Article citation information:
Olojede, O.A.,
Oluborode, O.G. Transportation: the agathokakological vehicle of
pandemic transmission and management. Scientific
Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport. 2022, 115, 107-120. ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20858/sjsutst.2022.115.8.
Olorunfemi Ayodeji OLOJEDE[1],
Oluwatimilehin Gabriel OLUBORODE[2]
TRANSPORTATION: THE AGATHOKAKOLOGICAL VEHICLE OF PANDEMIC TRANSMISSION
AND MANAGEMENT
Summary. Discourses on
pandemics often prioritize germane pharmaceutical issues while largely ignoring
the social dimensions to them, especially the paradoxical role of
transportation in pandemic transmission and management. Granted, from an
epidemiological perspective, transportation is technically a vector of
pandemics; however, by sustaining continuous critical supply chains and
facilitating the conveyance of interventions during pandemics, transportation
also plays a crucial role in pandemic control and management. Indeed, studies
have shown that the risk of disease transmission can be significantly reduced
by the observation of non-pharmaceutical transport protocols. Against this
background, this paper highlights the dual roles of transportation in aiding
and curbing pandemics, with a strong emphasis on the latter. Moreover, towards
consolidating on the strengths of the transport sector in the control and
management of public health issues, this paper underscores the sacrosanctity of
responsible transport. Challenges were identified, and practicable
recommendations were proffered towards containing them.
Keywords: COVID-19,
pandemic transmission, pandemic control and management,
pandemic-responsiveness, responsible transport, active transport
1. INTRODUCTION:
REDEFINING THE TRANSPORTATION-PANDEMIC INTERFACE
It is
acceptable to both common knowledge and scientific analyses that transportation
aids the transmission of infectious diseases and pandemics [5, 26, 42, 47, 51, 56,
63, 64]. However, the role and potential of transportation in the control and
management of pandemics are generally rarely duly acknowledged. Indeed,
discourses on pandemics usually prioritize such germane issues as containment,
treatment protocols, and medication (including vaccination) while largely
ignoring the social dimensions to them, especially the paradoxical role of
transportation in both the transmission and management of global public health
challenges.
Arguably, the
relationship between the duo of transportation and pandemics could be
understood in two major successive dimensions [41]. First, transportation
contributes in a major way to the spread of pandemics. Second, it ensures the
continuity of critical supply chains during pandemics, especially when
lockdowns become expedient, as well as provides the means and modes for spatial
interactions through which medical and pharmaceutical interventions are
produced and supplied. The latter role necessarily relates to pandemic control
and management, especially with the acknowledgement of the complementary role
of non-pharmaceutical protocols.
An
all-inclusive analysis and contextualization of the interconnectedness between
transportation and pandemics is imperative for a thorough understanding of the
indispensability of transportation in overall pandemic control and management;
however, a dearth of research insufficiently addresses these holistically in
the literature. Consequently, this paper attempts to update the literature and advance
the frontiers of existing narratives on the transportation-pandemic interface,
as well as chart the course for a possible paradigm shift.
2.
TRANSPORTATION AS A DRIVER OF PANDEMIC TRANSMISSION
Infectious diseases have
affected humanity for centuries [2, 28, 32, 36, 44, 54], and the contribution
of transportation to their spread has long been established. In the train of
ubiquitous and efficient transportation is a quick and widespread transmission
of infectious diseases [7, 8, 41]. Even years before the onset of COVID-19, the
latest of the pandemics, it had been postulated that public transport systems
were involved in intensifying and speeding up the spread of influenzas and
associated viruses across the globe. This is a consequence of the thronging of
hordes of passengers within enclosed areas, creating an environment conducive
to the easy transmission of infections among the passengers through the
inhalation of droplets and aerosols of virus suspended in the air [20].
In the last three centuries,
ten major influenzal pandemics have struck all over or at many different parts
of the world. The Spanish Flu of 1918 is still regarded as the worst [10, 41];
it saw almost a third of the entire world’s population becoming ill, and
up to a hundred million people losing their lives. Further, the 21st century
has witnessed several severe communicable disease outbreaks. Various infectious
diseases ranging from the currently ravaging multivariant COVID-19 pandemic,
with a devastating impact on both the lives and livelihoods of people
worldwide, to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak of
2003, the swine flu pandemic of 2009, the respiratory syndrome coronavirus
outbreak of 2012 in the Middle East, the West African Ebola virus disease
epidemic between 2013 and 2016, as well as the Zika virus disease epidemic of
2015, have afflicted billions of people globally. These diseases have brought
about considerable morbidity and substantial mortality figures as they spread
unfettered from border to border, infecting people across nations and regions
[2].
