IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v172y2023ics0965856423000897.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A social media Data-Driven analysis for transport policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Wuhan, China

Author

Listed:
  • Zha, Wenbin
  • Ye, Qian
  • Li, Jian
  • Ozbay, Kaan

Abstract

Non-pharmacological interventions (NPI) such as social distancing and lockdown are essential in preventing and controlling emerging pandemic outbreaks. Many countries worldwide implemented lockdowns during the COVID-19 outbreaks. However, due to the lack of prior experience and knowledge about the pandemic, it is challenging to deal with short-term polices decision-making due to the highly stochastic and dynamic nature of the COVID-19. Thus, there is a need for the exploration of policy decision analysis to help agencies to adjust their current policies and adopt quickly. In this study, an analytical methodology is developed to analysis urban transport policy response for pandemic control based on social media data. Compared to traditional surveys or interviews, social media can provide timely data based on the feedback from public in terms of public demands, opinions, and acceptance of policy implementations. In particular, a sentiment-aware pre-trained language model is fine-tuned for sentiment analysis of policy. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model is used to classify documents, e.g., posts collected from social media, into specific topics in an unsupervised manner. Then, entropy weights method (EWM) is used to extract public policy demands based on the classified topics. Meanwhile, a Jaccard distance-based approach is proposed to conduct the response analysis of policy adjustments. A retrospective analysis of transport policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China is presented using the developed methodology. The results show that the developed policymaking support methodology can be an effective tool to evaluate the acceptance of anti-pandemic policies from the public's perspective, to assess the balance between policies and people’s demands, and to further perform the response analysis of a series of policy adjustments based on online feedback.

