We carried out an international online survey about changes in everyday mobility during the COVID-19 outbreak in 21 languages, collecting more than 11,000 responses from more than 100 countries. In this paper, we present our analysis about commuting travels of the responses between 23 March and 12 May 2020 from the fourteen countries with 100 or more responses, namely Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, and the UK. Home office is used typically by between 40% and 60% of working respondents. Among people with workplaces with possibility for home office, the percentage is between 60% and 80%. Among people with workplaces where presence is essential, the percentage does not typically go beyond 30%. This result potentially implies an ultimate magnitude of a strong home office measure. Among those who continued to commute but switched commuting transport modes from public transport to others, the COVID-19 infection risk in public transport is the reason that is most often referred to, but many of those who changed to private cars and to bicycles report reduced travel time, too. Measures to encourage the use of active travel modes where possible are strongly recommended, as this would potentially mitigate undesirable modal shift towards private motorized modes triggered by perception of infection risks while travelling with public transport.

This research aims to give an overview of Japan’s national-level transport planning schemes, and to discuss interplays between them and recoveries from natural disasters. In the first part, Japan’s national spatial development plans and long-term planning schemes for railway, road, port and airport infrastructures are reviewed and compared. In the second part, imbalance embedded in the current planning scheme for different modes are demonstrated making use of recent post-disaster reconstruction processes. A literature-based desktop research is carried out focusing on Japanese literature. These include, but not limited to, official government reports and planning documents, statistical data, and handbooks for experts in the field. All of the long-distance modes have their planning schemes with different levels of comprehensiveness and robustness for each mode. Expressways and high-speed railways have the most comprehensive and robust network plans, while conventional railway, airports and seaports have ones with limited extent. Because of this, post-disaster reconstruction processes from damages to the infrastructure work differently in particular for conventional railways and for expressways in rural areas, which are competitors against each other. Strong framework for intermodal and multimodal transport is still in lack in Japan. Important structural imbalance between modes, in particular between conventional railway and expressway exist, and it becomes obvious in case of a natural disaster. Multimodal planning, frameworks for flexible adjustment of once-made long-term plans, and addressing imbalances regarding robustness between railways and expressways are identified as future challenges of the country’s planning schemes.

Background: We present a sketch for a nationwide “Mobility Service Guarantee” (MSG) for Austria. The approach follows a new paradigm, turning away from car-centric transport policy and planning and towards the extensive provision of public transport. The approach is complemented by the provision of demand-responsive transport services and the support of vehicle sharing as well as active mobility. This combination should serve as an effective alternative option to the use of private cars. Purpose: The aim of this study is to develop a tangible definition of a nationwide MSG in the Austrian context as well as possible design scenarios. Methods: We took a multi-dimensional approach, using literature review to research existing concepts of mobility guarantees, analysing secondary data on current mobility behaviour and public transport provision and conducting stakeholder workshops. Results: We define possible scenarios envisioning a nationwide MSG including different extents of maximum distance to public transport stops and minimum frequency. We discuss the limitations of the MSG with respect to spatial, temporal and modal coverage, as well as how such a guarantee could be embedded in the existing legal system. Conclusions: We conclude that a nationwide MSG could be an important element of sustainable transport policy that should be embedded in a wider strategy of infrastructure and service design as well as demand management.