One important factor aiding
the quick and extensive spread of diseases is modern transportation, which has
been offering global coverage for well over a century now. Often, infected crews
and passengers spread these diseases as they move from one part of the world to
another in trains and ships; most times, severe cases of the epidemics were
recorded among railway personnel and in shipyards. In more recent times, such
outbreaks as the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the 2005
Avian Flu, and the 2009 Swine Flu, as well as the rapidly evolving COVID-19,
quickly spread largely owing to the readily available, efficient and convenient
air travel, which makes any part of the globe easily accessible [41].
Therefore, epidemiologically viewed, it is arguable that transportation is
technically a veritable vector of pandemics [9, 15, 41, 58, 59].
3. THE
ROLE OF TRANSPORTATION IN PANDEMIC CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT
In discourses on pandemics,
transportation is evidently a necessary evil. It contributes to the
globalisation and the control and management of pandemics. In other words, its
aiding pandemic transmission notwithstanding, transportation also helps in the
control and management of pandemics. This is done in two significant ways.
First, without transportation, the logistics needed for the continued supply
chains of critical stocks during pandemics would be non-existent. Second,
transportation aids spatial interactions, even during pandemic-induced
lockdowns, thereby facilitating the conveyance of medical and pharmaceutical
interventions as well as medical personnel and essential workers during
pandemics.
Usually, during outbreaks of
pandemics, lockdowns become necessary. Evidently, failure on the part of the
government to curtail the spread of pandemics at such critical times could be
costly. For instance, according to Colonna and Intini [12], based on an
empirical experience from Italy, damage from loss of human capital and
healthcare costs could have been fully compensated if lockdowns had been
imposed ten days earlier than it was. At a time, the COVID-19 pandemic
aggressively ravaged the national and global economies, public health was
alarmingly compromised, and people’s livelihoods were severely threatened
with well over 3,600,000 infections and 250,000 mortalities worldwide. This
informed the drastic measures taken by governments in many countries towards
thwarting the unrelenting spread of the pandemic [6, 19, 27]. Thus,
approximately half of all the people in the world had their mobility restricted
as international borders were shut leading to a sharp decline in economic
activities as many countries suspended many businesses deemed non-essential [4,
19, 52].
Whenever lockdowns are
introduced during pandemics, freight distribution usually attracts a lot of
attention. The rationale for this consists in the reality that once the
continuous supply of some vital resources and consumables is discontinued, the
sustenance of the economy becomes practically impossible [40]. Furthermore,
transportation provides the means and modes of mobility for medical workers and
interventions during pandemics. According to WHO [60], the success of any
vaccination or immunization programme hinges on an efficient supply chain, as
well as functional logistics systems, which are needed for the efficient
storage and handling of vaccines and their stock management, the cold chain of
which painstaking and constant temperature control is required. This is in
addition to the maintenance of high-level logistics management information
systems that guarantee the continuous availability and supply of top-quality
vaccines from the point of production to the point of use via an efficient
supply chain. It is ensured that no opportunity to get anyone vaccinated is
missed just because the vaccines to be used are not available. Thus, a system
must be put in place to ensure that the established six conventional rights of
an ideal supply-chain management are achieved. These translate to having the
right product in the right quantity in the right condition in the right place
at the right time and at the right cost.
In 2020, certain goals were
set for mass vaccination. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) [62],
it was expected that by the end of 2020, the yearly production capacity of
COVID-19 vaccines would have reached 610 million doses and that the target of
one billion doses would be met by the following year. It was also projected
that the monthly production capacity of the COVID-19 vaccine would reach 5
million doses by the first month of 2021. Subsequently, for example, the United
States government planned to produce and deliver up to 300 million doses of the
COVID-19 vaccine by the beginning of 2021. This was part of a long-range plan
targeted at accelerating the production and global distribution of COVID-19
medication and remedies in vaccine, therapeutic and diagnostic forms. As many
as two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses were planned for worldwide distribution,
with a target set for the end of 2021 and an allocation proposed for
approximately a fifth of the population of each country to have prioritized
target groups covered.