Suggested Citation

  • Zha, Wenbin & Ye, Qian & Li, Jian & Ozbay, Kaan, 2023. "A social media Data-Driven analysis for transport policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Wuhan, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:172:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423000897
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103669
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423000897
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103669?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dawei Li & Yujia Zhang & Cheng Li, 2019. "Mining Public Opinion on Transportation Systems Based on Social Media Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Mogaji, Emmanuel & Adekunle, Ibrahim & Aririguzoh, Stella & Oginni, Adeyemi, 2022. "Dealing with impact of COVID-19 on transportation in a developing country: Insights and policy recommendations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 304-314.
    3. Xianyuan Zhan & Satish Ukkusuri & Feng Zhu, 2014. "Inferring Urban Land Use Using Large-Scale Social Media Check-in Data," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 647-667, December.
    4. Batarce, Marco & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2016. "Valuing crowding in public transport: Implications for cost-benefit analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 358-378.
    5. Liu, Zhiyong & Li, Ruimin & Wang, Xiaokun (Cara) & Shang, Pan, 2020. "Noncompliance behavior against vehicle restriction policy: A case study of Langfang, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1020-1033.
    6. Jyoti Prakash Singh & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Nripendra P. Rana & Abhinav Kumar & Kawaljeet Kaur Kapoor, 2019. "Event classification and location prediction from tweets during disasters," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 737-757, December.
    7. Zhang, Junyi, 2020. "Transport policymaking that accounts for COVID-19 and future public health threats: A PASS approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 405-418.
    8. Zhang, Junyi & Hayashi, Yoshitsugu & Frank, Lawrence D., 2021. "COVID-19 and transport: Findings from a world-wide expert survey," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 68-85.
    9. Fang, Hanming & Wang, Long & Yang, Yang, 2020. "Human mobility restrictions and the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    10. Burchell, Jonathan & Ison, Stephen & Enoch, Marcus & Budd, Lucy, 2019. "Implementation of the workplace parking levy as a transport policy instrument," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Gal-Tzur, Ayelet & Grant-Muller, Susan M. & Kuflik, Tsvi & Minkov, Einat & Nocera, Silvio & Shoor, Itay, 2014. "The potential of social media in delivering transport policy goals," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 115-123.
    12. Liu, Zhiyong & Li, Ruimin & Wang, Xiaokun(Cara) & Shang, Pan, 2018. "Effects of vehicle restriction policies: Analysis using license plate recognition data in Langfang, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 89-103.
    13. Jianghao Wang & Yichun Fan & Juan Palacios & Yuchen Chai & Nicolas Guetta-Jeanrenaud & Nick Obradovich & Chenghu Zhou & Siqi Zheng, 2022. "Global evidence of expressed sentiment alterations during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(3), pages 349-358, March.
    14. Lian, Ying & Liu, Yijun & Dong, Xuefan, 2020. "Strategies for controlling false online information during natural disasters: The case of Typhoon Mangkhut in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Basso, Leonardo J. & Montero, Juan-Pablo & Sepúlveda, Felipe, 2021. "A practical approach for curbing congestion and air pollution: Driving restrictions with toll and vintage exemptions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 330-352.
    16. Yang, Senyan & Ning, Lianju & Jiang, Tingfeng & He, Yingqi, 2021. "Dynamic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the regional express logistics: Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 111-124.
    17. Lucini, Filipe R. & Tonetto, Leandro M. & Fogliatto, Flavio S. & Anzanello, Michel J., 2020. "Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. An, Yunlong & Lin, Xi & Li, Meng & He, Fang, 2021. "Dynamic governance decisions on multi-modal inter-city travel during a large-scale epidemic spreading," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 29-42.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Armah, Abdul Karim & Li, Jinfa, 2023. "Generational cohorts’ social media acceptance as a delivery tool in sub-Sahara Africa motorcycle industry: The role of cohort technical know-how in technology acceptance," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beck, Matthew J. & Hensher, David A., 2022. "Australia 6 months after COVID-19 restrictions- part 1: Changes to travel activity and attitude to measures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 286-298.
    2. Hedi Haddad & Zied Bouyahia & Leila Horchani, 2022. "On the Sustainability of Shared Mobility Since COVID-19: From Socially Structured to Social Bubble Vanpooling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, November.
    3. Zhang, Qiang & Tong, Qiong, 2021. "The economic impacts of traffic consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: A CGE analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 330-337.
    4. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Reimann, Felix, 2021. "On employer-paid parking and parking (cash-out) policy: A formal synthesis of different perspectives," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 499-516.
    5. Soto, Jose J. & Macea, Luis F. & Cantillo, Victor, 2023. "Analysing a license plate-based vehicle restriction policy with optional exemption charge: The case in Cali, Colombia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Kim, Kyusik & Ghorbanzadeh, Mahyar & Horner, Mark W. & Ozguven, Eren Erman, 2021. "Identifying areas of potential critical healthcare shortages: A case study of spatial accessibility to ICU beds during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 478-486.
    7. Zhang, Junyi & Hayashi, Yoshitsugu, 2022. "Research frontier of COVID-19 and passenger transport: A focus on policymaking," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 78-88.
    8. Bandyopadhyay, Arnab & Bhatnagar, Sameer, 2023. "Impact of COVID-19 on ports, multimodal logistics and transport sector in India: Responses and policy imperatives," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 15-25.
    9. Parker, Madeleine E.G. & Li, Meiqing & Bouzaghrane, Mohamed Amine & Obeid, Hassan & Hayes, Drake & Frick, Karen Trapenberg & Rodríguez, Daniel A. & Sengupta, Raja & Walker, Joan & Chatman, Daniel G., 2021. "Public transit use in the United States in the era of COVID-19: Transit riders’ travel behavior in the COVID-19 impact and recovery period," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 53-62.
    10. Alice de Séjournet & Cathy Macharis & Sara Tori & Lieselot Vanhaverbeke, 2022. "Evolution of urban mobility behaviour in Brussels as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S1), pages 107-121, November.
    11. Jiang, Tingfeng & Liu, Taoxiong & Tang, Ke & Zeng, Jiaqing, 2022. "Online prices and inflation during the nationwide COVID-19 quarantine period: Evidence from 107 Chinese websites," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    12. Xu, Ningzhe & Nie, Qifan & Liu, Jun & Jones, Steven, 2024. "Linking short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior and travel preferences in Alabama: A machine learning-supported path analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 46-62.
    13. Zhou, Huiyu & Wang, Yacan & Huscroft, Joseph R. & Bai, Kailing, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 and anti-pandemic policies on urban transport—an empirical study in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 135-149.
    14. Farha, Farzana Faiza & Shanto, Farabi Sarker & Khan, Fyrooz Anika & Mehrin, Maria & Khan, Asif & Tabassum, Nawshin & Nakshi, Paromita, 2024. "Exploring the changes in travel behavior between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dhaka," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 24-35.
    15. Kim, Eui-Jin & Kim, Youngseo & Jang, Sunghoon & Kim, Dong-Kyu, 2021. "Tourists’ preference on the combination of travel modes under Mobility-as-a-Service environment," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 236-255.
    16. Marcelo Werneck Barbosa & Paulo Renato de Sousa & Leise Kelli de Oliveira, 2022. "The Effects of Barriers and Freight Vehicle Restrictions on Logistics Costs: A Comparison before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-13, July.
    17. Lin, Shichao & Zhu, Songwei & Li, Xiangmin & Li, Ruimin, 2022. "Effects of strict vehicle restrictions on various travel modes: A case study of Zhengzhou, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 310-323.
    18. Wang, Kaili & Liu, Yicong & Mashrur, Sk Md & Loa, Patrick & Habib, Khandker Nurul, 2021. "COVid-19 influenced households’ Interrupted Travel Schedules (COVHITS) survey: Lessons from the fall 2020 cycle," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 43-62.
    19. Loa, Patrick & Hossain, Sanjana & Mashrur, Sk. Md. & Liu, Yicong & Wang, Kaili & Ong, Felita & Habib, Khandker Nurul, 2021. "Exploring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on modality profiles for non-mandatory trips in the Greater Toronto Area," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 71-85.
    20. Carlos Oliveira Cruz & Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Highway Traffic and Management: The Case Study of an Operator Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-12, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:172:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423000897. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.