A rise in reporting and media coverage of negative social interactions and experiences of racism in transit and other public environments suggests that perceived discrimination may have affected the travel behavior and health of people of color during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, to examine relationships between race, perceived discrimination, transit use, and walking behavior, we draw on data collected in 20 waves of the Understanding America Study (UAS) COVID-19 tracking survey, fielded July 2020–July 2021. Importantly, we find that transit use among minorities continued during the pandemic at higher rates, especially among Black and Hispanic respondents, despite non-White respondents reporting more frequent perceptions of discrimination. Our linear mixed-effect model results further indicate that non-White respondents were notably more likely to use transit. Examining walking behavior, we find that White and Asian respondents consistently reported more walking than Black and Hispanic respondents, even when controlling for income. Crucially, we found that in the presence of controls, while large disparities were observed in both walking and transit behavior based on race, perceived discrimination had little to no effect. While disparities in travel behavior based on race are evidently better explained by structural factors as opposed to overt, individual-level discrimination, planners, policymakers, and designers should nevertheless give greater consideration to micro- and macro-scale interventions that facilitate safe transit use and walking for racial and ethnic minorities.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间感知到的歧视、公交使用和步行行为：来自“了解美国”研究的证据


对交通和其他公共环境中的负面社交互动和种族主义经历的报道和媒体报道有所增加，这表明在 COVID-19 大流行期间，感知到的歧视可能影响了有色人种的旅行行为和健康。在这项研究中，为了检查种族、感知歧视、公交使用和步行行为之间的关系，我们借鉴了在 2020 年 7 月至 2021 年 7 月进行的 20 波了解美国研究 （UAS） COVID-19 跟踪调查中收集的数据。重要的是，我们发现，尽管非白人受访者报告说更频繁地感受到歧视，但少数族裔在大流行期间继续以更高的比率使用公共交通，尤其是在黑人和西班牙裔受访者中。我们的线性混合效应模型结果进一步表明，非白人受访者明显更有可能使用公共交通。通过研究步行行为，我们发现白人和亚裔受访者始终比黑人和西班牙裔受访者报告更多的步行，即使在控制收入的情况下也是如此。至关重要的是，我们发现在有对照的情况下，虽然在基于种族的步行和公交行为中都观察到了巨大差异，但感知到的歧视几乎没有影响。虽然基于种族的出行行为差异显然可以用结构性因素来更好地解释，而不是公开的、个人层面的歧视，但规划者、政策制定者和设计师仍然应该更多地考虑微观和宏观尺度的干预措施，以促进少数种族和民族的安全使用和步行。