Without transport systems to
provide the time and place utilities, it would be impossible to effectively
deliver the required doses of vaccines around the world. The handling and
delivery of vaccines must observe global regulatory standards, which stipulate
controlled temperatures and an uninterrupted supply chain to ensure that the
quality of the product is not at any point compromised [23]. Consequently,
since the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency, aviation stakeholders
such as government agencies, air carriers and others have worked proactively
together towards enabling safe and efficient transportation of critical medical
supplies and personnel by air [16]. Thus, transportation constitutes an
integral part of the solution to the problem to which it has largely
contributed. This underscores the imperativeness of prioritizing transport,
though a non-pharmaceutical entity, in considerations of the management of
pandemics.
A significant
‘add-on’ to transportation in the management of pandemics was
birthed by the introduction of drones. Drones have exceptional delivery systems
with huge benefits. They provide unparalleled assistance to manufacturers by
helping them meet up with demands, the supply of which would be otherwise
impossible given temporal and spatial inhibitions. Particularly, drones
demonstrate crucial indispensability in helping emergency products to be
available as and when needed. A good case in point is how China employed drones
in conveying quarantine materials and medical samples at a time the COVID-19
pandemic was at its peak and movements were highly restricted. The intervention
drastically reduced the chances of contact between healthcare workers and
medical samples. Besides, the speed of delivery was enhanced by some 50%
relative to conventional transportation modes, specifically by road [14].
According to Baker [2],
drones delivered COVID-19 tests in Ghana in 2020. Ilancheran [24] and S&P
Global [43] also submitted that these drones were operated from distribution
centres and warehouses. These distribution centres and warehouses have a wide
array of medical supplies in stock such that upon receipt of orders, the
required products are placed in boxes and dispatched to the appropriate
destinations using drones. In addition, some drone operators have drone
stations set up near medical facilities to facilitate fast and secure
transportation. Although many of the drones currently employed in developing
countries, as well as their technology, originate from developed countries,
arrangements have been made to implement the requisite aerial drone technology
in developing countries. This has led to the creation of new markets in these
developing countries in partnership with stakeholders including private
operators, organizations and governments. Although the use of drone technology
to this end has been observed to be relatively slow among developed countries,
it is only due to issues that relate to security risks and the limited sensing
technology currently in the drone delivery market.
Acknowledging the role
drones play in medical supplies logistics, some international logistics
companies have started active collaborations with people in the business of
drone operation and logistics. UPS, DHL and FedEx are examples of such
logistics companies. They formed a kind of tripartite business arrangement with
drone companies/operators and manufacturers for the supply of medical products
and test samples. This way, they improved laboratory logistics and enhanced
delivery lead times. Consequently, names like Parcelcopter and Wingcopter
have emerged in the delivery of emergency medicines and blood supplies,
temperature-sensitive medicines together with its temperature-controlled
storage unit, non-prescription medicines to consumers, specimens to the lab for
testing, emergency blood supplies, and critical drug products and vaccines in
locations across Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania and the USA [15, 33, 53, 57].
Drones are aiding
transportation and revolutionizing the supply chain of essential medical
supplies even to remote areas of the world. Usually, they are the best mode of
transportation for the conveyance of essential products within the shortest
possible time, especially where road transportation systems are barely
functional or during peaks of ravaging pandemic outbreaks when time is
essential to the delivery of samples to laboratories. Thus, the adoption of
drones as a crucial logistics solution for enhanced efficiency in the
healthcare system is not only desirable but also indispensable, as it could
boost cold chain solutions and improve the overall supply chain [53, 57].
Furthermore, beyond the
logistics benefits of transport in pandemic control and management, its
operations go a long way in creating a safe environment for travellers.
Ordinarily, responsible transport would suffice as both a proactive and
reactive measure against pandemics. Responsible transport, a new concept in
transportation, was advanced by Budd and Ison [8] for a post-COVID world. The
conscious and intentional role of individual responsibility is underscored
towards the achievement of positive personal/individual, social/corporate and
environmental outcomes to checkmate the spread of pandemics and other global
public health crises. According to Budd and Ison [8], as an example of a
pandemic, COVID-19 has helped identify the role of the individual, collective
and political responsibility and actions in the fight against a global menace.
Although international organisations and governments at various levels have
risen to the occasion by formulating and executing practicable policy
responses, it is the collective actions of individuals that have invariably
been the most significant and have yielded the most far-reaching positive and
impressive desirable outcomes. All over the world, millions of individuals
imparted and empowered with the right knowledge and responsibility to protect
both their health and that of those around them have responded positively by
protecting and isolating themselves as required. Often, this came at
significant personal, social and financial costs.
