Transport Modelling and SimulationTU Dresden, Germany;j College of Engineering and Computer Science, Australian National University, Canberra, AustraliaView further author information
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David A Hensherb Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS), The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, AustraliaView further author information
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Pages 43-88 | Received 21 Aug 2022, Accepted 15 Dec 2022, Published online: 02 Jan 2023
 
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ABSTRACT

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, scholars mobilized their efforts to address its far-reaching societal problems. With mobility restrictions being front and center of the pandemic, a new cohort of transportation science was developed within a short period of time. Here, we examine more than 400 studies related to COVID-19 published across transportation journals during 2020 and 2021. The aim is (i) to scope this newly developed segment of transportation research, (ii) outline the diversity of pandemic-related issues across various divisions of the transportation field and (iii) provide a roadmap for the future of this line of research. Common themes are identified and existing congruence and discrepancies across findings are discussed. Results show that although conventional methods of transportation research were adopted in virtually all COVID-19 studies, no pre-pandemic study was particularly instrumental in the development of this segment of transportation literature. The COVID-19 segment appears to have developed its own independent knowledge foundation, in that, it does not systemically and frequently look back at any particular pre-pandemic reference. Potential impacts of this newly developed segment on the metrics of transportation journals are quantified and discussed.

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Australian Research Council grant DE210100440. The authors are grateful for the constructive feedback received from four anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Apple. Mobility Trends Report. 2020. https://www.apple.com/covid19/mobility. Accessed July 15, 2020

2. The relative growth of the field in 2021 compared to 2020 (nearly 12%) does in fact constitute one of the sharpest rises in the growth of the transport-related literature over the last decade.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DE210100440].

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