COVID-19 has successfully placed
the onus to be responsible on the shoulders of every individual. Such simple
routines that could enhance transport safety as maintaining social distance,
washing of hands or using a hand sanitizer, travelling when and only when
absolutely necessary, steering clear of co-passengers whose health status is
unknown, wearing face masks and gloves, and cutting down on discretionary
trips, among other safety measures, have reinforced the gospel of responsible
transport. Another measure consists in putting safety ahead of the gains of
travel demand management. For instance, as found by Padmanabhan et al. [39], a reduction was found in
shared biking in New York, Boston and Chicago as COVID-19 cases increased. This
accentuates the imperativeness of taking personal responsibility in transport
demand. Beyond these, responsible transport entails considering whether the
transport can be substituted for telecommunications, considering the impact
travel choices have on trip-makers towards health and wellbeing.
Studies have shown that the
risk of disease transmission can be significantly reduced by not only adhering
to clinical control and prevention guidelines but also by observing
non-pharmaceutical transport protocols. Also established is the significance of
collaborations between public health sectors and transport authorities towards
proactively formulating and enforcing preventive measures against pandemics.
For example, airport and public health officials have a way of addressing the
major challenges militating against the efforts of aviation authorities to
drastically reduce the transmission rates of infectious diseases. Towards
keeping stations/terminals and vehicles safe, many transport authorities in
charge of airports, seaports, bus stations, and train stations conscientiously
maintain painstaking procedures for medical interventions to prevent the spread
of communicable diseases from carriers to fellow passengers, crew members and
other staff members [35].
Moreover, while research has
shown that restrictions on both domestic and international travels if applied
early enough, can be effective in the control of the spread of communicable
diseases, it has also been established that, at an advanced stage of any
pandemic, behavioural changes become non-negotiably crucial in checking the
transmission [12, 32]. This is because passengers often stay close to one
another when in concourses, when they use stairways and doorways, and when they
pass through checkpoints. More so, deliberately and/or on reflex, they touch
many different surfaces while accessing the different stages of the transport
service, for example, when using ticket vending machines, lifts or escalators,
waiting areas, restaurants, sanitation facilities, and seating queues. They
also touch handrails, handles, barriers, waste bins and several other objects.
It has been found that some
viruses can thrive for a relatively long time on a range of surfaces, with some
of them being able to stay on for up to several days. This period is enough for
passengers to be at risk of infection. Therefore, every type of vehicle used for
commercial purposes during pandemics is expected to be sterilized for the
transmission chain of viruses to be broken. Ideally, an integrated hygiene
programme is implemented in all transport hubs with a focus on three major
areas (surface, hand and air) to prevent the spread of viruses and germs.
Surface and hand hygiene are concerned with disinfecting common touchpoints and
the provision of solutions, as well as sanitisers for added protection in the
washroom, respectively, while air hygiene takes care of purification and
filtration [61]. All these steps are safety measures against transmission.
Furthermore, the possibility
of virus transmission among mass transit users and operators may be
significantly slashed by simply observing the guidelines stipulated by national
public health agencies and other mode-specific regulations. Regarding bus
services, these may include coordinated loading and offloading measures, the
enforcement of nose masks and face coverings, the use of bus assistants, as
well as structural retrofitting and design modifications for existing and
future buses, respectively. Finally, applicable and adaptable control measures
obtainable in similar mass transit modes for shielding passengers from
contracting viruses could also be found practicable for adoption in buses. Such
measures could be summarily considered for incorporation without delay [1].
4. TRANSPORTATION-RELATED CHALLENGES IN
PANDEMIC CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT
Theoretically, given strict
and conscientious adherence to all non-pharmaceutical protocols, especially
through responsible transport, transportation could effectively guard against
the transmission of pandemics. Also, its task concerning the control and
management of pandemics could be less daunting given favourable circumstances.
The reality, however, is that transportation as a sector is dogged by a myriad
of challenges that constrains its efficacy in pandemic control and management.
According to Bird et al. [6], one of the biggest
challenges facing transportation, especially in cities of developing countries,
consists in the ownership structure of public transport. In most cities, public
transport is largely informal and mostly private owned, thereby making it quite
difficult to enforce pandemic-compliant measures or responsible transport
protocols. For example, on average, seven of every ten commuters in Nairobi
(Kenya) travel to work using matatus (minibuses) that are private owned and
operated. Millions of travellers in the city rely solely on this and other
informal public transport modes such as minivans, taxis and scooters for their
non-active travels. The reason for this is that these informal modes
characteristically offer a wider range of reliable transport services to
travellers than the formal system. Since the informal services are largely
beyond the state’s control, it is practically difficult for the
government to impose or demand pandemic-responsive or responsible transport measures.
Similarly, experiences from South Africa show that many operators of informal
minibuses disregarded and resisted attempts by the government to impose
capacity regulations. The operators argued that responsible transport measures
would paralyze their livelihood and subject them to a life of penury.
Meanwhile, imposing penalties such as service suspension and/or reduction on
these minibus operators might push them out of business permanently [6]. This
has serious implications for public transport even beyond the periods of
pandemics.
Another major challenge
militating against the seamless adoption of responsible transport measures is
widespread apathy on the part of passengers in the observance of the protocols.
This apathy mostly manifests in their aversion to regimented hygiene and
antipathy towards vaccination. For instance, viral scepticism and misgivings
have greeted every attempt made by national and international agencies toward
COVID-19 vaccination in many parts of the globe. Granted, conspiracy theories
have significantly contributed to the development; however, the fears expressed
by the people, especially the blacks and other racial minorities, are
necessarily not far-fetched. Empirical evidence and historical records abound
that in many cases of medical apartheid, black people and racial minorities
have been used as guinea pigs and lab rats for many generations in the past [11,
18, 21, 29, 49, 55].
A good case in point is the
Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which has for a long time remained a handy reference
point in discourses on how the present-day African-Americans should relate with
the biomedical community. Several reports argue that the Tuskegee Syphilis
Study is the major reason that informs the position taken by many
African-Americans whenever they are involved with institutions of medicine and
public health. Thus, naturally, many of them would never totally trust the
intentions of these institutions on any issue, no matter how well packaged as
being in the best interest of public health. Meanwhile, this lack of trust
predated public revelations concerning the study [17, 48], and it subsists
still [13, 22, 25, 50, 55].
Moreover, the influence of
faith and religion as well as sheer obduracy cannot be ruled out, especially in
Africa. It is not uncommon to hear such faith-induced declarations as
‘I’m covered by the blood of Jesus’, ‘None of the
ailments of the Egyptians shall touch me’, ‘My Jesus is bigger than
coronavirus’, ‘I shall not die’, ‘I shall live to
declare the good works of the Lord…’, ‘The COVID-19
vaccine contains the DNA of Lucifer!’ and ‘It is the mark of the
Beast!’, among other confessions and assertions, especially among
professing Christians. Even many Africans who do not exude any religious
inclination speak plainly about their abhorrence to COVID-19 vaccination. What
seemed to have fuelled this trend is the prediction credited to Melinda Gates.
In an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) in 2020, she had warned, when
expressing her concerns over the poor state of African cities and their inadequate
healthcare facilities, that there would be dead bodies all over the streets of
Africa owing to the scourge of COVID-19 [34]. Later, her partner and erstwhile
husband, Bill Gates, fanned the flames by passing a comment that he did not
know why COVID-19 cases and deaths were low in Africa as against the grim
casualty figures in developed countries [45, 46]. He was unsparingly lambasted
over this, though [46], and the resistance against COVID-19 vaccination among
Africans seemed to increase with many people claiming that the Gates were up to
no good about the COVID-19 vaccine. This is despite decades of their enormous
financial commitments to health issues in Africa.
Unsustainable livelihoods
and poverty constitute another major threat to responsible transport in Africa.
People with low incomes, especially those who engage in informal sector
economic activities, tend to prioritize their livelihoods over life and safety.
In an unpublished study by Olojede [37], it was discovered that commercial transport
operators in Ile-Ife (Nigeria) would rather contract COVID-19 than starve owing
to the suspension of their services brought about by lockdowns. The commercial
transport operators accused politicians and community leaders of hoarding
palliatives meant for them during the lockdowns and concluded that they would
be better off with the COVID-19 infection risks for as long as they could earn
their daily bread unrestricted.
Furthermore, despite their
huge role as a key complement with great potential for substituting
conventional transportation modes in terms of supply chain efficiencies, drones
also have their limitations. Granted, their use has removed many hurdles; yet,
safe delivery of vital medical interventions would be difficult if careful and
proper advance planning is not put in place. Consequently, there is the need
for a highly skilled workforce whose duty should be to maintain a seamless
logistics management of information systems during pandemics. Moreover,
delivering efficient interventions involves overcoming extremely complicated
logistic and programmatic impediments that could come up at any point along the
supply chain. Ensuring all these may prove overwhelming to many African and
other developing countries owing to corruption, poor management and other human
factors.
5. WAY FORWARD: INTEGRATING
PANDEMIC-RESPONSIVENESS IN TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Towards consolidating on the
strengths of the transport sector in the control and management of pandemics
and other public health issues, integrating the fundamentals of responsible
transport and/or pandemic-responsiveness into the transportation systems,
particularly in developing countries, is non-negotiable. Consequently,
practicable policy recommendations are hereby proffered.
First, governments should
demonstrate a sincere commitment to the good of public transport investment.
Given that the government is not a major stakeholder in the transport sector,
its intervention would always be taken as an imposition, which may be opposed
by the investors and operators in the sector. Thus, a joint ownership in the
form of public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements should be considered in
the transport sector’s ownership structures. This would go a long way in
enlisting the support of transport investors and operators whenever there is a
need for the implementation of expedient measures such as responsible transport
protocols.
Equally, a dedicated
commitment to non-motorized transport infrastructure investments and inclusive
urban design is crucial to reducing the risks of dispensable motorized or
public transport demand during pandemics. As important as active transport is,
studies have found that its facility investment is hardly prioritized in many
developing countries yet [30, 38], investing in walkways, footbridges, cycle
infrastructure, and street lighting is a significant way of maintaining
accessibility [6]. Efforts should be made towards ensuring their integration.
Another relevant aspect of
active transport is the need for public education and enlightenment. In many
African societies, active transport is generally seen as the lot of the poor
and wretched [38]. Pedestrians and bicyclists are naturally viewed as underdogs
socioeconomically, thus rarely respected. The only reason many Africans take
active transport modes is that they cannot afford private cars [31, 38]. They
should be reorientated to realize that active transport is sought after by
wealthy and smart-enough people in developed countries for its time-honoured
health benefits. Its indispensability to the realisation of responsible and
pandemic-responsive transport should also be emphasized.
In addition, transparency of
policies and medical research procedures is sacrosanct. Governments all over
the world should learn to prioritize building confidence and trust in people.
No matter how laudable transport policies are, once the motive behind them is
doubted by the people, such policies would be dead on arrival. In the same
vein, medical research should be conducted transparently and ethically,
especially when black people and racial minorities are involved. It is quite
difficult, if not impossible, to erase history and the extent of the influence
it wields on both the present and the future.
Of course, no matter how
good, transparent and effective transport policies during health emergencies
can be, some people would choose to be recalcitrant; hence, the need for
relevant legislation. Legislation is an effective tool to tackle this form of
challenge, particularly when there is strict enforcement. For example, a jail
term of just one day without the option of a fine would be effective in making
a typical African law-abiding. Anything about imprisonment is both a shame and
an anathema to real Africans. It would work. However, care should be taken not
to abuse the legislation towards achieving draconian, suppressive or unpopular
goals.
Moreover, it is apparent
that virtual activities complement transportation. This is especially so at
critical stages of pandemics. Therefore, deliberate massive investment should
be made in supporting critical urban infrastructure. In countries where
electricity and internet connection are a privilege or obtained at prohibitive
costs, virtual activities would not be feasible. In addition, since not all
trips can be substituted, essential travels are unavoidable. When made, the
gains of such nondiscretionary trips should be optimized for reducing the trip
length and trip frequency through trip chaining. Research has shown that
consolidating trips can be viewed broadly within the paradigm of the concept of
bounded rationality, as people respond to changes by pursuing several
activities along a single trip chain to achieve travel economies [38].
6. CONCLUSION
Having redefined the
relationship between transportation and pandemics as one that covers not only
transmission but also extends to control and management, this paper duly
acknowledges responsible transport as being rich in non-pharmaceutical
protocols against pandemics. The challenges militating against responsible
transport were also highlighted. To enhance pandemic responsiveness of future
transportation systems, practicable policy recommendations were suggested for
the modification of transport demand, systems, operations, and administration.
Granted, there may be yet no known way of absolutely forestalling pandemics in
the future; nevertheless, if the recommendations herein are carefully
considered and favoured for adoption, the scourge of future pandemics will be
considerably undermined. Thus, transportation will take its place of pride and
never again be relegated among pandemics’ control and management solution
options.
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Received 03.01.2022; accepted in
revised form 11.03.2022
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